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diff --git a/8532.txt b/8532.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a927c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/8532.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22475 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Andivius Hedulio, by Edward Lucas White + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Andivius Hedulio + +Author: Edward Lucas White + +Release Date: December 1, 2004 [eBook #8532] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDIVIUS HEDULIO*** + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +ANDIVIUS HEDULIO +Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire + +BY +EDWARD LUCAS WHITE + + + + +Mirum atque inscitum somniavi somnium. + --PLAUTUS + + +[Illustration: THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE SECOND CENTURY A.D. +To Show The Wanderings Of ANDIVIUS HEDULIO] + +[Illustration: THE CITY OF ROME UNDER THE EMPIRE] + + + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON +WHO, IN READING FICTION, LOVED "THE OPEN ROAD AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF +DANGER" + + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK I. DISASTER + +HEDULIO'S PREFACE + +CHAPTER + +I. AN UNEXPECTED GUEST + +II. A COUNTRY DINNER + +III. TENANTRY AND SLAVERY + +IV. HOROSCOPES AND MARVELS + +V. ENCOUNTERS + +VI. A RATHER BAD DAY + +VII. A RATHER GOOD DAY + +VIII. THE WATER GARDEN + +IX. THE SQUALL OF THE LEOPARD + + +BOOK II. DISAPPEARANCE + +X. ESCAPE + +XI. HIDING + +XII. SUCCOUR + +XIII. THE LONELY HUT + +XIV. WINTER IN THE MOUNTAINS + +XV. THE HUNT + +XVI. THE CAVE + +XVII. THE FESTIVAL + +XVIII. GALLOPING + +XIX. MARSEILLES AND TIBER WHARF + +XX. CHARIOTEERING + +XXI. MISADVENTURES + + +BOOK III. DIVERSITIES + +XXII. THE MUTINEERS + +XXIII. THE EMPEROR + +XXIV. THE MASSACRE + +XXV. THE OPEN COUNTRY + +XXVI. THE OUTLAWS + +XXVII. THE POINT OF VIEW + +XXVIII. MOONLIGHT + + +BOOK IV. DISSIMULATIONS + +XXIX. FELIX + +XXX. FESTUS + +XXXI. RECOGNITION + +XXXII. PHORBAS + +XXXIII. IMPOSTURE + +XXXIV. PALUS THE INCOMPARABLE + +XXXV. MURMEX + +XXXVI. ANXIETY + +XXXVII. ACCUSATION + +XXXVIII. TORTURE + +XXXIX. THE TULLIANUM + +XL. SEVERUS + +EPILOGUE + +NOTES + + + + +ANDIVIUS HEDULIO + + + + +HEDULIO'S PREFACE + +(PRAEFATIO HEDULIONIS) + + +By no means absurd, it seems to me, but altogether reasonable, is the +impulse which urges me to write out a detailed narrative of my years of +adversity and of the vicissitudes which befell me during that wretched +period of my life. My adventures, in themselves, were worthy of record and +my memories of them and of the men and women encountered in them are clear +and vivid. It is natural that I should wish to set them down for the +edification of my posterity and of any who may chance to read them. + +For my experience has been, I believe, unique. Since the establishment of +the Principate in our Republic many men, even an uncountable horde of men, +have incurred Imperial displeasure. Of these not a few, after banishment +from Italy or relegation to guarded islands or to some distant frontier +outpost, have survived the Prince who exiled them and have, by the favor +of his successors, been permitted to return to Rome and to the enjoyment +of their property. But I believe that no Roman nobleman implicated, justly +or unjustly, in any conspiracy against the life of his Sovereign, ever +escaped the extreme penalty of death. Some, by their own hands, +forestalled the arrival of the Imperial emissaries, others perished by the +weapons or implements of those designated to abolish the enemies of the +Prince. Except myself not one ever survived to regain Imperial favor in a +later reign; except myself not one ever recovered his patrimony and +enjoyed, to a green old age, the income, position and privileges to which +he had been born. If such a thing ever occurred, certainly there is no +record of any other nobleman domiciled in Italy, except myself, having +grasped at the slender chance of escape afforded by the device of +arranging that he be supposed dead, of disguising himself, of vanishing +among the populace, of passing himself off for a man of the people. I not +only was led, by my clever slave, to attempt this histrionic feat, but I +succeeded in the face of unimaginable difficulties. An experience so +notably without a parallel seems peculiarly deserving of such a record as +follows. + + + + +BOOK I + +DISASTER + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AN UNEXPECTED GUEST + + +When I look back on the beginning of my adventures, I can set the very day +and hour when the tranquil course of my early life came to an end, when +the comfortable commonplaces of my previous existence altered, when the +placid current of my former life broke suddenly and without warning into +the tumultuous rapids which hurried me from surprise to surprise and from +peril to peril. The last hour of my serene youth was about the ninth of +the day, nearly midafternoon, on the Nones of June in the 937th year of +the city, [Footnote: A.D. 184. See Note C.] while Cossonius Marullus and +Papirius Aelian were consuls, when Commodus had already been four years +Emperor. + +It was not that misfortune then suddenly overwhelmed me, not that, sharp +as a blown trumpet, I heard the voice of doom blare over me; not that, as +one sees the upper rim of the sun vanish beneath the waves where the +skyline meets the sea, and knows day ended and night begun, not thus that +I recognized the end of my prosperity and the beginning of my disasters. +That moment came later, as I shall record. It was rather that; as, in +certain states of the weather, long before sunset one may be suddenly +aware that afternoon is past and evening approaches; so, though I had no +intimation at the moment, yet, reviewing my memories I realize that at +that instant began the chain of trivial circumstances which led up to my +calamity and enmeshed me in ruin. + +And just here I cannot but remark, what I have often meditated over, how +trifling, how apparently insignificant, are the circumstances which +determine the felicity or misery of human beings. I was possessed of an +ample estate; I was, in most difficult conditions, in unruffled amity with +all my neighbors, on both sides of the great feud, except only my +hereditary enemy; I was high in the favor of the Emperor; I was in a fair +way to marry the youngest, the most lovely and the richest widow in Rome. +In the twinkling of an eye I was cast down from the pinnacle of good +fortune into an abyss of adversity. And upon what did my catastrophe +hinge? Upon the whims of a friend and upon one oversight of my secretary. +I should have had no story to tell, I should have been a man continuously +happy, affluent and at ease, early married and passing from one high +office to the next higher in an uninterrupted progress of success, had it +not entered the head of my capricious crony to pay me an unexpected and +unannounced visit, had he not arrived precisely at the time at which he +came, had he not encountered just the persons he met just where he did +meet them, had not his prankishness hatched in him the vagary which led +him to give quizzical replies to their questions; had I not, carried away +by my elation at my prosperity and fine prospects, been a trifle too +indulgent to my tenantry. + +Even after, as a result, the nexus of circumstances had been woven about +me and after I found myself embroiled with both my powerful neighbors, I +should have escaped any evil consequences had not my secretary, than whom +no man ever was more loyal to his master or more wary and inclusive in his +foresight upon every conceivable eventuality, failed to forecast the +possible effects of a minor omission. + +When my story begins I had already had one small adventure, nothing much +out of the ordinary. Agathemer and I were returning from my final +inspection of my estate. As we rode past one of the farmsteads we heard +cries for help. Reining up and turning into the barn-yard, we found the +tenant himself being attacked by his bull. I dismounted and diverted the +animal's attention. After the beast was securely penned up I was riding +homewards more than a little tired, rumpled and heated and very eager for +a bath. + +As we approached my villa we saw a runner coming up the road, a big Nubian +in a fantastic livery which when he reached us turned out to be entirely +unknown to me. My grooms were just taking our horses. The grinning black, +not a bit out of breath after his long run, saluted and addressed me. + +"My master has sent me ahead to say he is coming to visit you." + +"Who is your master?" I asked. + +"My master," he said, still grinning goodnaturedly, "enjoined me not to +tell you who he is." + +I turned to Agathemer. + +"What do you make of this?" I asked. + +"There is but one man in Italy," he replied, "who is likely to send you +such a message, and his name is on the tip of your tongue." + +"And on the tip of yours, I'll wager," said I. "Both together now!" + +I raised my finger and counted. + +"One! Two! Three!" + +Both together we uttered: + +"Opsitius Tanno!" + +There was no variation in the Nubian's non-committal grin. We went up the +steps and stood by the balustrade of the terrace, where it commanded a +good view of the valley. We could see a party approaching, a mounted +intendant in advance, a litter, extra bearers and runners and several +baggage mules. + +"Nobody but Tanno would send me such a message," I said to Agathemer. + +"No one else," he agreed, "but I should be no more surprised to see the +Emperor himself in this part of the world." + +"One of his wild whims," I conjectured. "Nothing else would tear him away +from the city." + +I meditated. + +"Our arrangements for dinner," I continued, "fall in very well with his +coming. I suppose the guest-rooms are all ready, but you had best go see +to that, and meanwhile turn this fellow over to Ofatulenus." + +Agathemer nodded. The pleasantest of his many good qualities was that +whatever he might be asked to do he carried out without comment or +objection. Nothing was too big or too small for him. If he were asked to +arrange for an interview with the Emperor or to attend to the creasing of +a toga he was equally painstaking and obliging. He went off, followed by +the negro. I waited on the terrace for Tanno. There was no use attempting +to bathe until after his arrival. Presently a cheerful halloo from the +litter reached my ears. It was Tanno to a certainty. Nobody else of my +acquaintance had voice enough to make himself heard at that distance or +was sufficiently lacking in dignity to emit a yawp in that fashion. When +his escort came near enough I could see that all his bearers wore the same +livery as his runner. Tanno was forever changing his liveries and each +fresh invention he managed to make more fantastic than the last. There +were eight bearers to the litter and some twenty reliefs. Travelling long +distances by litter, begun as a necessity to such invalids as my uncle, +had become a fashion through the extreme coxcombery of wealthy fops and +the practice of the young Emperor. Tanno's litter had all its panels slid +back, and the curtains were not drawn. He was sitting almost erect, +propped up by countless down cushions. He greeted me with many waves of +the hand and a smile as genial as his halloo. I went down a little from +the terrace to meet him and walked a few paces beside the litter. He +rolled out and embraced me cordially, appearing as glad to see me as I was +delighted to see him. + +"I do not know," I said, "whether I am more surprised or pleased to see +you. To what do I owe my good fortune?" + +"We simply cannot get on without you," he answered, "and I am going to +take you back to Rome with me. How soon can you start?" + +"You came at the nick of time," said I, "I had expected to go down three +days from now, but I found out this afternoon that I can get away tomorrow +morning." + +"Praise be to Hercules and all the gods," said Tanno. "I love the country +frantically, especially when I am in the city. I love it so that three +days on the road is enough country for me. I have been bored to death and +do so want a bath." + +"The bath is all hot and ready," said I, "and the slaves waiting. But I am +giving a dinner this evening and nearly all my neighbors are coming. The +diners are almost due to arrive, I need a bath and want one, but I meant +to wait for my guests." + +"Well," he said, "you have one guest here already and that's enough. Let's +bathe once, at once, and you can bathe again when your Sabine clodhoppers +get here. Life is too short for a man to get enough baths, anyhow. Two a +day is never enough for me. A pretext for two in an afternoon is always +welcome. Come on, let's bathe quick, so as to have it over with before the +first of the other guests arrives, then we can get a breath of fresh air +and be as keen for the second bath as for the first." + +Conversation with Tanno consisted mostly in listening and interjecting +questions. He wallowed in the cold tank like a porpoise; caught me and +ducked me until I yelled for mercy, and while I was trying to get my +breath, half drowned me with the water he splashed over me with both +hands; talking incessantly, except when his head was under water. When we +lay down on the divan in the warm room he rattled on. + +"You needn't tell me," he said, "that your runners haven't taken letters +to Vedia, but she is supposed not to hear from you, so, as I told of two +of your letters to me, I have, in a way been held responsible for you and +have been pelted with inquiries. Nemestronia loves you like a grandson, +and, if you ask me, I say Vedia is in love with you out and out. As I had +heard from you and nobody else had, I began to feel as if I ought to look +after you. Everything was abominably humdrum and I deceived myself into +thinking I should enjoy the smell of green fields. I certainly should have +turned back less than half way if I had been concerned with anybody else +than you; and when we turned off the Via Salaria into your country byroad +I cursed you and your neighbors and all Sabinum. The most deserted stretch +of road I ever travelled in all my life. I saw only six human beings +before I reached your villa and I had heard that this valley was populous +and busy. I slept last night at Vicus Novus and I started this morning, +bright and early. When we turned up the road below Villa Satronia I was +never more disgusted in my life. My men are perfectly matched in height, +weight, pace and action and any eight of the lot will carry me at full +speed as smoothly as a pleasure-barge. But they could make nothing of that +road. It is all washed, guttered, dusty in the open places, puddly where +trees hang over it and full of loose stones on top everywhere. + +"I was so horribly jolted that I called the bearers to stop. I made +Dromanus get off his horse and give me his poncho and his big felt hat. +Then I got on his horse and told him to get into the litter. He was +embarrassed. + +"'Pooh', said I, 'you cannot walk and we should look like fools with an +empty litter. Get in and be jounced! Draw the curtains; if we meet anybody +I'll give you an impressive title.' He rolled in among the cushions, +looking as foolish as possible. His horse ambled perfectly and I felt more +comfortable. I went on ahead. We had not met anybody since we turned into +the crossroads; about half a mile beyond the place where I had left my +litter I came around one of the innumerable curves a little ahead of the +procession and saw two men approaching on foot. When they came abreast of +me they saluted me politely and the taller, a black-haired, dark-faced +fellow with a broad jaw, inquired (in the tone he would have used to +Dromanus) whose litter I was escorting. I was rather tickled that they +took me for my own intendant. I judged we must be approaching the entrance +to Villa Satronia and that they were people from there. I assumed an +exaggerated imitation of Dromanus' most grandiloquent manner and in his +orotund unctuous delivery I declaimed: + +"'My master is Numerius Vedius Vindex. He is asleep.' (They swallowed that +awful lie, they did not realize how bad their own road was.) 'We are on +our way to Villa Vedia.' + +"They looked sour enough at that, I promise you, and I made out that they +were Satronians for certain. The two fellows exchanged a glance, thanked +me politely and went on. + +"I knew the entrance to the Satronian estate by the six big chestnut- +trees, you had often described them to me; and I knew the next private +road by the single huge plane tree. But when we crossed the second bridge, +the little one, I went over that round hill and did not recognize the foot +of your road when we came to it. I was for going on. Dromanus called from +behind the curtains of the litter: + +"'This is Hedulio's road: turn to the right.' + +"I was stubborn and sang back at him: + +"'Hedulio has told me all about this country. This is not his land. It is +further on at the next brook.' + +"We went on over the next bridge past the entrance to the south, and I +felt more and more that Dromanus was right and I was wrong, and yet I grew +more and more stubborn. When we passed the sixth bridge and I saw the +stream getting bigger and turning to the left, I knew I was wrong. At the +crossroads I realized we were at the entrance to Villa Vedia, but I would +not give up, I took the left-hand turn and went down stream. Beyond the +first bend in the road we found ourselves approaching a long, straggling, +one-street village of tall, narrow stone houses along the eastern bank of +the little river. By the road, just before the first house, watching five +goats, was a boy, a boy with a crooked twitching face. + +"'The village idiot,' I put in. 'They can never let him out of sight and +he is always beside the road.' + +"He was not too big an idiot to tell us it was Vediamnum." + +"He was enough of an idiot," I said, "to forget you, and your question the +next minute. The boy is almost a beast." + +"He had enough sense to tell us the name of the village," Tanno retorted, +"and I had to acknowledge to Dromanus he was right, and so we turned +round. When we were hardly more than out of sight of Vediamnum we met +another party, a respectable-looking man, much like a farm bailiff, on +horseback, and two slaves afoot. I had not seen them before, and they, +apparently, had not previously seen us. The rider asked, very decently, +whose was the party. I treated them as I had the others. + +"'My master is asleep,' I said again. (It was not such an improbable lie +that time, for the road by Vediamnum is pretty good.) 'I have the honor to +escort Mamercus Satronius Sabinus.' + +"I had guessed that they were Vedians and I was sure of it when I said +that. The slaves scowled and the bailiff saluted very stiffly. + +"Just after we turned into your road, I stopped the escort and told +Dromanus to take his horse. He had relieved me of his hat and poncho and I +had one hand on the litter, ready to climb in, when I heard hoofs behind +us on the road. I looked back. There was a rider on a beautiful bay mare +coming up at a smartish lope. Just as he came abreast of us she shied at +the litter and reared and began to prance about. I give you my word I +never had such a fright in my life. If you can imagine Commodus in an old +weather-beaten, broad-brimmed hat of soft, undyed felt and a mean, cheap, +shaggy poncho of undyed wool, and worse than the hat, that was the man on +the mare. He was left-handed, too." + +"How did you know that?" I asked. + +"By the way he handled his reins, of course," said Tanno. + +"The mare was a magnificent beast, vicious as a fury, with a mouth as hard +as an eighty-pound tunny. He sat her like Castor himself. She pirouetted +back and forth across the road and my fellows scampered from under her +hoofs. The mare was such a beauty I could not take my eyes off her." + +"Yes," I put in, "Ducconius has a splendid stud." + +"Was he Ducconius?" Tanno exclaimed. "Your adversary in your old law- +suit?" + +"His son Marcus, from your description," I amplified. "He is proprietor of +the property now. His father died last year." + +"Well," Tanno went on. "You know that look Commodus has, like a healthy, +well-fed country proprietor with no education, no ideas and no thoughts +beyond crops and deer-hunting and boar-hunting, with a vacuous, +unintelligent stare? Well, that was just the way he looked." + +"That is the way young Ducconius looks," I rejoined. "He ought to. You +have described exactly what he is." + +"Does he know he looks like the Emperor?" Tanno asked, "and how does it +happen?" + +"Pure coincidence," said I. "The family have been reared in these hills +for generations, none of them ever went to Rome. Reate is the end of the +world for them." + +"Well," Tanno commented, "he might be Commodus' twin brother, by his +looks. He'll be a head shorter, in a hurry, if Commodus ever hears of him. +He is the duplicate of him. I stood in the road, staring after him, and +forgot to climb into the litter. When I woke up and climbed in, my lads +swung up your road at a great pace, and here I am. If I had had any sense +I'd have been here not much after noon. As it is I have wasted most of the +day." + +When we went into the hot room, I asked him, + +"Where did you get your new bearers? They look to me like Nemestronia's. +What have you done with your Saxons?" + +"Nemestronia has them," he explained, "and my Nubians were hers. The dear +old lady took a fancy to my Saxons and teased and wheedled until I agreed +to exchange. Nobody ever can refuse anything to Nemestronia. I argued a +good deal. I told her that even if she is the youngest-looking old lady in +Rome it would never do in the world to set herself in contrast to such +blue eyes and pink skins and such yellow hair: that Nubians were much more +appropriate and that nothing could be more trying than Saxons, even for a +bride. She told me I mustn't make fun of her old age and decrepitude. She +said that the Saxons had such cheerful, bright faces and looked such +infantile giants that she really must have them. So I let her have her +way. The Nubians stand the heat better and the Saxons were almost too +showy." + +Even while the attendant was thumping and kneading him on the slab, Tanno +went on talking a cheerful monologue of frothy gossip. I asked him about +the Emperor. + +"As fretful as possible," he said. "The trouble with Commodus is that he +is growing tired of exhibiting himself as an athlete to invited audiences +in the Palace. He is perfectly frantic to show himself off in the Circus +or in the Amphitheatre. He oscillates between the determination to +disregard convention and to do as he likes and virtuous resolutions, when +he has been given a good talking-to by his old councillors and has made up +his mind to behave properly. He will break out yet into public exhibitions +of himself. He is really pathetically unhappy over his hard lot and +positively wails about the amount of his time which is taken up with State +business and about the pitifully small opportunity he has for training and +exercise." + +My bath was broken off, sooner than I had intended, by the appearance of +one of the kitchen-boys, who asked for me so tragically and so urgently +and was so positive that no one else would suffice, that I went down into +the kitchen in a towering rage at being interrupted and wondering why on +earth I could be needed. I found Ofatulena, wife of the Villa-farm +bailiff, in violent altercation with my head-cook. He asserted that she +had no business in his kitchen and must get out. Her contention was that +she, as bailiff's wife, was above all slaves whatever, that she knew her +place and that when a distinguished stranger visited the Villa she would +show him what old-fashioned Sabine cooking was like, so she would. The +cook had had, through Agathemer, my directions for a formal dinner and he +declared that one more guest made no difference and that his dinner was +good enough for anybody. I compromised by telling him to continue as he +had planned, but to allow Ofatulena to prepare one dish for each course +and to add to each one of her own. I was rather pleased at her intrusion, +for there was no better cook in Sabinum, and anything old-fashioned was +sure to be a novelty to Tanno. + +I found Tanno on the terrace, basking comfortably in the late sunshine and +gazing down the valley. + +"What is that big hill away off to the East?" he asked. + +"That is on the Aemilian property," I answered. "Villa Aemilia has a +direct outlet to the Via Valeria and the Aemilian Estate does not belong +to this neighborhood at all. It runs back to the Tolenus and mostly drains +and slopes that way. Huge as the Vedian estates are, and though the +Satronian estates are still huger, yet the Aemilian estates are so vast +that they are larger than both the Vedian and Satronian lands together. +The Aemilian land has much woodland along its western borders and blankets +and almost encloses the Vedian and Satronian estates and all of us in +between. The road you came up is a sort of detour east of the Salarian +way. The Satronians and Vedians and we in between all use it, turning to +the right towards Reate and to the left towards Rome." + +Tanno blinked at the soft, hazy view and swept his arm southward. + +"That is all Satronian over there?" he asked. + +"All," I said, "as far as the Aemilian domain." + +"Which way," he queried, "is Villa Vedia?" + +"To see it from here," I said, "you would have to look straight through +this house and half a dozen hills. It is almost due north." + +"Vedians to the northward," he continued, "Satronians to the southward, +and just you and Ducconius sandwiched in between, clapper-clawing each +other." + +"No, quite otherwise!" I retorted. "My property does not touch Vedian or +Satronian land anywhere, and Ducconius has barely half a mile of boundary +line along the Satronian domain. There are six other estates, the largest +half as big as mine, the smallest not much bigger than the largest of my +tenant-farms; three are on one side of me and three on the other. You will +meet the proprietors at dinner, as I told you. They should be here now." + +"Goggling country bumpkins?" he conjectured. + +"Not a bit like that," I countered, "though you would scarcely call them +cultured. There is no art connoisseur among them. They care little for +books, but they are educated gentlemen and can talk of other subjects +besides vine-growing and cattle breeding. They have all been to Rome, the +Ducconians are the only stay-at-home, stick-in-the-mud family in this +valley. You will find all your fellow-diners keenly interested in anything +you can tell them about the latest fashions and the latest gossip from +Rome. They think and talk of the doings of Rome's fast set much more than +you do." + +"They have nothing to do with the feud?" he queried. + +"Three of them," I explained, "are on the Vedian side, three on the +Satronian side, though they are always polite to each other. But it is a +frigid politeness and I was anticipating the dinner tonight as a frightful +trial. I fancy your presence will ensure its passing off comfortably. +Entedius Hirnio will be here, too. His estates are beyond Vediamnum and he +has never taken sides in the feud any more than Ducconius or my family." + +"Do you ever see Ducconius?" he asked. + +"Oh, never," said I, "we take care never to recognize each other, I +assure you. We cannot help meeting occasionally, but I never see him and +he never sees me. We meet mostly on the road. The lower part of this +valley-road where he overtook you is as much his right-of-way as mine, up +to where the road forks and is crossed by the Bran Brook. You can see the +bridge from here." + +Tanno shaded his eyes with his hand. + +"That is all his land over there, on the other side of the Bran Brook," I +continued. "Further up the valley the brook has three feeders. The Flour +rises back of my land on the Vedian estate. The Chaff brook is all mine +and the Bran rises in his woodlands." + +"Will he appeal the case or reopen it now your uncle is dead?" Tanno +queried. + +"There is no possibility of appeal," I said, "or of reopening. The case is +closed and I have won it forever. And all thanks to Agathemer. But for +Agathemer, Ducconius would have won the final hearing as he had won all +the intermediate appeals. His defeat after so many victories has +embittered him more than if we had won every time and he hates me worse +than ever. + +"The only unpleasant feature for me is that the tenant of the farm so long +in dispute cannot be ousted. He was heart and soul with Ducconius all +through the period of the suit. His daughter is married to one of +Ducconius' tenants and his younger son has taken one of Ducconius' farms +since three of his tenant-families died off year before, last with the +plague. This makes old Chryseros Philargyrus by no means a pleasant tenant +for me." + +"Old Love-Gold Love-Silver," Tanno commented, "is that a nickname or is it +really his name?" + +"Really his name," I affirmed. "His mother was so extravagant and wasteful +that his father named him Chryseros Philargyrus as a sort of antidote +incantation, in the hope that it might prove a good omen of his +disposition and predispose him to parsimony. He certainly has turned out +sufficiently close-fisted to justify the choice." + +"I don't understand your talk about tenantry," said Tanno. "Do you mean +you cannot change a bailiff on a farm which you have won incontestably on +final appeal in a suit at law?" + +"He is no bailiff," I answered him. "He is a free man, just as much as you +or I. Sabinum is not like Latium or Etruria or Campania, where the free +tenantry has vanished, or like Bruttium or Spain, where there never was +any free tenantry. The free tenantry have survived in Sabinum more +completely than in any part of the world. I have only one bailiff here and +he manages only the villa-farm with a very moderate gang of slaves under +him. I do not own any more slaves on my estate. The slaves on the farms +are all owned by my tenants and there are eight farms besides the villa- +farm; counting Chryseros, there are nine tenant farmers. Each owns slaves +enough to work his farms. All the estates about here are managed in that +way: Aemilian, Vedian, Satronian, Entedian and all the rest, big or +little. We are rather proud of the system and very proud of our tenants." + +"It must be a fine system," Tanno sneered. "I have been wondering what +kept you away from Rome. I suppose it has been the beautifully smooth and +marvellously easy working of your farm-tenant system." + +"It works just as well as one slave-gang under one bailiff, if not +better," I retorted, hotly. + +"Oh, yes," Tanno drawled, "it works just as well as one slave-gang under +one bailiff. That is why you have not had to inspect your estates in +Bruttium, why you have not visited Bruttium at all, why you have not so +much as thought of visiting Bruttium, whereas you have had to spend more +than two months here in these fascinating wilds. You can trust your +tenantry so completely that you only have to spend two months making sure +they are not idling or cheating you: you can trust your Bruttian bailiff +so poorly that you let him alone absolutely." + +I was more than a little nettled by his ironical mood. + +"I spent three months of the year out of the past four years in Bruttium," +I argued. "I know every inch of the ranches perfectly. My uncle never +allowed me to become acquainted with anything up here. I was his +representative and factor in Bruttium. When I visited him here I was no +more than a guest and I have had to learn all the workings of the estate +from the beginning." + +"Nonsense!" Tanno rejoined. "You know each when you see it. If the tenants +pay their rent on time, what do you need to know about how they run their +farms?" + +"They pay cash and on time," I explained, "but the cash represents half +the yield and each manages the sale of his own produce. It is necessary +for the proprietor to understand the capacities of each farm." + +"And you are proud of a tenantry," he sneered, "so honest that you cannot +trust them not to swindle you out of your just dues and on whom you have +to spy all the time to get what you should get from them." + +"You do not understand," I declared. + +"Right you are," said Tanno. "I do not and I do not want to." + +"Just wait a moment and do not interrupt," I urged. "You do not +understand, there is no use in being a proprietor if you do not know more +than your tenantry. There are a thousand, there are ten thousand details +in which the management of the farms may be made more profitable or less +profitable, and all these details have to be watched and must be well in +the proprietor's mind." + +"Could you not get some kind of overseeing general estate bailiff to do +all that for you?" he suggested. + +"I can," I said, "and I'm going to get one. My uncle's overseer died of +the plague and my uncle was too old and too set in his ways to get +another, so he acted as his own overseer for the last four years of his +life. I must know of my own knowledge just how the place ought to be +managed or I can never detect and forestall unnecessary and ruinous +friction and trouble between my tenantry and any new superintending +overseer." + +"I do not know," Tanno ruminated, "which to admire more, the beauties of +the Sabine tenant system or the wonders of the Sabine character. Any other +man I know would have stayed in Rome and attended strictly to his +courtship and let his estates take care of themselves. You are supposed to +be violently in love and you certainly behave like it: yet you leave Rome +and Vedia and shut yourself up among these damp cold hills and inspect and +reinspect and make a final inspection, and delay for one last peep and +linger for one final glance, where any other man would ignore the property +and be with the widow." + +"I do not see anything extraordinary about it," I disclaimed. "A man needs +an income, a lover most of all." + +"Income!" he snorted. "Isn't your income from your Bruttian estates ten +times the gross return from the property?" + +"More than ten times," I admitted. + +"Why worry about it at all then?" he demanded. "Isn't your Bruttian income +enough?" + +"No income is enough," I declared, "if a man has a chance to get in more." + +"Of course," he beamed, "you do not see anything extraordinary in your +petting this property. A Sabine would use up a year to get in a sesterce +from a frog pond. You are a Sabine. All Sabines worship the Almighty +Sesterce. But to anybody not a Sabine it is amazing to see a lover +postponing prayers to Lord Cupid until he has finished the last detail of +his ceremonial duties to Chief Cash, Greatest and Best." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A COUNTRY DINNER + + +Just then Tanno caught sight of a horseman approaching up the valley. I +looked where he pointed. + +"That will be Entedius Hirnio," I said. "Of my dinner guests he lives +furthest away and so he always comes in first to any festivity." + +"How far beyond Vediamnum does he live?" Tanno enquired. + +"On the other side of the Vedian lands," I explained. "His property is +over the divide towards the Tolenus, in between Villa Vedia and Villa +Aemilia." + +Entedius it was, as I made sure, when he drew nearer, by his magnificent +black mare. He covered the last hundred paces at a furious gallop, pulled +up his snorting mare abruptly, and dismounted jauntily. Plainly, at first +sight, he and Tanno liked each other. When I had introduced them they +looked each other up and down appraisingly, Entedius appearing to relish +Tanno's swarthy vigor, warm coloring and exuberant health as much as did +Tanno his hard-muscled leanness and weather-beaten complexion. + +"Are you any relation to Entedia Jucunda?" Tanno queried. + +"Very distant," Hirnio replied, "very distant indeed: too far for us to +call each other 'cousin.' When I am in Rome I always call on her; once in +a while she invites me to one of her very big dinners; otherwise we never +see each other." + +Almost before they had exchanged greetings Mallius Vulso rounded the house +from the east and then Neponius Pomplio from the west; after he had been +presented, the two other Satronians, Bultius Seclator and Juventius Muso, +cantered up, followed closely by Fisevius Rusco and Lisius Naepor, both +adherents of the Vedian side of the feud. + +As soon as the stable-boys had led off their horses we started bathwards, +delayed a moment by the arrival of a slave of Entedius, on a mule, leading +another heavily laden with two packs. We made a quick bath, with no +loitering, and at once went in to dinner. My uncle had been to the last +degree conservative and old-fashioned. He would have nothing to do with +any new inventions, save his own. So he would not hear of any alterations +in the furnishings of his villa, except those suggested by his ideas of +sanitation. Otherwise it had been kept just as my grandfather had left it +to him. In particular uncle could not be brought to like the newly popular +C-shaped dining sofas, which all Rome and all fashionables all over Italy +and the provinces had so acclaimed and so promptly adopted along with +circular-topped dining-tables. My _triclinium_ still held grandfather's +square-topped table and the three square sofas about it. Uncle's will, in +fact, had stipulated that no furnishings of the villa must be altered +within five years of the date of his death. As I had to adjust my formal +dinners to the old style, I was not only delighted to have Tanno with us +for himself and for his jollity, but also because he just made up the nine +diners demanded by ancient convention. + +Agathemer had asked me, as a special favor, to leave the decoration of the +_triclinium_ entirely to him, and I had agreed, when he fairly begged me, +not to enter the _triclinium_ or even pass its door, after my noonday +siesta. When I did enter it with my guests I was dazzled. The sun had just +set and the northwestern sky was all a blaze of golden brightness, +streaked with long pink and rosy streamers of cloud, from which the +evening light, neither glaring nor dim, flooded through the big +northwestern windows. The spacious room was a bower of bloom. Great +armfuls of flowers hid the capitals of the pilasters, others their bases; +garlands--heavy, even corpulent garlands--were looped from pilaster to +pilaster; every vase was filled with flowers, the little vases on the +brackets, the big ones alternating with the statues in the niches, the +huge floor-vases in the corners: the table, the sofas, the floor, all were +strewn with smaller blossoms, tiny flowers or fresh petals of roses. The +garlands for our heads, which were offered us heaped on a tray, were to +the last degree exquisite. I adjusted mine as if in a dream. I was dazed. +I knew that the flowers could not have been supplied by our gardens; I +could not conjecture whence they came. + +Agathemer, bowing and grinning, stood in the inner doorway. My eyes +questioned his. + +"I have a note here," he said, "which I was enjoined not to hand you until +you had lain down to dinner." + +The two second assistant waiter boys took our shoes and we disposed +ourselves on the sofas, Tanno in the place of honor, I rejoicing again +that his presence had solved, acceptably to all the rest, the otherwise +insoluble problem of to whom I should accord that location. + +Agathemer handed me the note. At sight of it I recognized the handwriting +of Vedius Caspo. Of course, like my uncle before me, I always invited to +any of my formal entertainments all my neighbors except Ducconius Furfur, +our enemy, and the only neighbor with whom we were not on good terms. +Equally, of course, Vedius Caspo at Villa Vedia and Satronius Dromo at +Villa Satronia, regularly found some transparent pretext for declining my +invitation, each fearing that, if he accepted, the other might by some +prank of the gods of chance accept also, and they might encounter each +other. + +The thread was too strong for me to break. I tore it out of the seal, and, +asking my guests' indulgence, I opened the note. It read: + + "Vedius Caspo to his good friend Andivius Hedulio. If you are well I + am well also. I was writing at Villa Vedia on the day before the Nones + of June. I had written you some days before and explained my inability + to avail myself of your kind invitation to dinner on the Nones. I + purposed sending you, with this, what flowers my gardens afford + towards decorating your _triclinium_ for your feast. I beg that + you accept these as a token of my good will. When you reach Rome I beg + that, at your leisure and convenience, you transmit my best wishes to + my kinswoman, Vedia Venusta. + + "Farewell." + +This note staggered me more than the sight of the flowers. It was amazing +that Vedius should have taken the trouble to be so gracious to me; that +he should go out of his way to write me the vague and veiled, but +unequivocal intimation of his approval of my suit for Vedia implied in the +last sentences of his letter was astounding. Vedia had a very large +property inherited from her father, from two aunts and from others of the +Vedian clan. The whole clan was certain to be very jealous of her choice +of a second husband. I had anticipated their united opposition to my suit. +To be assured of his approbation by the beloved brother of the head of the +clan made me certain that I should meet with no opposition at all. + +My delight must have irradiated my face. Tanno, the irresistible, at once +urged me to read the note aloud, saying: + +"Don't be a hog. Don't keep all those good things to yourself. Let us have +a share of the tid-bits. Read it out to all of us." + +I yielded. + +Of course the three Satronians looked sour. But Tanno knew how to smooth +out any embarrassing situation. He beamed at me and fairly bubbled with +glee. + +"I bet on you," he said. "The widow will be yours at this rate. But don't +show her that note till you two are married." + +Before anybody else could speak he went on: + +"I'm famished. So are we all. Flowers are fine to look at and to smell, +but give me food. Let's get at our dinner." + +We did. We fell upon the relishes, disposing of them with hardly the +interchange of a word. + +When the boys cleared the table I observed with some pride that Tanno eyed +with an expression of approval the table cloth and the big silver tray +which they set on it, laden with the second course. + +"You are," he said, "pretty well equipped for house-keeping in these +remote wilds, Caius. Your table-cloth is far above the average for town +tables and your tray is magnificent." + +That started a round of talk on city usages, town etiquette and court +gossip. Tanno, very naturally, did much of the talking, the rest mostly +questioning and listening. He spoke at length of the Emperor, but of +course more guardedly than while talking to me alone. + +When the tray with the first course was removed and while that with the +second course was being brought in the talk ebbed. Tanno gave it a turn, +which at first seemed likely to prove unfortunate, by saying: + +"Now I've told you the latest news from Rome and the current gossip and +the popular fads. Turn about is fair play. It is time for some of you to +tell me what just now most interests this country-side. My idea of country +life is that it is about as exciting as the winter sleep of a dormouse or +of a hibernating bear; but for all I know, it may be as lively in its way +as life in town; you may be agog over some occurrence as important to you +as a change of Palace Prefects would be at Rome. Speak out somebody, if +there is anything worth telling." + +"Whether it be worth telling I do not know," spoke up Bultius Seclator, +"but the country-side hereabouts is agog just now over a recent case of +abduction." + +(I shuddered: here was the feud to the fore in spite of everything. And I +shuddered yet more as I saw set and harden the features of Vulso, Rusco +and Naepor.) + +"To make clear to you," he went on, "I'll have to explain the +circumstances. You undoubtedly know both Satronius Dromo of this valley +and his father, Satronius Satro, at Rome. Satro's father, old Satronius +Satronianus, among the horde of slaves set free by his will, liberated a +number of artisans of various kinds, who, scattered about among the +neighboring towns and villages, had lived like free men, in dwellings +belonging to him or in rented abodes, plying their trades and returning to +their master a better income than he could have derived from their +activities in any other way, since one of his assistant overseers saw to +it that they paid in, unfailingly and promptly, the stipulated percentage +of their gains. Among these was a cobbler named Turpio, at Trebula. He was +so expert, so deft, so quick and so ingratiating to customers, that the +overseer insisted on his paying a percentage of his earnings larger than +that paid by any other similar slave. Now cobbling, at the best of it, is +not an occupation at which one would fancy that anyone would become +wealthy. Yet Turpio grew to be very well off. He early amassed savings +enough to pay for his own freedom, but his master would not agree to that, +so Turpio bought the house in which he lived and his workshop. In the +course of time he accumulated possessions of no mean value and owned +several slaves, whom he employed as assistant cobblers. By his master's +will all that he had amassed became his property, of course, when he was +freed. He was, as he is, very popular in Trebula and among all the +country-folk round about who visit Trebula. He is esteemed by all who know +him and by all Satronians of every degree. + +"Now Turpio, some years ago, partly on account of his kind-heartedness, +partly since he could never resist a bargain and he got her for almost +nothing, partly, perhaps because of his canny foresight, bought a +wretched, puny, sickly, little runt of a four-year-old slave-girl, a mere +rack of bones covered with yellow skin. She continued sickly for some +years, then, when she was more than half grown, the fresh air of Trebula, +its good water, the kindness with which she was treated, the generous fare +accorded her, all working together, suddenly began to show results. She +plumped out, grew tall, vigorous, active, graceful and charming. She also +acquired notable skill at weaving. His intimates congratulated Turpio on +his luck or prescience and foretold for him notable profits from her sale. +Turpio averred that he and his spouse were so fond of the girl that he was +unwilling to part with her except to a master or mistress whom she took to +and who seemed likely to be kind to her. He refused several handsome +offers for her. She became notable in Trebula as its most beautiful +inhabitant and all who knew her wished her well. + +"Not long ago, Vedius Molo of Concordia, not a bad specimen of a noble +lad, I will say, came to Villa Vedia. He roamed about the country as a +young nobleman will. By some chance he caught sight of Xantha, for that is +her name, and, of course, like many another, fell in love with her. He +promptly offered to buy her. But Xantha did not like him at all and +Turpio, as always, consulted her before deciding to sell her. Opposition +inflamed Molo and he bid Turpio up till his business instincts all but +overcame his doting affection for Xantha. But Xantha liked Molo less and +less the more she saw of him. She begged Turpio not to sell her to Molo. +He was obdurate, although Molo bid on up till he was offering a really +fabulous price, though one well within his means. He could not credit that +Turpio would not yield. When he was convinced that he could not wheedle +him he lost his temper. Turpio told him that the negotiations were at an +end and warned him not to return. Molo went off in a rage. + +"Two nights later Turpio's house was broken into by a considerable body of +men, armed, certainly with clubs or staffs. Turpio and his household +defended themselves vigorously and were all severely mishandled in the +affray, Turpio most severely of all. They were overcome, even overwhelmed, +and, before their neighbors could come to their assistance or the townsmen +in general rally to help, Xantha was carried off by the intruders, who, +beating the night watchman insensible, escaped through the postern of the +north gate. + +"This highhanded outrage has greatly incensed all Trebula and the entire +neighborhood. The night was very dark, neither Turpio nor any of his +household nor yet the watchman at the postern claims to have recognized +any of the abductors. Yet all impute the outrage to Vedius Molo. Every +magistrate is alert to punish the delinquents and to return Xantha to her +master. Yet she has totally vanished. After they passed the postern her +abductors left no trace. Whether they had or had not with them a two- +wheeled or a four-wheeled carriage or a litter or a sedan-chair cannot be +determined; nor whether they were on foot or on horseback. The weather was +dry and windy and the rocky roads out of Trebula showed no tracks of any +kind. The country has been scoured in every direction and all persons +questioned, not only at the change-stations on the main roads, and at +crossroads, but at all villages. Not a clue has been found; though all +Turpio's friends more than suspect Vedius Molo, there is not an iota of +evidence on which anyone could base a demand for a warrant to search Villa +Vedia or any other specified villa, farmstead or other piece of property. +Xantha has vanished. There are rumors that she is at Villa Vedia, but they +seem as baseless as the rumor of a party of horsemen conveying a closed +litter, which rumor has radiated from uncountable localities all about +here, not one of which localities could, when their inhabitants were +questioned, substantiate the rumor in any way. Equally baseless appear the +numerous rumors that this or that individual has it on unimpeachable +authority that Xantha's abductors are camped somewhere in this or that +woodland and are preparing to smuggle Xantha into Villa Vedia by that +route which they deem least probable for such a venture and therefore +least watched. With all this the country-side is agog, I can assure you." + +"Fairly exciting, I admit," Tanno remarked when Bultius paused. "Sounds +like the tales of goings-on in Latium in the days when the Aequi, Volsci +and Hernici raided up to the gates of Rome four summers out of five. I had +not thought Sabinum so primitive." + +Before I could speak, Fisevius Rusco cut in. + +"Bultius," he said, "Vulso and Naepor and I have listened without any +interruptions to your version of the occurrences you have narrated, and I +must say you have told them as fairly as could be expected from any one +with your leanings. I have no remarks to make on your story nor anything +to say in rebuttal. But it seems to me, it is now your turn, along with +Nepronius and Juventius, to listen with equal patience, while I narrate a +similar story." + +The three Satronians bowed stiffly and in silence. + +Rusco resumed, addressing Tanno: + +"I shall not," he said, "be compelled to go into details as minutely as +did Bultius. You can comprehend my story with less background. + +"At Reate, for some years past, there lived a worthy couple, freedman and +freedwoman of Vedius Vindex. The husband died more than a year ago, +leaving a young and childless widow, named Greia Posis, possessed of a +good town-house and of three small farms not far out in the country. +Naturally as she was comely and well-off, Greia soon had suitors aplenty. +For some time she showed no favor to any, but lately it has been plain +that she would marry either Helvidius Flaccus, a tenant-farmer holding his +land under one of the Vedian clan near Reate, or Annius Largus, similarly +a tenant of one of the Satronian properties. Although Helvidius was on +Greia's side of our local feud, while Annius was on the other, idlers at +Reate were laying wagers that Annius would win Greia, considering him most +in her favor. + +"Recently, however, Greia had some sort of a quarrel with Annius, and +announced her intention of marrying Helvidius. + +"You must understand that Greia has the best sort of reputation, is +universally respected, and is greatly liked by all her neighbors and +acquaintances and is popular in Reate. + +"Now, a day or two after the abduction which Bultius has narrated, Greia +had visited one of her farms and, towards dark, was returning home to +Reate in a two-wheeled gig driven by a slave of hers, a deaf-mute lad. +What occurred can only be conjectured, as the deaf-mute cannot relate it, +but, at all events, he was found insensible, bruised and bleeding, by the +road, apparently having been unmercifully beaten. Not far from him the +mule was grazing by the roadside, his harness in perfect condition and the +gig unharmed. Greia, however, had vanished. No one had seen Annius in the +neighborhood, yet it is generally assumed that he managed to abduct Greia +in broad daylight without any one sighting him either coming or going: +which, if the fact, would be an almost miraculous feat. + +"Certainly Greia has disappeared. The magistrates of Reate searched +Annius' farmstead, but found neither Greia nor, indeed, any trace of +Annius himself. It is conjectured that he is hiding, with Greia, at some +farm or villa under the Satronian protection. But there is no shadow of +any tangible basis for the conjecture, nor for the rumors, which, like +those concerning Xantha which Bultius had told you of, run all over the +country-side; very similar rumors, too; for some are to the effect that +Annius is holding Greia in durance at Villa Satronia; others that a +cortege of horsemen escorting a closed litter has been seen here or there +on some road; others that someone has learnt that Annius is about to +attempt to reach Villa Satronia with Greia, convoyed by an escort of his +clansmen. The country-side buzzes with such whispers. + +"And let me point out to you, what you undoubtedly comprehend, that +serious as is the forcible abduction of a slave-girl, the abduction of a +freewoman, even if a freedwoman, is a far more serious matter. Not only is +Helvidius on fire to reclaim his bride and to revenge himself on Largus, +not only are all his relations, friends and well-wishers eager to assist +him by every means in their power, not only are all right-thinking men +incensed at the outrage, but the magistrates of Reate are determined to +bring the guilty man to justice and to free Greia." + +Pomplio paused. + +"Very well told," was Tanno's comment, "and I comprehend far better than +you perhaps imagine. Not only are the magistrates of Reate hot on the +trail of Annius and those of Trebula equally keen after Vedius Molo, but +all Vedians are eager to shield Molo and to help catch and convict Annius +Largus, and all Satronians conversely doing all they can to shield Largus +and get Molo. Oh, I twig! Moreover I realize that all Vedians regard the +abduction of Greia as not so much a hot-headed folly of Largus as a +Satronian retort to the abduction of Xantha; and conversely, all +Satronians regard it as merely an insufficient counter to Xantha's +abduction. Oh, I comprehend the feud atmosphere. I have no doubt that +scores of poniards of the Vedian clan are sharp and daily sharpened +sharper, for use on Largus and as many Satronian dirks for use on Molo; +that every road hereabouts has watchers posted along it; that bands of +lusty lads are camped here and there waiting summonses or are actually in +likely ambushes by the roadsides. I foresee shindies of great amplitude. +You need not say any more; neither of you need say any more; none of you +need say any more. In fact, I beg that the whole subject be dropped right +here. I comprehend the feud atmosphere and I don't want any more of it in +this _triclinium_. Let's forget or ignore the feud and enjoy Hedulio's +good fare." + +His compelling personality exerted its magic, as usual. All six feudists +relaxed. I could feel the social tension dissolve. We all felt relieved. + +By that time we had disposed of the fish and roasts, the boys had lighted +the hanging lamps and the standing lamps, had removed the tray with what +we had left of the roasts and had brought in the third-course tray with +the birds and salads. As we sampled them Tanno remarked: + +"You have a cook, astonishingly good, Caius, for anywhere outside of Rome +and amazingly good for a villa in the hills, far from a town. I must see +your cook and question him. His roasts, his broiled, baked and fried +dishes are above the averages, yet nothing wonderful. But his ragouts or +fricassees or whatever you call them, are marvellous. This salmi of fig- +peckers (or of some similar bird, for it is so ingeniously flavored and +spiced, that I cannot be sure) is miraculous. There was a sort of chowder, +too, of what fish I could not conjecture, which was so appetizing that I +could have gorged on it. Just as provocative and alluring was one of the +concoctions of the second course, apparently of lamb or kid, but +indubitably a masterpiece. I certainly must see your cook." + +"My cook," I confessed, "was not the artist of the dishes you praise so +highly. Hereabouts we do not give them such high-sounding names as you +apply to them, we call them hashes or stews. Ofatulena, the wife of my +villa-farm bailiff, devised them and prepared them. She is famous +hereabouts for her cooking." + +"What," cried Tanno, "a woman cook! Never saw a woman cook, never heard of +one, never read of one. Egypt, Babylonia, Lydia, Persia, Greece and Italy, +all cooks have always been men. I ought to know all about cookery, what +with my library on cookery and my travels to all the cities famous for +cookery. But you have taught me something novel and wholly unsuspected. +Trot out your female cook. Let's have a look at her." + +I sent for Ofatulena and she came in, pleased and embarrassed, flushed +brick-red all over her full moon of a face, diffident and elated, +trembling and giggling. + +Tanno questioned her and satisfied himself that she had prepared the +dishes which had won his approbation and also that she was no hit-or-miss +cook, but a real artist in the kitchen, and really knew what she was +doing. + +"Beware, Hedulio," he said as he dismissed her. "You Sabines will have +three abductions to gossip over if you do not look out. I'm half tempted +now to suborn some of the riff-raff of the Subura to kidnap this miracle- +worker of yours and hale her to Rome into my kitchen to amaze my guests." + +When she was gone he resumed: + +"Everything is topsy turvy in Sabinum, woman cooks and tenant farmers! +What next? I gather that all of you, Satronians, Vedians and outsiders, +have your estates parcelled out among free tenant farmers. Am I right?" + +Hirnio, Seclator and the rest assured him that he was right. + +"Well, then," he said, "tenant farming must be a subject perfectly safe +for all persons present. Let's talk about it. Hedulio has tried to expound +to me the beauties of the system, but he had no great success. I fail so +far, to comprehend how the institution ever came into existence, why it +has maintained itself only in Sabinum and what are its advantages. Tell me +about it." + +Tanno had hit upon one of the few subjects on which all present felt +concordantly. His utterance started a hubbub, all my guests talking at +once, each trying to out-talk all the others and all voicing our local +enthusiasm for our local farm-system. The _triclinium_ rang with paeans of +praise of our Sabine yeomanry, and when the excitement had abated enough +to permit of intelligible discourse, Tanno was regaled with a series of +tales illustrating the sterling worth of the Sabine yeomen, their +knowledge of farming, their diligence, their patience, their unflagging +energy, their parsimony, their amazing productivity in respect to crop- +yield, stock, implements and all things raised or made on their farms, +their devotion to their landlords, the charm of the ties between the +gentry and the yeomanry and the universal Sabine cult of the tenant +system. + +With all this talk we lingered longer than usual over Ofatulena's +bewitching salads, which Tanno lauded even above her ragouts. + +When it was time for the last course, after the service-boys had slid the +third-course tray off the table, I was amazed to see my four strongest +table slaves enter fairly staggering under the load put upon them by +Grandfather's biggest dinner-tray heaped with fruit, among which I +descried African pomegranates and other exotics. Still more was I amazed +when other slaves crowded in behind them, carrying baskets of hot-house +melons of astonishing size and insistent perfume. Last of the procession +was Agathemer, who stood in the doorway, grinning and beaming. + +Tanno, not less than the guests in chorus, acclaimed this unexpected +profusion. + +Again I looked interrogatively at Agathemer. He responded as at the +commencement of our meal. + +"I have a note here," he said, "which I was enjoined not to hand you until +after this fruit had been set upon your table." + +He handed me the missive, the superscription of which was, to my +astonishment, in the handwriting of Satronius Dromo. While my fingers +tugged at the thread, Tanno commanded: + +"Read it out loud at once, like the other. No secrets here. Let us all +in." + +The letter began with all the traditional polite formalities, as had that +from Vedius. It read: + + "Satronius Dromo to his valued friend Andivius Hedulio. If you are + well I am well also. I was writing at Villa Satronia on the day before + the Nones of June. Some days before I had written you expressing my + regret at the circumstances which prevented me from accepting your + most welcome invitation to dine with you on the Nones. I intended + dispatching to you, with this, what fruit my establishment has fit for + your acceptance, which I ask of you, this fruit being sent as an + earnest of my cordiality. When you are settled at Rome I beg that, + when perfectly convenient to you, you convey my warmest regards to my + cousin's widow, Vedia Venusta. + + "Farewell." + +At this letter I was fairly thunderstruck. That Satronius should take any +notice of me at all was more amazing than the graciousness of Vedius. That +he should have ransacked the provinces and overstrained the capabilities +of rowers and horseflesh to send me costly rarities out of season was +astounding. That his last sentence should practically duplicate the last +sentence of the letter from Vedius was most incredible of all. For if all +Vedians were sure to be very decidedly hypercritical as to anyone likely +to become Vedia's second husband, it was still more a certainty that the +entire Satronian connection would scrutinize minutely everything +concerning any man likely to come into control of the great properties +which she had inherited from her husband, Satronius Patavinus. That I +should be disfavored by the entire Satronian connection had seemed to me +more than likely. Dromo's intimation of his warm approval of my suit for +Vedia, coming on top of Caspo's, cleared of all obstacles my path towards +matrimony with the woman of my heart's choice. I was more than elated, I +was drunk with ecstacy. + +After I had finished reading, dead silence reigned in the _triclinium_; +even Tanno was too dumbfounded to utter any sound. + +Hirnio spoke first. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I beg of you to hear me out with attention. Like +our Caius here and like his hereditary antagonist, Ducconius Furfur, I +have never taken sides in our age-long local feud. Like all outsiders and +like a majority of its partisans, I have grieved at its existence, +deplored its unfortunate results and hoped for its extinction. I think I +may say with truth that there was not one inhabitant of this neighborhood +who did not rejoice when the heads of the two families, with the abolition +of the feud and the creation of the permanent amity in view, arranged a +marriage between the lovely daughter of the head of the northern branch +of the Vedian House and the son of the northern branch of the Satronian +House. Satronian or Vedian; freeman or slave, everyone was delighted at +the prospect of lasting harmony. The sudden death of Satronius Patavinus +not only blasted these hopes, but intensified antagonisms; for all the +Vedians felt that a daughter of the clan had been sacrificed in vain and +all Satronians regretted that vast properties about Padua, long possessed +by Satronians, passed by the will of her husband to a young widow, born of +the Vedian House. All saw the prospect of exacerbated enmities and their +probable results. + +"Now it must be apparent to you that the two letters which we have heard +read would never have been written without their writers having consulted +with the heads of their respective houses. These letters are an intimation +to our Caius that both her kinsmen and the kinsmen of her first husband +smile upon his suit for the most lovely, the most charming and the +wealthiest widow in Rome. This means, to a certainty, that both Satronius +Satro and Vedius Vedianus descry the possibility that Vedia's union with a +second husband acceptable to both clans and opposed to neither may work +for mitigation of the feud spirit and for establishment of harmonious +amity almost as powerfully as would have the permanency of her membership +of the Satronian clan. I conceive that all of us, outsiders and partisans, +may congratulate Caius without reservation or afterthought, heartily and +enthusiastically." + +To this all present agreed in chorus, all drank my health. + +Vulso, rather hesitatingly, spoke next. + +"As all we say here," he began, "is under the rose and will not be +repeated or hinted at, I do not mind saying that I feel as does Hirnio." + +To this Rusco and Naepor agreed, with less hesitancy. + +Similarly the three Satronians expressed their concurrence. + +Again they all congratulated me on my luck, drank to the success of my +suit, and to my prosperity and health. + +Complete harmony reigned and the strained social atmosphere attending a +dinner in the feud area vanished completely. + +By this time the moon, which was nearly full, was high enough to bathe the +world with silvery light. Tanno peering across the table and through the +windows, remarked: + +"You have a fine prospect, Caius. I admired it when I first lay down, but +our interest in the flowers and in your letter from Vedius diverted my +intention to speak of it. It is a charming outlook even by moonlight." + +"Yes," I admitted, with not a little pride. "Grandfather, of course, dined +earlier than is fashionable nowadays. He built this _triclinium_ so that +he could bask in the rays of the declining sun and could watch the sunset +colors as they varied and deepened. My uncle used to dine as early as his +father and, even in the hottest weather, enjoyed the direct rays of the +sun on him as he dined, for he was always rheumatic and chilly, yet he +enjoyed the beauty of the view even more." + +"It is charming even by moonlight," Tanno repeated, "and that although the +villa is between our outlook and the moon, so its shadow darkens the +nearer prospect." + +We all contemplated the view through the window. "Who are those men I see +just beyond the shadow of the house?" Tanno queried. "Quite an assemblage, +it seems to me; almost a mob for these lonely districts." + +I looked where he indicated and could not conjecture what it was that I +saw. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TENANTRY AND SLAVERY + + +Agathemer came in and explained that my tenants had a petition to present +to me and had gathered, hoping that I would receive them after dinner. +(Doubtless, I thought, conjecturing that I would be, just after dinner, in +the most accommodating humor possible.) + +"I must see this and hear what they have to say," Tanno declared. "Have +you any objections to our going with you, Caius?" he asked. + +On my saying that I should be glad to have him come along, he said: + +"Come on, all of you, it will be fun, and standing out in the night cool +will freshen our zest for our wine." + +All nine of us went out on the terrace. The prospect was indeed beautiful, +only the brighter stars showing in the pale sky, the far hills outlined +against it, the nearer hills darkly glimmering in the moon-rays, the +valleys all full of pearly moonlit haze, the pleasance about the villa +vague in the witchery of the moon's full radiance. + +In that full radiance, on the path below the balustrade of the terrace, +were my nine tenant farmers. Not one, as was natural among our healthy +hills, but was my elder. Yet, according to our customary mode of address +from master to tenant, I said to them: + +"What brings you here, lads, so long after your habitual bed-time?" + +Ligo Atrior acted as spokesman. + +"We have a request to prefer," he said, "and we judged this an opportune +time." + +"Speak out," I said, "our wine is waiting for me and my guests, and I am +listening. Speak out!" + +He set forth, at considerable length and with many halts and repetitions, +that all their farms were in excellent order and in an exceedingly forward +condition, promising very well for the future in all respects; that I had +just assured myself of all this by a minute inspection; that they were +keenly emulous of each other and each thought his farm the best of the +nine; that they were and had been very curious to learn which of the nine +farms I thought the best kept; that someone had suggested that, if I +judged any one of the nine distinctly better than his fellows', it would +be proper to distinguish the man of my choice by some gift, bonus, +exemption or privilege, if his farm was really the best kept; that while +discussing these matters someone had remarked that he envied me my +approaching visit to Rome, as he had never been there; that this had +brought to their notice that not one of them had ever seen Rome, though it +was less than three days' journey away; that someone had suggested that +perhaps I might be induced not only to specify which of them I considered +the best farmer, but to indicate my preference by allowing the best of +them to visit Rome later in the summer, after the crops were all +harvested; that they had agreed to abide loyally by my choice and that +they prayed me to declare which of them, in my opinion, was the best +farmer. + +When Ligo paused, old Chryseros Philargyrus, his wiry leanness manifest +even in the moonlight, although he was well muffled up against the +dampness of the night, pushed himself to the front and said that he +claimed that, in any such competition, he ought to stand on a level with +my eight other tenants, even if they had been life-long tenants of the +estate, whereas he, like his father and grandfather, had paid rent to +Ducconius Furfur. He claimed that the court decision by which Ducconius +had had to refund to my uncle all the rents received from the farm in +dispute since the first decision of the lowest court had awarded it to a +Ducconius had been, in effect, an affirmation that his ancestors and he +had always been, constructively, tenants of the Andivian estate. + +The old man spoke well and tersely, made his points neatly and stated his +arguments lucidly, and, in conclusion he said: + +"And you must realize, Sir, that whatever my feelings have been up to +today, after what happened this afternoon I have forgotten that I or mine +ever owned Ducconius Furfur as master. I am your man henceforward, body +and soul; I call you not only patron but savior and father. I make my plea +for treatment putting me on full equality with my fellows, and I value +myself so highly that I hope for the prize. Yet if I am not the lucky man, +I shall loyally and in silence abide by your decision." + +I was pleased with his words and I admitted the correctness of his +contentions, but rebuked him for his self-assertive manner. + +Then Ligo spoke again. + +"Please publish your opinion, Master, for we are sleepy and long to be +abed. But much more do we long for your decision, for each one of us +considers himself a better farmer than any other and expects to be the +chosen man." + +I smiled. + +"Suppose," I said, "that I am of the opinion that no one of you is better +than all his fellows, but that two of you are better than the other seven, +but equal to each other in merit?" + +Ligo stood at loss, but old Chryseros spoke out at once, saying: + +"In that case, Master, it would be proper that both men go to Rome, as +such a prize could not be divided into shares." + +His forwardness angered me. I told him sharply to mind his manners and to +keep his place; that Ligo had been chosen spokesman and that he was to +hold his peace. I also pointed out that I had not agreed to give any such +prize for distinguished excellence, that far less had I agreed that a +visit to Rome should be the prize. + +All nine of them stood mute. + +I was tingling with my elation over my prospects of winning Vedia, for I +felt sure of her personal favor, and the two notes from my great neighbors +had thrown me into a sort of trance of rapture. I was genuinely pleased +with the frugality, diligence and skill of my tenants. My estate was in a +way to return far more than I had expected of it. I was in a position to +be liberal, I felt indulgent. + +"Lads," I cried, "everyone of the nine of you is as good a farmer as +everyone of the other eight. You are the nine best farmers in Sabinum. You +are such good farmers that you have put your farms in a state where your +bailiffs can oversee the harvest as well as if under your own eyes. +Everyone of you has earned a visit to Rome and everyone of you shall have +it, and not at some future time, which may never come, but now. I start +for Rome at daybreak and the whole nine of you shall go with me!" + +This unexpected liberality they heard in silence: they stood dumb and +motionless. + +All but Philargyrus. Gesticulating, he pressed forward among them from +where he had retired to the rear after my late rebuke. Gesticulating, his +voice rising into a senile scream, he upbraided me for folly, +extravagance, unthrift and prodigality. He declared that such indulgence +would ruin me, would debauch him and his fellows and would, by its evil +example, infect, corrupt and deprave the whole countryside. He railed at +me. He vowed that, whatever the rest might do, he would use all his powers +of persuasion to urge them to stick to their farms till harvest was over +and he swore that he himself would, under no circumstances, leave his till +the last ear of grain, the last root, the last fruit, was garnered, stored +and safe for the winter. + +I let him shriek himself hoarse and talk himself mute; then I spoke calmly +and sternly: + +"I am master here and master of all of you. The loyalty due from a free +tenant is, in Sabinum, as mandatory a bond as the obedience legally due +from a slave. I speak. Listen, all of you. I set out for Rome at dawn. See +that every man of the nine of you is on horseback at the east courtyard +gate at dawn, with an ample pack of all things needed for a month's +absence properly girthed on a led mule. If any of you dare to disobey I +shall find some effective means to make him smart for his temerity." + +Ligo, finding his voice, thanked me for the nine, and they trudged away. + +When we were back again on the dining-sofas Tanno, as was his habit, took +charge of things after his breezy fashion. + +"With the permission of our Caius," he said, without asking my permission, +of which he was sure, "I appoint myself King of the Revels. Where's the +head butler?" + +When my major-domo came forward, Tanno queried: + +"How much water did you mix with the wine we've been drinking with our +dinner?" + +The butler replied: + +"Two measures of water to one of wine." + +Tanno nodded to me, smiling. + +"You've mighty good wine, Caius," he said. "No one is more an expert than +I and I should have conjectured three to two." + +"Lads," he continued, to the guests collectively, "this is the sort of +master-of-the-revels I am. I mean to start for Rome at dawn with Caius and +I intend that both of us shall start cold sober. Therefore all of us must +go to bed reasonably sober. You must submit to my rulings." + +Then he instructed the butler: + +"Give us no more of the mixture we have been drinking. Mix a big bowl +three to one and ladle that out to us." + +When our goblets had been filled he spoke to me! + +"Caius, I want to know what that old hunks of a Chryseros Philargyrus +meant when he said that after what had occurred this afternoon he was your +man, body and soul. What happened?" + +"Nothing much." I said. "As Agathemer and I were riding home and were +passing his barn-yard gate, we heard yells for help. I dismounted and ran +in. I found Chryseros rather at a disadvantage in handling a bull. I +helped him get the beast into his pen. His gratitude seems exaggerated." + +"Not any more exaggerated than your modesty," spoke up Neponius Pomplio, +who had hardly uttered a word since he arrived. Turning to Tanno he +continued: + +"You'll never get Hedulio to tell you anything more definite than the very +vague and hazy adumbration of his exploit he has already given. I heard +some rumors of his feat as I rode down here from my house. I conjecture +that the story is worth telling, to its least detail. If you want to hear +what really occurred, call in Agathemer; he was with Hedulio when it +happened." + +"Good idea," said Tanno, "and I want Agathemer here for another reason. +May I call him in, Caius?" + +I assented and Agathemer came in, as smiling and obsequious as always. + +"Agathemer," Tanno queried, "have you finished your dinner?" + +"Long ago," said Agathemer, "and plenty too." + +"Then, have a chair," said Tanno, rolling himself luxuriously on the deep, +soft mattress of one of my uncle's superlatively comfortable sofas. "No!" +he said sharply. "No demurring. Sit down, man! Do as I tell you! I've a +batch of questions to put to you and you'll be long answering me. I want +you entirely at ease while you talk. You can't talk as I want you to +unless you forget everything else. If you stand you'll be thinking of your +tired legs instead of talking without thinking at all." + +Agathemer, embarrassed, seated himself in the lowest and simplest chair in +the room. + +"We called you in for something else," said Tanno, "but first of all I +want to ask you why you were not with us at dinner? Caius has written me +again and again how he and you dine together evening after evening and how +you are so entertaining that he enjoys a dinner just with you almost as +much as if he has novel guests. Why were you left out of this? Is Hedulio +shy of more or less than nine at table, like his uncle, or does his +uncle's dining-room outfit coerce him? Or what _was_ the reason?" + +Agathemer turned red and visibly writhed, mute and sweating. + +I cut in. + +"Here, Caius," I said to Tanno, "this isn't the torture chamber nor you +the executioner, nor yet has Agathemer deserved the rack. You are putting +him in an excruciating dilemma. He is too courteous to tell you that you +ought to ask me, not him, and he is too loyal to tell you the reason." + +I was nearer to being angry with Tanno than I had ever been in our lives. +I comprehended why he, with all his superlative equipment of tact and +intuition, had blundered; he could not but assume that circumstances were +as they should have been rather than as they were; yet the blunder was, in +a sense, unforgivable, and had created a social situation than which +nothing could be more awkward. + +Agathemer's face cleared as I spoke. + +Tanno rounded on me. + +"You tell me, then!" he said. "I guess from their faces that I have +advertised my ignorance of what is perfectly well known to everybody else +here. Remove my disabilities." + +I hesitated and then went in with a rush. + +"It does not matter a particle," I said, "how often I lie down to dinner +with Agathemer when we are alone. Since I am then the only freeman in the +villa there are no witnesses of our dining together. But if I have him to +dinner with any guest he becomes thereby a freeman, as you very well know. +And if I were free to set him free and chose to free him in that fashion, +I should have to advise my friends in advance of my intentions and ask +whether they were willing to lend themselves to such a proceeding. One +cannot invite a man without previous explanation and then, when he's +already in one's house, ask him to lie down to dinner with a slave." + +"Slave!" Tanno roared at me, his face red as the back of a boiled lobster. +If I had just missed being angry with him, there was no doubt that he was +in a tearing fury with me. + +"Slave?" he repeated. "Agathemer still a slave? Are you joking or are you +serious? Is this true?" + +"Entirely and literally true." I affirmed. + +Tanno, so red that I should have thought it impossible that he could grow +redder, grew redder. + +"If your uncle," he roared, "did not free him in his will he was a hog. If +you haven't freed him yourself, you're a hog. Free him here and now! Show +some decency and some gratitude! Better late than never. Here, Agathemer, +get off that boy's stool and lie down between me and Entedius." + +"Go slow, Caius!" I admonished him. "You just confessed that you know +nothing of the circumstances, yet you give orders in my house, orders +affecting my property-rights, without first acquainting yourself with all +the conditions on which such orders should be based, even if you had asked +and received my permission to issue them." + +Tanno was impulsive, even headlong, but he never wrangled or quarrelled +and seldom lost his temper. I had feared a still more violent outburst +from him, but my admonition brought him to himself. + +"I apologize," he said, the red fading from his face. "Tell me the whole +matter, so that I may comprehend. I'll listen in silence." + +"The vital fact," I said, "is that, although I fully expected my uncle, in +his will, to free Agathemer, he not only did not free him, but he enjoined +me not to free him within five years after my entrance into my +inheritance." + +"Well," said Tanno, "I take back what I said of you when I called you a +hog, but, even if we are taught to utter nothing but good of the dead, I +repeat that your uncle was a hog. What do you think of it, Agathemer?" + +Agathemer sat at ease now on his stool and his face was placid. + +"Since you have asked what I think," he said, "may I assume that you +accord me permission to utter what I think, as if I were even a free man?" + +"Utter precisely what you think, without any reservations or +modifications," said Tanno. "I want to have exactly what you think and all +you think." + +"I think," spoke Agathemer, "that you are neither wise to speak so of the +dead nor justified in speaking so of my former master. He was a just man +and a wise man. Though I cannot conjecture his reason, I am sure that what +he did was, somehow, for the best." + +Tanno stared at him with a puzzled expression. + +He turned to me. + +"Isn't it true," he queried, "that your uncle had on his hands an +hereditary lawsuit of the most exasperating sort, in the course of which +the other side had won the first decision and every appeal?" + +"Everybody knows that, Socrates," I admitted. + +"Didn't Agathemer," Tanno pressed me, "just before the case was heard in +the highest court, make a suggestion which your uncle's lawyers utilized +and through which they won the case?" + +"That is also true," I affirmed. + +"Didn't they all say, that Agathemer's suggestion was just what they +should have thought of at the very first and didn't they admit that they +had not thought of it until Agathemer suggested it and that they never +would have thought of it if he had not suggested it?" + +"Those are the facts," I confessed. + +"In view of those facts," Tanno continued, "what did you yourself expect +your uncle to do for Agathemer in his will?" + +I ruminated. + +"The very least I anticipated," I said, "was that he would free Agathemer +and make him a present equal to the value of half the property in dispute +in the lawsuit. As Ducconius had had to repay to my uncle the full amount +of the rents paid since his family first gained possession of the +property, that would have been a very moderate reward for Agathemer's +service. I also conjectured that he might free Agathemer and will him a +sum equivalent to the net proceeds of the repaid rents, less the costs of +the suit. I should not have been surprised if he had made him a present of +the whole farm out and out. Many an owner has done more for a slave who +had done less for him." + +"And you would have regarded it as fair if your uncle had taken any of +those methods of recompensing Agathemer?" + +"Certainly!" I affirmed. + +"Then why, in the name of Mercury," he demanded, "didn't you free +Agathemer the moment the will was read?" + +"I have told you over and over," I retorted impatiently, "that my uncle's +will enjoined me not to free Agathemer within five years, though he also +enjoined that I was to make a new will at once so as to leave Agathemer +free and recompensed if I died before the five years elapsed." + +"But the injunction was not binding," Tanno persisted, "either in law or +by religious custom. No dead man can prevent his heirs freeing slaves he +leaves them. Why heed the injunction?" + +"I could not contravene so explicit a behest of the dead," I demurred, +"especially of a man I loved and revered. And you must recall my uncle's +queer habit of acting on intuitions and the way he expressed them, always +saying: + +"'It has been revealed to me that....' And his intuitions always seemed to +amount to prevision, he never seemed to have acted amiss, however +eccentric his act, however baseless his premonition. I have a feeling that +in Agathemer's case he acted on some such presentiment." + +Tanno turned to Agathemer. + +"Do you feel that way too?" he demanded. + +"I most certainly do," said Agathemer, "I have a feeling that my remaining +a slave is going to be of vital service to Hedulio, somehow, sometime." + +"Then you are content to remain a slave?" Tanno queried. + +"No one wants to remain a slave," Agathemer confessed, "and every slave +longs to be a free man and is impatient to be free at once. But I try to +be resigned, of course, and, except that I cannot rejoice in not being +free, I am as well fed, clothed and housed as I should be as a free man +and have as much leisure." + +Tanno glowered at both of us. + +I cut in: + +"You must remember that Agathemer was raised almost as a free man and +almost as my brother. We slept and played together from the time we could +walk. We had the same tutors, always, when in the country, both in +Bruttium and in Sabinum. In Rome, while I was at school, Agathemer was +taught the same subjects at home. We love each other almost as brothers. +Both of us were amazed when grandfather left Agathemer to my Uncle instead +of to my father or to me. We were more amazed at Uncle's will. But as +things are between us, Agathemer not only looks forward to freedom and an +estate within five years, but knows that his interval of waiting will be +pleasant, as pleasant as I can make it." + +"But," Tanno objected, "think of the danger he is in while a slave. For +instance, just suppose--(may the gods avert the omen)--that you were +murdered in your bed this very night and no clue to the murderer found. +Nothing could save Agathemer from being tortured along with all your other +slaves." + +"Pooh!" I cried. "You are behind the times! You may be an unsurpassable +expert on dress and manners, on perfumery and jewels, but you could know +more law. All those ferocious old statutes have been abolished by the +enactments of Antoninus and Aurelius. A slave, during good behavior, is +almost as safe as a freedman." + +"It is you," Tanno countered, "who are behind the times. Commodus has had +rescinded every edict ameliorating the condition of slaves promulgated +since the accession of Trajan. As Nerva did little for them the status of +slaves is now practically what it was at the death of Domitian." + +"Anyhow," spoke up Agathemer, "whatever real or fancied perils hang over +me, by my late master's will and wish, a slave I am and a slave I remain +till the five years elapse. Even thereafter I shall be Hedulio's devoted +servitor, meanwhile I am his devoted slave." + +"Does being his slave inhibit you from telling the truth about him?" Tanno +queried. + +"If it is to his discredit, certainly," Agathemer answered. + +"Suppose it is to his credit, very much to his credit," Tanno pursued. + +"Then I am permitted to tell the truth," laughed Agathemer. + +"Then," said Tanno, "tell us the whole truth about Hedulio and Chryseros +Philargyrus and the bull." + +Agathemer laughed out loud. + +"Delighted to oblige you," he bowed. Tanno looked at me. + +"Hedulio is blushing," he said, "this promises to be interesting. As king +of the revels I forbid Hedulio from interrupting. Everybody drain a +goblet. Boy, pour a goblet for Agathemer. Agathemer, take a good long +drink, so you may start in good voice. And, boy, fill his goblet again +when it gets low. Keep an eye on it. Begin, Agathemer." + +"It is a shorter story than you anticipate," Agathemer began. + +"Hedulio and I had completed the final inspection of the estate. We had +begun each inspection with Chryseros' farm and had taken the farms in +rotation, ending up with Feliger's. We had inspected Macer's farm in the +morning, had had a leisurely bath, lunch and snooze and had ridden out to +Feliger's. After looking over the last details of the toolsheds and +henneries we were riding home under the over-arching elms down Bran Lane. +As we passed Chryseros' entrance we heard yells for help. Hedulio spurred +his horse up the avenue and towards the yells, I after him. The yells +guided us to the lower barn-yard gate. Hedulio reined up abruptly, leaped +off, leaving me to catch his mare, and vaulted the gate. I tethered our +mounts as quickly as I could and climbed the gate. I saw old Chryseros +pinned against the wall of his barley-barn, in between the horns of his +white bull. The points of the bull's horns were driven into the wood of +the barn and the horns were so long that Chryseros was in no immediate +danger of being crushed between the bull's forehead and the barn wall. The +bull was so enraged that he was pushing with all his might, puffing and +bellowing, spraying Chryseros' legs with froth, grunting and lowing +between bellows. As long as he kept on pushing Chryseros was more scared +than hurt; but, sooner or later, the bull was certain to draw back, lunge, +and skewer Chryseros on one or the other of his horns. + +"When I first saw them Chryseros and the bull were as I have described. +Hedulio was twisting the bull's tail. + +"The bull paid no more attention to the tail-twisting than if Hedulio had +been in the moon. + +"Hedulio shouted to Chryseros to hold tight to the bull's horns, as he was +already doing, and to stand still. He let go the bull's tail and turned +round. Seeing me, he ordered me to get back over the gate and to stay +there. He looked about, ran to the stable door, peered in, went in and +returned with a manure fork. With that in his hand he ran back to the bull +and jabbed him with the fork. + +"Then the bull did roar. He backed suddenly away from the barn, shaking +his horns loose from the futile grip Chryseros had on them, and whirled on +Hedulio. Hedulio jabbed him in the neck with the fork. The bull bellowed +with rage, it seemed, more than with pain, lowered his head and charged at +Hedulio. + +"Hedulio side-stepped as deftly as a professional beast-fighter in an +amphitheatre and to my amazement, well as I knew him, threw away the fork. + +"The bull's rush carried him almost the whole breadth of the barn-yard. +When he turned round he stood, pawing the ground, shaking his head and +bellowing. I never saw a bull angrier-looking. He lowered his head to +charge. + +"But he never charged. + +"Hedulio was walking toward him and the bull just stood and pawed and +bellowed till Hedulio caught hold of the ring in his nose and led him off +to his pen. + +"Chryseros, who had dodged through the little door into the barn and had +slammed it after him, had peered out of it just before Hedulio reached the +bull and had stood, mouth open, hands hanging, letting the door swing wide +open. + +"Hedulio led the bull into the pen, patted him on the neck and then turned +his back on him and sauntered out of the pen, shutting the gate without +hurry. + +"Chryseros ran to him, stumbling as he ran, fell on his knees, caught +Hedulio's hand, and poured out a torrent of thanks." + +"Did all that really happen?" Tanno queried. + +"Precisely as I have told it." Agathemer affirmed. + +"Well," said Tanno, "I know why Caius did not want to tell it. He knew I'd +think it an impudent lie." + +"Don't you believe it?" Agathemer asked, respectfully. + +"Well," Tanno drawled, "I've been watching the faces of the audience. +Nobody has laughed or smiled or sneered. I'm an expert on curios and +antiques and other specialties, but I am no wiser on bulls than any other +city man. So I suppose I ought to believe it. But it struck me, while I +listened to you, as the biggest lie I ever heard. I apologize for my +incredulity." + +"It would be incredible," said Juventius Muso, "if told of any one except +Hedulio and it would probably be untrue. As it is told of Hedulio it is +probably true and also entirely credible." + +"Why of Caius any more than any one else?" queried Tanno. + +Muso stared at him. + +"I beg pardon," he said, "but I somehow got the idea that you were an old +and close friend of our host." + +"I was and am," Tanno asserted. + +"And know nothing," Muso pressed him, "of his marvellous powers over +animals of all kinds, even over birds and fish?" + +"Never heard he had any such powers." Tanno confessed. + +"How's this, Hedulio?" Juventius demanded of me. + +"I suppose," I said, "that Tanno and I have mostly been together at Rome. +Animals are scarcer there than in the country and human beings more +plentiful. He knows more of my dealings with men and women than with other +creatures." + +"Besides," Tanno cut in, "you must all remember that our Caius not only +never boasts but is absurdly reticent about anything he has done of such a +kind that most men would brag of it. Towards his chums and cronies he is +open-hearted and as unreserved as a friend could be about everything else, +but especially close with them about such matters. So I know nothing of +his powers concerning which you speak." + +My guests cried out in amazement, all talking at once. + +"I'm king of the revels," Tanno reminded them. + +"Juventius was talking; let him say his say. Everyone of you shall talk +his fill, I promise you. I am immensely interested and curious, as I +expect to hear many things which I should have heard from Caius any time +these ten years. Speak out, Juventius!" + +"Before I say what I meant to say," Muso began, "I want to ask some +questions. What you have just told me has amazed me and what little you +have said leaves me puzzled. Surely there are dogs in Rome?" + +"Plenty," Tanno assured him. + +"Haven't you ever seen a vicious dog fly at Hedulio?" Muso pursued. + +"Many a time," Tanno admitted. + +"Did you ever see one bite him?" Muso asked. + +"Never!" Tanno affirmed. + +"Can you recall what happened?" queried Muso. + +Tanno rubbed his chin. + +"It seems to me," he said, "that every time I saw a snarling cur or an +open-mouthed watch-dog rush at Caius, the dog slowed his rush before he +reached him, circled about him, sniffing, and trotted back where he came +from." + +"Did you never see Hedulio beckon such a dog, handle and gentle him, even +pet him." + +"Once I did, as I now recall," Tanno confessed, "yet I thought nothing of +it at the time and forgot it at once." + +"Probably," Muso conjectured, "you thought the dog was only pretending to +be cross and was really tame." + +"Just about that, I suppose," Tanno ruminated. + +"Well," said Muso, "I take it that any one of the dogs you saw run at +Hedulio was affected by him just as was the bull this afternoon; each +began by acting towards him as he would have towards any other man; each +was cowed and tendered mild by the nearer sight of him. That is the way +Hedulio affects all animals whatever." + +"Tell us some cases you have seen yourself," Tanno suggested. + +"I fear your skepticism, even your derision," Muso demurred. + +"I haven't a trace of either left in me by now," Tanno declared. "What you +say has knocked the mental wind out of me, so to speak, and I see that the +others feel as you do and seem to have similar ideas to express. I vow I +believe you, gentlemen, though something inside me is still numb with +amazement. Tell us, Juventius, the biggest story you know of these alleged +powers of our Caius." + +"I told you so," said Muso. "In spite of your disclaimers you slip in that +'alleged.' I don't like that 'alleged' of yours, Opsitius." + +"That wasn't mine." Tanno laughed. "That was the numb something inside me +talking in its sleep. I'm all sympathetic interest, with no admixture of +unbelief. I can see you have startling anecdotes to tell. Tell the most +startling." + +"The most startling," Juventius began, "I most solemnly aver is literally +true. Hedulio and I were once riding along a woodcutters' road through the +forests on the Aemilian estate, in the wildest portion of it. The road +forms a part of a good short-cut from Villa Aemilia to this valley. It was +hot weather and very dry. We were both thirsty. There is a cool and +abundant spring not many paces up a steep path on the left of that road. +At the path we tethered our horses and walked to the spring. When we had +quenched our thirst and had started down the little glade below the spring +we saw the head of a big gray wolf appear among some ferns at the lower +end of the glade by the path on our left. I stopped, for we had no +weapons. Hedulio, however, went on, never altering his easy saunter. The +wolf came out of the ferns and paced up to Hedulio like a house dog. +Hedulio patted his head, pulled his ears and the wolf not only did not +attack him nor snap at him, nor even snarl, but showed his pleasure as +plainly as any pet dog. When Hedulio had stopped petting him, I reached +them. We two went on as if we were alone, leaving the wolf standing +looking after us as if he were watch-dog at the house of an intimate +friend." + +"Rome," said Tanno, when Muso paused, "is rated the most wonderful place +on earth. Rome is my home. Rome rates Sabinum low, except for olives, +wines, oaks, sheep and mules. Wonders are not named among the staple +products of Sabinum. Yet I come to Sabinum for the first time and hear +wonders such as I never dreamed of at Rome." + +"And you are only at the beginning of such wonders," spoke up Entedius +Hirnio. "That tale of Muso's is mild to one I can tell and I take oath in +advance to every word of my story." + +"Begin it then, in the name of Hercules," Tanno urged him. "If it is what +you herald we cannot have it too quickly." + +"When Hedulio and I were hardly more than boys," Hirnio began, "we bird- +nested and fished and hunted and roamed the woods like any pair of country +lads. Parts of our woodland hereabouts are wilder than anything on the +Aemilian estate, and we liked the wildest parts best. I had an uncle at +Amiternum and it happened that Hedulio's uncle allowed him to go with me +once when my father visited his brother. My uncle had a farm high up in +the mountains east of Amiternum and Hedulio and I there revelled in +wildness wilder than anything hereabouts. We had no fear and ranged the +hillsides, ravines and pine-woods eager and unafraid. + +"High up the mountains we blundered on a bear's den with two cubs in it. +They were old enough to be playful and young enough not to be fierce or +dangerous. I was for carrying them off, but Hedulio said that if the +mother returned before we were well on our way home she would certainly +catch us before we could reach a place of safety and we should certainly +be killed. + +"'We had better stop playing with these fascinating little brutes,' he +said, 'and be as far off as possible before she comes back.' + +"Just as he said it we heard twigs snapping, the crash of rent underbrush, +and I looked up and saw the bear coming. + +"I had never seen a wild bear till then. She looked to me as big as a half +grown calf, and as fat as a six-year-old sow. She came like a race-horse. +Besides my instantaneous sense of her size, weight and speed, I saw only +her great red mouth, wide-open, set round with gleaming white teeth, from +which came a snarl like the roar of a cataract. + +"I sprang to the nearest tree which promised a refuge, caught the lowest +boughs and scrambled up, the angry snarls of the bear filling my ears. As +I reached the first strong branch the snarls stopped. + +"I settled myself and looked down. + +"The bear was standing still, some paces from her den, peering at it and +snuffing the air, working her nose it seemed to me, and moving her head +from side to side. + +"Hedulio had not moved. He stood just where I had left him, one cub in his +arms, the other cuddled at his feet. + +"The bear, growling very short, almost inaudible growls, approached him +slowly, moving only one foot at a time and pausing before she lifted +another foot. She sniffed at the cub on the ground, sniffed at Hedulio's +legs, and looked up at the cub in his arms. She made a sound more like a +whine than a growl. Hedulio lowered the cub and she sniffed at it. Then +Hedulio caught her by the back of the neck. She did not snarl but yielded +to his pull and rolled over on her side. He picked up the cub on the +ground and laid both by her nipples. They went to, nursing avidly, almost +like little pigs, yet also somewhat like puppies. Hedulio sauntered away +and to my tree, beckoned me down and we strolled away as if there were no +bear near: she in fact paying no attention to either of us after the cubs +began nursing her." + +Tanno looked wildly about. + +"Boys," he said, "forgive me if I am dazed, and don't be insulted. I +recall that Entedius prefaced his narrative with an oath to its veracity. +I am ready to believe all this if he reaffirms it. But I have a horrible +feeling that you farmers think you have caught a city ignoramus and that +it is your duty to stuff me with the tallest stories you can invent. +Please set me right. If you are stuffing me the joke is certainly on me, +for these incredible tales seem true: if they are true the joke is doubly +on me. As I am the butt, either way, don't be too hard on me: Please set +me right." + +They chorused at him that they had all heard the story, most of them soon +after the marvel took place; that they had always believed it, and +believed it then. I corroborated Hirnio's exactitude as to all the +details. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOROSCOPES AND MARVELS + + +Tanno looked about again, less wildly, but still like a man in a daze. + +"But," he cried, "if you do such wonders, how do you do them, Caius?" + +"I don't know now," I said, "any more than I knew the first time I gentled +a fierce strange dog. It came natural then, it always has come natural." + +"Naturally," said Lisius Naepor, "since it is part of your nature from +before birth. Do you mean to tell us, Opsitius, that Hedulio has never +shown you his horoscope?" + +"Never!" said Tanno, "and he never spoke of it to me. I'm Spanish, you +know, by ancestry, and Spaniards are not Syrians or Egyptians. Horoscopes +don't figure largely in Spanish life. I never bothered about horoscopes, I +suppose. So I never mentioned horoscopes to Hedulio nor he to me." + +"Nor he to you of course," said Neponius Pomplio, "he is too modest." + +"In fact," said Naepor. "I should never have known of Hedulio's horoscope +if his uncle had not shown me a copy. Caius has never mentioned it, unless +one of us talked of it first." + +"What's the point of the horoscope?" Tanno queried. + +"Why you see," Naepor explained. "Hedulio was born in the third watch of +the night on the Ides of September. + +"Now it is well known that persons are likely to be competent trainers of +animals if they are born under the influence of the Whale or of the +Centaur or the Lion or the Scorpion or when the Lesser Bear rises at dawn +or in those watches of the night when the Great Bear, after swinging low +in the northern sky, is again beginning to swing upwards, or at those +hours of the day when, as it can be established by calculations, the Great +Bear, though invisible in the glow of the sunlight, is in that part of its +circle round the northern pole. + +"It is disputed which of these constellations has the most powerful +influence, but it is generally reckoned that the Whale is most +influential, next the Centaur, next the Lion, and the Scorpion least of +all, while the dawn rising of the Lesser Bear and the beginning of the +upward motion of the Great Bear are held to have merely auxiliary +influence when the other signs are favorable. If two or more of these are +at one and the same time powerful in the sky at the moment of any one's +birth, he will be an unusually capable animal-tamer, the more puissant +according as more of the potent stars shine upon his birth. + +"It is manifest that, at no day and hour, will all of these signs conspire +at their greatest potency. For clearly, for instance, the Lion and the +Scorpion, being both in the Zodiac, and being separated in the Zodiac by +the interposition of two entire constellations, can never be in the +ascendant at one and the same time, nor can one be near the ascendant when +the other is in that position. Yet there are times when a majority of them +all exert their most potent or nearly their most potent influence, there +are some moments when their possible combination of influences is nearly +at its maximum potency. + +"Now the day, hour, and moment of Hedulio's birth is, as astrologers +agree, precisely that instant of the entire year when the stars combine +their magic powers with their most puissant force to produce their +greatest possible effect on the nature of a child born at that instant, in +order that he may have irresistible sway over the wills of all fierce, +wild and ferocious animals. + +"Such, from his birth and by the divine might of his birth-stars, is our +Hedulio." + +"After all that," said Tanno, "I should believe anything. I believe the +tale of the she-bear. Who has another to tell?" + +"Before anyone begins another anecdote," said Neponius Pomplio, "I want to +state my opinion that Hedulio's habitual and instantaneous subjugation of +vicious dogs which have never before set eyes on him and his miraculous +powers of similarly pacifying such wild animals as bears and wolves, while +inexpressibly marvellous, is no more wonderful, if, in fact, as wondrous +as his power to attract to him, even from a great distance, creatures +naturally solitary, or timorous." + +"It is strange," said Juventius Muso, "that I should have begun by telling +the story of the wolf at the spring, an occurrence of which I was the only +witness, instead of mentioning first Hedulio's power over deer, something +known to all of us, and many miracles which everyone of us has seen. I +suppose we each thought of the most spectacular example of Hedulio's +powers known to us, whereas he had so generally handled and gentled deer +that we instinctively regarded that as commonplace." + +"I think you are right," said Lisius Naepor, "for Hedulio's ability to +approach a doe with fawns and to handle the young in sight of the mother +without her showing any sign of alarm or concern, is, to my mind, quite as +marvellous as his dealings with the she-bear. It seems to me as miraculous +to overcome the timidity of the doe as the ferocity of the bear. And we +have all seen him play with fawns, fawns so young that they had barely +begun to follow their dam. We have all seen a herd of deer stand placidly +and let him approach them, move about among them, handle them. We have all +seen him handle and gentle stags, even old stags in the rutting season. +There is no gainsaying our Hedulio's power over animals, it is a matter of +too general and too common knowledge." + +"I have seen a mole," said Fisevius Rusco, "come out of its burrow at dusk +and eat earth worms out of Hedulio's hand." + +"I," said Naepor, "have watched him catch a butterfly and, holding it +uncrushed, walk into a wood, and have seen a woodthrush flutter down to +him, take the butterfly from his fingers, speed away with it to feed its +young and presently return to his empty hand, as if expecting another +insect, perch on his hand, peck at it and remain some time; and there is +no song-bird more fearful of mankind, more aloof, more retiring, more +secret than a wood-thrush." + +Several of the others told of my similarly attracting seed-eating birds +with handfuls of millet, wheat or other grains or seeds; of squirrels, +anywhere in the forests, coming down trees to me and taking nuts from my +fingers. + +Bultius Seclator said: + +"I have seen Hedulio seat himself on a rock in the sunshine and seen a +golden eagle, circling in the sky, circle lower and lower till he perched +on Hedulio's wrist and not only perched there, but sat there some time, +preening his feathers as if alone on the dead topmost limb of a tall tree, +eye Hedulio's face without pecking at him and finally take wing and leave +Hedulio's arm not only untorn by his talons, but unscratched, without even +a mark of the claw-points." + +Said Mallius Vulso: + +"Hedulio has a way of catching flies with a quick sweep of his hand. I +have seen him catch a fly and hold him, buzzing between his fingers and +thumb and have seen a lizard run up to him and dart at the fly." + +"And I," said Lisius Naepor, "have seen fish in a tank rise to his hand +and let him take them out of the water, handle them and slip them back +into the water again, all without a struggle." + +"More wonderful than that," spoke up Juventius Muso, "I have seen lampreys +feed from his hand without biting it, and I have even seen him pick up +lampreys out of the water without their attempting to bite him. I'll wager +no other man ever did the like." + +"True," ruminated Naepor, "Hedulio can pick up and handle a puff-adder and +it will never strike at him and he can similarly handle any kind of +snake." + +"Well," Tanno summed up, after they had talked the subject out, "you +countrymen beat me. Here I've been cronying with Caius for years and years +and never suspected any such wizardry in him." + +"May I speak?" asked Agathemer from his stool, where he had sat silent, +sipping his wine very moderately at infrequent intervals. + +"Certainly, man," said Tanno, "speak up if you have anything to tell as +good as the bull story." + +"Although I know my master's modesty." Agathemer said, "I cannot conceive +how you can have associated with him so long without knowing of his power +over animals. Have you never seen him, for instance, with Nemestronia's +leopard?" + +"Never that I recall," said Tanno, "and if I had I should have thought +nothing of it. Nemestronia's leopard has been tame since it learned to +suck milk from Nemestronia's fingers, before its eyes were half open. It +always has been tame and is tame with everybody, not only with all +Nemestronia's household, not only with frequenters of her reception rooms, +but also with casual visitors, total strangers to it. Nobody would think +it anything wonderful for Hedulio to handle Nemestronia's leopard." + +"I do not mean merely handling," said Agathemer respectfully. "I mean +something quite amazing in itself. And that leads me to remark that none +of you gentlemen has mentioned or referred to what I regard as one of my +master's most amazing feats and one which he has repeated countless times +in the presence of uncountable witnesses: I mean taking a bone away from a +vicious dog which has never seen him before. I think that amounts to a +portent, or would if it had not happened so often." + +"Incredible!" cried Tanno. + +Then the whole room broke into a hubbub of confirmations and +corroborations of Agathemer's statement. + +"I give in," Tanno declared, "now for the leopard." + +"I am told," said Agathemer, "that all such animals, lions, tigers, +leopards, panthers and lynxes, when they set out on their nocturnal +prowlings, intent on catching prey, have the strange habit of giving +notice to all creatures within hearing that they are about to begin +hunting, by a series of roars, snarls, squalls, screams, screeches or +whatever they may be properly called for each variety of animal. + +"Now one of the tricks of Nemestronia's leopard, which she is fond of +exhibiting to her guests, is its method of approaching any live creature +exposed to its mercy for its food. If a kid, hare, lamb, porker or what +not is turned into one of Nemestronia's walled gardens and the leopard let +in, she will, at first sight of the game, crouch belly-flat on the ground +and give out a really appalling series of screams or whatever they should +be called, entirely unlike any other noise she ever makes. Her hunting- +squall, as Nemestronia calls it, rises and falls like a tune on an organ, +and besides changing from shriller to less shrill alters in volume from +louder to less loud and louder again. It is an experience to hear it, for +it is like no sound anyone in Rome ever heard and is unforgettable." + +"There you are wrong," Tanno cut in, "it is the normal hunting cry of a +leopard. But not many leopards in captivity ever give it. She is the only +leopard I ever heard give it in captivity, but I have heard it in the +deserts south of Gaetulia and Africa, when I was there with my cohort, +while I was still in the army. And let me tell you right here, what I have +often told Nemestronia, only the dear self-willed old lady will not listen +to me at all, there will be trouble yet with that leopard. She has been a +parlor and bedroom pet from birth and she is tame, not only to all +Nemestronia's household but to all visitors. But the mere fact that she is +old enough to give her hunting-squall for small game is warning enough, if +Nemestronia would only realize it, that she is getting fiercer as she gets +older. It's only a question of time, no matter how liberally she is fed, +that she will turn on her human associates. Possibly she'll give them +warning with her hunting-squall, and precious little help it will be +towards escaping her, but most likely she'll just turn on someone, without +warning, and there'll be a corpse and a pool of blood on the floor or +pavement. You mark my words: that is coming as sure as fate, if +Nemestronia keeps that leopard about her mansion." + +"That may all be true," Hirnio cut in, "but Opsitius, do let Agathemer say +his say, whatever it may be." + +"You are right and I was wrong," Tanno admitted. + +"Proceed, Agathemer." + +"Let me describe her behavior fully, for the sake of others," Agathemer +resumed. "When she sights a victim she flattens herself out on the ground +and gives her long, quavering squall. If the victim remains stationary she +crawls toward it very slowly, almost imperceptibly, moving one paw only at +a time. If it runs about she ceases her advance and pivots around until it +is again stationary and she facing it. She keeps that up until she is +within springing distance. But if she sees it near a gate or a door and +apparently trying to escape through that, she springs and bounds on it. +Otherwise, if the victim keeps quiet and still, she spends a long time in +her approach, seeming to enjoy every breath she draws and to be gloating +over her helpless prey." + +"Just so, gentlemen," Tanno put in, "Agathemer is exact. I have seen all +that over and over." + +"It is the more astonishing to me," Agathemer went on, "that you have +never seen Hedulio divert her attention and entice her away from her +victim, even when she is within leaping distance and ready for her final +spring. That, to me, is the only thing I ever saw Hedulio do surpassing +his repeated success in taking a bone from a cross dog without resistance +from the dog." + +"Never saw him do it," Tanno declared. "Never heard of it from +Nemestronia, and she'll talk 'leopard' by the hour, if you let her. Never +suspected any such sorcery from Hedulio. How does he do it? Expound his +methods." + +"Very simple," said Agathemer. "He calls to her or he walks in front of +her. At once she turns her attention to him, appears to forget her prey +altogether, rubs against him, purrs, lets him chafe her ears, head and +neck, seems to beg for more chafing, rolls on the ground by him and +invites him to play with her. Sometimes she seems to insist on his playing +with her and to threaten to lose her temper unless he does play with her." + +"What do you mean by playing with her?" Tanno queried. + +"Have you ever seen any of these little Egyptian cats which some folks +have nowadays for pets?" Agathemer asked in his turn. "Creatures about as +long as your forearm and rather gentle?" + +"Certainly," said Tanno. "I've seen a number of them at ultra-fashionable +mansions of the fast set, who must have the latest novelty." + +"Ever see any of their kittens?" Agathemer asked. + +"Two or three times I have," Tanno replied. "Amusing, fluffy little +creatures, not much bigger than a man's hand." + +"Ever see one play with a ball?" Agathemer asked. + +Tanno laughed. + +"Run after a ball, you mean," he said, "slap it first with one paw and +then with the other, bound after it and all that?" + +"No," said Agathemer, "I do not mean that way; I mean the way a kitten +will pretend that a ball is another kitten, will lie on the floor with the +ball between its paws, will kick it with its hind feet and paw at it with +its forefeet and yet not really claw it." + +"I've seen that, too," said Tanno. + +"Well," said Agathemer, "Hedulio acts as the ball or the other kitten for +that big leopard. He lies down on the pavement by her and they tussle like +two puppies, only it is cat-play not dog-play. Hedulio kicks and slaps the +leopard and she kicks and slaps him, and they are all mixed up like a pair +of wrestlers, and she growls and mouths his hands and arms and shoulders, +yet she never bites or claws him, does all that clawing of him with her +claws sheathed; never hurts him, and, when she has had enough play, lets +him lead her off to her cage." + +"Miraculous!" cried Tanno, "but beastly undignified. Fancy a Roman, of +equestrian rank, moving in Rome's best society circles, a friend of the +Emperor, sprawling on a pavement playing with a stinking leopard, letting +her tousle him and rumple his clothes, and letting her slobber her foul +saliva all over his arms and shoulders! I'm ashamed of you, Hedulio!" + +"Nothing to be ashamed of!" I said. "I thought it fun, every time I have +done it, and I did it only for Nemestronia and a few of her intimates, +never before any large gathering." + +"I should hope not!" Tanno cried, "and I trust you will never try it +again. It's disgraceful! And it's too risky. If you keep it up some fine +day she'll slash the face off you or bite your whole head off at one +snap." + +I was surprised and abashed at Tanno's reception of the leopard story and +Agathemer seemed similarly affected and more so than I. He tried to start +a diversion. + +"Most marvellous of all Hedulio's exploits," he said, "I account his +encounter with the piebald horse." + +"Tell us about it," said Tanno. "Horse-training is, at least, and always, +an activity fit for a gentleman and wholly decent and respectable." + +"It happened last year," said Agathemer, "in the autumn, before Andivius +died; in fact, before we had any reason to dread that the end of his life +was near. Entedius saw it, perhaps he would be a more suitable narrator +than I." + +"Go on," said Hirnio, "I'd rather listen to you than talk myself." + +Agathemer resumed. + +"We were at Reate Fair. You know how such festivals are always attended by +horse-dealers and all sorts of such cheats and mountebanks. There was a +plausible and ingratiating horse-dealer with some good horses. Entedius +bought one and has it yet." + +"And no complaints to make," said Hirnio, "the brute was as represented +and has given satisfaction in every way." + +"Some others in our party bought horses of him also." Agathemer continued. +"Later, when the sports were on, he brought out a tall, long-barrelled +piebald horse, rather a well-shaped beast, and one which would have been +handsome had he been cream or bay. He showed off his paces and then +offered him as a free gift to anyone who could stick on him without a +fall. Several farm-lads tried and he threw them by simple buckings and +rearings. Some more experienced horse-wranglers tried, but he threw one +after the other. + +"Then there came forward Blaesus Agellus, the best horse-master about +Reate. He had watched till he thought he knew all the young stallion's +tricks. No kicking, rearing or bucking could unseat him and the beast +tried several unusual and bizarre contortions. Blaesus stuck on. Then the +horse-dealer seemed to give a signal, as the horse cantered tamely round +the ring. + +"Instantly the horse, without any motion which gave warning of what he was +about to do, threw himself sideways flat on the ground. + +"Blaesus was stunned and his right leg badly bruised, though not broken. + +"The owner gloried in his treasure and boasted of his control over the +horse, even at a distance. + +"Then Hedulio came forward. The crowd was visibly amazed to see a young +nobleman put himself on a level with the commonality. But they all knew +Hedulio's affable ways and there were no hoots or jeers. + +"Hedulio examined the horse carefully, fetlocks, hoofs, mouth and all. +Then he gentled and patted it. When he vaulted into the saddle, the brute +did a little rearing, kicking and bucking, but soon quieted. + +"Hedulio trotted him round the ring, calling to the owner: + +"I dare you to try all your signals.' + +"The owner seemed to try, at first far back in the crowd, so confident was +he of his control of the horse, then nearer, then standing in the front +row of spectators. + +"The horse remained quiet. + +"So Hedulio rode him home and all at the villa acclaimed the horse a great +prize. + +"The marvel was that he was only a two-year-old, as all experts agreed. I +have seen many trick horses, but seldom a good trick horse under eight +years old and never a well-trained trick horse under four years old. This +was barely two." + +"Is he still in your stables?" Tanno asked. + +"Let Agathemer finish his tale," I replied. + +"Two mornings afterward," Agathemer summed up, "we found the stable was +broken into and the young stallion gone. No other horse had been stolen." + +"Just what might have been expected," said Tanno, "and now, as king of the +revels, I pronounce this symposium at an end. I mean to be up by dawn and +to get Hedulio up soon after I am awake. I mean to start back for Rome +with him as soon after dawn as I can arrange. You other gentlemen can +sleep as late as you like, of course." + +"I'm going with you," Hirnio cut in. "I came prepared, with my servant and +led-mule loaded with my outfit. I'm to be up as soon as you two." + +"Let's all turn in," Tanno proposed. + +Mallius Vulso and Neponius Pomplio, who lived nearest me, declared their +intention of riding home in the moon-light. The others discussed whether +they should also go home or sleep in the rooms ready for them. I urged +them to stay, but finally, they all decided to ride home. + +Agathemer went to give orders for their horses to be brought round. + +"By the way, Caius," Tanno asked, "how are you going to travel?" + +"On horseback," I replied. + +"Why not in your carriage?" he queried. "I was hoping to ride with you to +the Via Salaria, at least, unless your roads jolt a carriage as badly as +bearers on them jolt a litter. What's wrong with the superperfect +travelling carriage of your late Uncle?" + +"I have lent it," I explained, "to Marcus Martius, to travel to Rome in +with his bride. I wrote you of his wedding. He has just married my uncle's +freedwoman Marcia. I wrote you about it." + +"Pooh!" cried Tanno, "how should I remember the marriage of a freedwoman I +never saw with a bumpkin I never heard of?" + +"No bumpkin," cut in Lisius Naepor. "Not any more of a bumpkin than I or +any of the rest of us here. You are too high and mighty, Opsitius. It is +true that in our countryside the only senators are Aemilius, Vedius and +Satronius, and that in our immediate vicinity Hirnio and Hedulio are the +only proprietors of equestrian rank but we commoners here are no bumpkins +or clodhoppers." + +"I apologize," Tanno spoke conciliatingly. "You are right to call me down. +We Romans of Rome really know the worth of farmers and provincials and the +like. But we are so used, among ourselves, to thinking of Rome as the +whole world, that our speech belies our esteem for our equals. I should +not have spoken so. Who is Marcus Martius, Caius, and who is Marcia?" + +"Marcus Martius," I said, "is a local landowner like the rest of us. He +would have been here to-night but for his recent marriage and approaching +journey to Rome. I have always asked him to my dinners." + +"Then how, in the name of Ops Consiva," cried Tanno, "did he come to marry +your uncle's freedwoman?" + +"This time I agree with you, Opsitius," said Naepor. "Your tone of scorn +is wholly justified. Marrying freedwomen is getting far too common. If +things go on this way there will be no Roman nobility nor gentry nor even +any Roman commonality; just a wish-wash of counterfeit Romans, nine-tenths +foreign in ancestry, with just enough of a dash of Roman blood to bequeath +them our weaknesses and vices." + +"On the other hand," said Juventius Muso, "while agreeing with Naepor as +to the propriety of the tone, I object to the question. Instead of asking +how Martius came to marry Marcia, had you been acquainted with the recent +past history of this neighborhood, Opsitius, you would have asked how most +of the rest of us managed to escape marrying her." + +"A freedwoman!" cried Tanno. + +"A most unusual freedwoman," Hirnio asserted, "as she was almost a portent +as a slave-girl. Haven't you ever heard of her, Opsitius?" + +"We Romans," Tanno bantered, "are lamentably ignorant on the life- +histories of brood-sows, slave-girls, prize-heifers and such-like +notabilities of Sabinum." + +"She is no Sabine," Hirnio retorted, "but, as far as the locality of her +birth and upbringing goes, is as Roman as you are. Did you never hear of +Ummidius Quadratus?" + +"Hush!" Tanno breathed. "I have heard of the man you have named, heard of +him on the deaf side of my head, as did all Rome. But, in the name of +Minerva, do not utter his name. It is best forgotten. Even so long after +his execution and so far from Rome, the mention of the name of anyone +implicated as he was might have most unfortunate results." + +"Not here and among us," Hirnio declared. "The point is that Quadratus had +a eunuch less worthless than most eunuchs. He became a very clever surgeon +and physician, and endeared himself to Quadratus by many cures among his +countless slaves, and even among his kin. Quadratus made him his chief +physician and trusted him utterly. Naturally he let him set up an +establishment of his own, allowing him to select a location. Hyacinthus, +for that is the eunuch's name, instead of choosing for a home any one of a +dozen desirable neighborhoods well within his means with the liberal +allowance Quadratus gave him, settled in a peculiarly vile slum, because, +as he said, his associates mostly lived there; meaning by his associates +the votaries of some sort of Syrian cult, chiefly peddlers and such, +living like ants or maggots, all packed together in the rookeries of that +quarter. + +"Hyacinthus was not only a member of their sect, but their hierophant, or +whatever they call it, and presided at the ceremonies of their religion at +their little temple somewhere in the same part of the city. + +"He divided his energies between his calling of surgeon, at which he +prospered amazingly, and his avocation of hierophant. + +"As head of their cult it fell to him to care for the orphans of their +poorer families and for foundlings, for such Asiatics never expose infants +or fail to succor exposed infants. + +"Marcia was a foundling and brought up by Hyacinthus, therefore, legally a +slave of Quadratus. + +"Quadratus saw her and took a fancy to her. He had her taught not only +dancing, music and such accomplishments, but had her educated almost as if +she had been his niece or daughter. + +"When she was yet but a half-grown girl, she had acquired such a hold on +him that he used to bewail it. What was it he said, Hedulio?" + +"I have heard him say to my uncle," I said, "that Marcia was as imperious +as if she were Empress and that living with her was as bad as being +married. Quadratus was born to be a bachelor and never thought of +matrimony. But though he had solaced himself with a long series of +beauties in all previous cases his word had been law and not one of his +concubines had had any will of her own. Marcia's word was law to him, even +her tone or look. She had wheedled him into lavishing on her flowers, +perfumery, jewels, an incredibly varied and costly wardrobe, maids, +masseuses, bathgirls, a mob of waiters, cooks, doorkeepers, litter-bearers +and what not and the most costly equipages. + +"He groaned, but was too infatuated to deny her anything. + +"My uncle sympathized with him and, with the idea of disabusing him of his +folly, somehow, while visiting him, saw Marcia. + +"Uncle at once fell madly in love with her. + +"He offered to buy her. + +"That was just before Quadratus became involved in the intrigues radiating +from Lucilla's conspiracy, was implicated in the conspiracy itself and so +disgraced and executed. + +"Marcia seems to have had some prevision or inkling of what was coming. +Anyhow she could not have acted more for her own interest if she had had +accurate information of what was impending. She cajoled Uncle into buying +her and coaxed Quadratus into selling her. + +"'Take her,' Quadratus told him, 'at your own price. If you don't or if +somebody else don't free me from this vampire, I'll be fool enough to +manumit her and marry her as soon as she is free!' + +"Uncle brought her up here. + +"Did she wail at leaving Rome and mourn over seclusion in our hills? Not +she. + +"She made as big a fool of Uncle as she had of Quadratus. + +"He, with his ill health and his frequent illnesses, got as much +satisfaction out of Marcia as a blind man would get from a painting. But +he indulged her far beyond his means. He gave her the little west villa +for her home, and a small horde of servants. She wheedled him into freeing +her and then, from the day she was freed, set herself to marry and marry +well. She had every bachelor and widower hereabouts visiting her, dangling +about her, competing for her smiles, showering gifts on her, soliciting +her favor! + +"When they found, one by one, that the only road to her favors was by +matrimony, they sheered off in terror, one by one. + +"She nearly married Vedius Caspo, came almost as near with Satronius +Sabinus. + +"Then, when she saw no hope left of a senator, she almost landed Hirnio, +tried to marry Uncle, and tried to marry me." + +"And just missed all three," said Hirnio, fervently. "I am still equally +congratulating myself on my escape and wondering over it. I was sure +Andivius would marry her, sure of it until his last illness made it +impossible. And I feared for our Hedulio here. + +"The only man hereabouts whom she did not try to marry was Ducconius +Furfur. She had made eyes at his father, and Ducconius was precious afraid +she would be his stepmother. At first he railed at her. Then, just before +his father's death, it was manifest to everybody that he was yielding to +her fascinations, himself. Hardly was old Ducconius buried when young +Furfur lost his head completely and fell madly in love with Marcia. She +could have married him easily; in fact, he offered marriage, not only to +her in private, but before witnesses. She, for some reason, would not hear +of marrying him. In fact, Furfur, it seems, was the only bachelor +hereabouts whom she was unwilling to marry. She flouted him, derided him, +and finally forbade him her house and ordered him never to dare to +approach her. He kept away, sulky and morose and low-spirited. + +"After that episode she had a go at Muso, the only other bachelor among us +seven. + +"Finally she fastened on Marcus Martius, who is not quite as rich as Muso, +but yet comfortably well off. She married him day before yesterday." + +"Thanks be to Hercules," Tanno cried, "that I have never set eyes on the +jade. I'm for matrimony only with an heiress of my own class and only with +such an heiress as I personally fancy. No matrimony for me otherwise." + +With this the party broke up. We all went out on the terrace. My six +neighbors mounted and cantered off on their various roads home; Tanno, +Hirnio and I went in and to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ENCOUNTERS + + +Next morning I was wakened by a dash of cold water over me and sat up in +bed dripping and angry. Tanno was bending over me. + +"I had to souse you," he explained. "I've been shaking you and yelling at +you and you stayed as fast asleep as before I touched you. Get up and +let's start for Rome." + +We enjoyed a brief rubdown and after Entedius joined us each relished a +small cup of mulled wine and one of Ofatulena's delicious little hot, +crisp rolls. + +In the east courtyard we found our equipages and I descried my tenants +outside the gate, all horsed and each muffled in a close rain-cloak, +topped off by a big umbrella hat, its wide brim dripping all round its +edge, for the weather was atrocious; foggy mist blanketing all the world +under a gray sky from which descended a thin, chilly drizzle. + +Hirnio was inspecting Tanno's litter and chatting with Tanno about it. + +"Never saw one with poles like this," he said. "All I have seen had one +long pole on each side, a continuous bar of wood from end to end. What's +the idea of four poles, half poles you might call them, two on a side?" + +"You see," Tanno explained, "It is far harder to get sound, flawless, +perfect poles full length. Then, too, full-length spare poles are very +bothersome and inconvenient to carry. With a litter equipped in this +fashion one man can carry a spare pole, and they are much easier and +quicker to put in if a pole snaps." + +"I should think," Hirnio remarked, "that the half-poles would pull out of +the sockets." + +"Not a bit," said Tanno, "they clamp in at the end, this way. See? The +clamps fasten instantly and release at a touch, but hold tenaciously when +shut." + +Under the arcade my household had gathered to say farewell and wish me +good luck. I spoke briefly to each and thanked Ofatulena for her +distinguished cookery, both in respect to the credit her masterpieces had +done me at dinner and also for the taste of her rolls, which yet lingered +in mouth and memory. Tanno also expressed his admiration of her powers. + +Last I said farewell to my old nurse and foster mother Uturia, who, when I +was scarcely a year old, had closed the eyes of my dying mother, and not +much later of my father, and who had not merely suckled me, but had been +almost as my real mother to me in my childhood. + +She could not keep back her tears, as always at our partings; the more as +she had had dreams the night before and she took her dreams very +seriously. + +"Deary," she sobbed, "it has been revealed to me that you go into great +perils when you set out to-day. I saw danger all about you, danger from +men and danger from beasts. Beware of strangers, of narrow streets, of +walled gardens, of plots, of secret conferences. All these threaten you +especially." + +I kissed her as heartily as if she had been my own mother. + +"Don't worry, Uturia," I said, "as long as I live I'll take care of you +and if I die you shall be a free woman with a cottage and garden and three +slaves of your own." + +But she only sobbed harder, both as she clung to me and after I had +mounted. + +Tanno, of course, rolled into his litter and slid the panels against the +rain. His bearers were muffled up precisely like my tenants. So was +Tanno's intendant, so was Hirnio, so was I. The entire caravan was a mere +column of horses, cloaks and hats, not a man visible, all the faces hid +under the flapping hat-brims, no man recognizable. + +Hirnio and I led, next came Tanno in his litter, then his extra bearers, +next his intendant on horseback, then my nine tenants, each horsed and +leading a pack-mule, last the mounted servants, Tanno's, Hirnio's and +mine, similarly leading pack-mules, in all twenty-seven men afoot, sixteen +mounted and twelve led mules. + +As we strung out Tanno called to me: + +"Luck for us if we don't blunder into one of those ambushes we heard about +at dinner last night. With all this cavalcade everybody we meet cannot +fail to conjecture that so large a party can only be from either Villa +Vedia or Villa Satronia, such an escort misbefits anyone not of senatorial +rank. If we do blunder into an ambush either side will know we are not +their men and will assume we are of the other party. No one can recognize +anybody in this wet-weather rig. Any ambush will attack first and +investigate afterwards or not at all." + +Had I heeded his chance words I might, even then, have saved myself. But +while my ears heard him my wits were deaf. I called back: + +"There are no ambushes. Each side spreads such rumors to discredit the +other, but neither so much as thinks of ambush. If Xantha or Greia is +located, the clan concerned for her freedom will gather a rescue-party and +there may be fight over her, but there are no ambushes." + +At the foot of my road Hirnio and I turned to our left. Tanno from his +litter emitted a howl of protest. + +"Nothing," he yelled, "will induce me to traverse that road again. I told +you so. You promised to take the other road. What do you mean?" + +"Don't worry, Opsitius," Hirnio reassured him. "We turned instinctively +according to habit. You shall have your way. It is not much farther by the +other road." + +"Anyhow," I added, "Martius is not in sight. He was to have been here +before us. If we went this way we should have to wait for him. If we go +the other we shall most likely meet him at the fork of the road." + +We turned to our right towards Villa Vedia and Vediamnum. About half way +to the entrance to Villa Vedia, at the top of the hill between the two +bridges, the rain for a brief interval fairly cascaded from the sky. +During this temporary downpour, as we splashed along, we saw loom out of +the rain, fog and mist the outline of what might have been an equestrian +statue, but which, as we drew up to it, we found a horse and rider, +stationary and motionless to the south of the road, on a tiny knoll, +facing the road and so close to it that I might have put out my right hand +and touched the horse's nose as we passed. + +Like everyone in our convoy the rider was enveloped in a rain-cloak and +his head and face hidden under a wide-brimmed umbrella hat. He saluted as +I came abreast of him, but his salutation was merely a perfunctory wave of +a hand, an all-but-imperceptible nod and an inarticulate grunt. + +I barely caught a glimpse of his face, but I made sure he was no one I had +ever seen before and equally sure that he was not a Sabine. + +When we reached the entrance of Villa Vedia, which was also the crossroad +down which Marcus Martius and his bride must come, there was no sign of a +travelling carriage, nor any fresh ruts in the road. + +We halted and peered into the mist. Nothing was in sight on the road, but +there was a stir in the bushes by the roadside. Out of them appeared a +bare head, with a shock of tousled, matted, rain-soaked gray hair, a +hatchet face, brow like a bare skull, bleared eyes, far apart and deepset +on either side of a sharp hooked nose like the beak of a bird of prey, +high cheekbones under the thin, dry, tight-drawn skin above the sunken +cheeks, a wide, thin-lipped mouth and a chin like a ship's prow. The rain +trickled down the face. + +Up it rose, till there was visible under it a lean stringy neck, a +tattered garment, and the outline of a gaunt, emaciated body, that of a +tall, spare, half-starved old woman. + +I recognized the Aemilian Sibyl, as all the countryside called her, an old +crone who had, since before the memory of our oldest patriarchs, lived in +a cave in the woods on the Aemilian Estate, supported by the gifts doled +out to her by the kindness, respect or fear of the slaves and peasantry +living nearest her abode, for she had a local reputation for magical +powers in the way of spells to cure or curse, charms for wealth or health, +love philtres, fortune-telling, prophecy and good advice on all subjects +likely to cause uncertainty of mind in farm-life. + +She towered out of the dripping shrubberies and pointed a long skinny +finger at me. + +"I know you under your cloak and hat, Hedulio," she wheezed. "Well for you +if younger folk than I had such, eyes in their heads as I have in my +spirit. I know you, Andivius Hedulio. You turn your face towards Reate, +but you shall never see Reate this day. You might as well take the road to +Rome and be done with it, for to Rome you shall go, whether you will or +not. Whether you will or not, whatever road your feet take, you will find +it leads you to Rome, whatever ship you take, no matter to what port she +steers, will land you at Rome's Wharf. They say all roads lead to Rome. +For you, in truth, every road leads to Rome, whether you face towards Rome +or away from Rome. + +"Be warned! Yield to your fate! If you would have luck, go to Rome, abide +in Rome; and if you must leave Rome, return to Rome. + +"And hearken to my words, let them sink deep into your mind, remember them +and heed them; beware of a man with a hooked nose, beware of secret +conferences, beware of plots, walled gardens, beware of narrow streets, +for these will be your undoing." + +Agathemer had edged his horse along the roadside the length of our +cavalcade and had joined me. He dismounted, strode to the hag and held out +his hand to her, some silver pieces on its palm, saying: + +"My master thanks you for your warning and offers you these as a guerdon." + +"Greek!" she screamed. "I warn not for guerdons, but at the behest of the +God of Prophecy. Begone with your silver! Silver I scorn and gold and all +the treasures of mankind's folly and all the joys of mankind's life. I am +the Sibyl!" + +And she tramped off through the crackling underbrush till the trees hid +her and the noise of her going died away, till she was so far off that we +heard the rain drops drip from the boughs and the horses fret at their +bits. + +So at a standstill, as we stared expectantly up the crossroad, we saw come +into sight, not a travelling carriage, but a horseman, looming huge out of +the fog, a vast bulk of a man on a big black horse like a farm work-horse. + +He drew rein and saluted civilly, tilting up his hat. His face was ruddy, +his eyes blue, his expression that of a mountaineer from a village or +small town. + +"I have lost my way," he said. "My name is Murmex Lucro. I come from +Nersae and am bound for Rome. I was told of a short cut that should have +brought me out on the Salarian Road near Trebula. But I must have taken a +wrong turn, for I was wholly at a loss at dusk yesterday and so camped in +the woods by a spring. I have not met a human being since daylight. Where +am I and how can I reach the Via Salaria?" + +"You are not far from it," Hirnio told him. "We are bound for Rome and if +you join us you can reach Via Salaria with us by the road on which we are +going. Should you prefer to follow the road along which we have come, +which is rough, but less roundabout, you can, by taking every turn to the +right, reach the Via Salaria some miles nearer Rome than where our road +will bring us out on it." + +"I'll join your cavalcade, if you have no objection," the stranger said. + +Hirnio and I expressed our entire willingness to have his company. + +Hirnio asked him: + +"Are you in any way related to Murmex Frugi?" + +"He was my father," Murmex replied, simply. + +"Was!" Hirnio repeated. "The word strikes ominously on my ear. Someone +from this neighborhood, I forget who, was in Nersae since the roads became +fit for travelling this spring and returned from there, or perhaps some +wayfarer from Nersae stopped with someone hereabouts. At any rate we heard +he had seen Murmex Frugi still hale and sound, even at his advanced age." + +"My father," said Murmex, "was still hale and sound on the Kalends of May +and for a day or two thereafter. He fell ill with a cough and fever, and +died after only two nights' illness, on the Nones of May, barely more than +a month ago." + +"He lived to a green old age," said Hirnio, "and must have enjoyed every +moment of his life." + +"He seemed to," said Murmex. + +"And I conjecture," I put in, "that he was proud of his son." + +"He seemed so," Murmex admitted, "but he was never a tenth as proud of me +as I of him." + +"It is an honor," I said, "to be the son of the greatest gladiator of our +fathers' days, of the man esteemed the best swordsman Italy ever saw live +out his term of service and live to retire on his savings." + +"It is," Murmex said, as simply as before. + +Here we were interrupted by a yell from Tanno, as he leaned out of his +litter. + +"Are we going to take root here," he bawled, "like Phaethon's sisters? We +were supposed to be journeying to Rome. We appear to be bound for Hades; +we shall certainly reach it if we continue sinking into your Sabine mud!" + +"Martius agreed to wait for me, if I was late," I shouted back to him. "I +agreed to wait for him; I keep my word. If you choose, we'll get out of +your way and let you pass on. We can catch up with you." + +"Bah!" he roared. "No going it alone on a Sabine road for me! I'm tied to +you hand and foot. But this waiting in the rain is no fun! Did you notice +that man on horseback we passed on the road?" + +"I did," I called back. + +"Do you know who he is?" + +"Never set eyes on him before," I replied. + +"Do you know what he is?" + +"No," I answered, "I do not. What is he, according to your conjecture?" + +"I'm not depending on any conjectures," Tanno bellowed, "I know to a +certainty." + +"Then tell us," I called. + +"Not here!" cried Tanno. "I'll tell you later." + +He pulled his head inside his litter. + +We again stared up the crossroad. Nothing was in sight. + +"It seems to me," Hirnio again addressed Murmex, "that not only your +father was a Nersian, but also Pacideianus and that I have heard that he +also was living in retirement at Nersae." + +"He is yet," rejoined Murmex, laconically. + +"Then you know him?" Hirnio queried. + +"My mother," said Murmex, "is his sister." + +"Your uncle!" cried Hirnio, "son to one of the two greatest retired +gladiators in Italy, nephew to the other! Living in the same town with +them! Did either of them ever teach you anything of sword play?" + +"Both of them," said Murmex, "taught me everything they knew of sword +play, from the day I could hold a toy lath sword." + +"Hercules!" I cried, "and what did they say of your proficiency?" + +"My father with his last breath," said Murmex solemnly, "and my uncle +Pacideianus as he bade me farewell, told me that I am the best swordsman +alive." + +"Why have you never," I asked, "tried your luck in the arena?" + +"My father forbade me," Murmex explained. "He bade me wait. He trowed a +grown man was worth ten growing lads, and he said so and stuck to that. On +his death-bed he told me I was almost seasoned. After we buried him I felt +I could abide Nersae no longer. Uncle agreed with me that I had best +follow my instincts. I fare to Rome to seek my fortune as a swordsman on +the sand in the amphitheatres." + +"You have fallen into good company," I said, "for I can bring you at once +to the Emperor's notice." + +"I should be most grateful," said Murmex. + +At that instant we heard an halloo from the road and saw a horseman appear +out of the mist, then a travelling carriage behind him. It was Martius. +When he was near enough I could see his grave, handsome, mediocre face far +back in the carriage, and beside it Marcia's; small, delicate, shell-pink, +her intense blue eyes bright even in that blurred gloomy daylight, shining +close together over her little aquiline nose. + +We conferred and he agreed to fall in behind Tanno's extra bearers, +between them and my farmers, Tanno's intendant getting in front of the +litter where he normally belonged. + +We got properly into line as arranged and plodded on down the road. + +Just outside of Vediamnum was, as Tanno had related, the village idiot, +guarding his flock of goats. He mowed and gibbered at us and then spoke +some intelligible words, as he occasionally did. + +"I know you, Hedulio," he called. "You can't hide yourself under that hat +nor inside that raincloak. I know you, Hedulio. But nobody but an idiot +would ever recognize you inside that rig and with all this escort. I know +you, you aren't Vedius Vindex, you aren't Satronius Sabinus. You're +Andivius Hedulio. I know you. But nobody else will guess who you are. +Nobody else around here is an idiot!" + +Again, as with Tanno's utterance when we were leaving my villa, the words +fell on my ears but did not penetrate to my thinking consciousness. Had I +noted what I heard, had I thought instantaneously of what the idiot's +words really signified, I might even then have saved myself. + +We plodded on, a long cavalcade of horsemen and bevy of men afoot, +convoying a shut litter and a closed travelling carriage. + +Round the turn of the road, after passing the idiot and his goats, with +the brawling stream of the Bran Brook, now swollen to a respectable little +river, on our left, with the wooded hills rising on our right, we entered +the long, narrow winding single street of Vediamnum, a paved lane along +the close-crowded tall stone houses built against the hillside on the +northeast, with the stream along it to the southwest, and houses wedged +between the street and the stream, brokenly, for about half of its length, +with open intervals between. + +As we entered the village I saw ahead on the street not a human form, saw +no face at any door of any house. I wondered over this, wondered +uncomprehendingly. I had never seen the street of Vediamnum. wholly +deserted, not even in rains much harder than that which descended on us. +Still wondering, still uncomprehending, when we were far enough into the +village for the travelling carriage to be already between the first +houses, I saw fall across the roadway, in front of me, two stout trunks of +trimmed trees, straight like pine trees; I heard the crash as they jarred +on the stones of the stream-side wall, I saw them quiver as they settled; +breast high and shoulder high from house-wall to house-wall, effectually +blocking the highway. + +At the same instant there sounded a chorus of yells, shouts, calls, cheers +and commands; and men poured out of the house doors, out of the alleys +between the houses, up the river bank in the unbuilt intervals; men +hatless and cloakless, clad only in their tunics, men with clubs, with +staffs, with staves, with bludgeons, with cudgels, men yelling: + +"Greia! Greia! Rescue Greia! Club 'em! Brain 'em! Chase 'em! Vedius +forever! At 'em boys! Mustard's the word! Make 'em run! Rescue Posis!" + +They clubbed us. They clubbed the horses, they clubbed the mules, they +clubbed the bearers and their reliefs. They gave us no time to explain, +and though I yelled out who I was and who was with me, though Hirnio and +Tanno and Martius yelled similarly, their explanations were unheard in the +hubbub or unheeded. Also our effort to explain was brief. Swathed as we +were in our cloaks the hot gush of rage that flamed up in us drove us +instinctively to free our arms and fight. + +Now anyone might suppose that it would be an easy matter for some eighteen +horsemen to ride down and scatter a mob of varlets afoot. So it would be +in the open, when the riders were aware of the attack and ready to meet +it. We were taken wholly by surprise whereas our assailants were ready and +agreed. For a moment it looked like a rout for us, our horses and mules +rearing and kicking, our whole caravan in confusion, jammed together +higgledy-piggledy, with all our attackers headed for the carriage, +mistaking Marcia for Greia. + +Marcia never screamed, never moved, sat still and silent, apparently calm +and placid. + +They all but dragged her out of the carriage. + +In fact we should indubitably have been frightfully mauled and Marcia +carried off had it not been for Murmex and Tanno. + +At first onset Tanno had yelled explanations; but almost with his first +yell he rolled out of his litter, snatched a spare pole from a relief, and +with it laid about him; Murmex did the like. The two of them, one on the +right of the litter and carriage, the other on the left, bore the whole +shock of our attackers' first rush and alone delayed it. + +Somehow, probably by Tanno's orders, perhaps by their own instincts, the +reliefs with the other poles handed them to Hirnio and me as we +dismounted. Three of the clever blacks caught our horses and Murmex's. +Others detached the poles from the litter and the four biggest bearers +seized them and used them vigorously. + +Thus, actually quicker than it takes to tell of it, eight powerful, +skillful and justly incensed men on our side were plying litter poles +against the cudgels of our attackers. + +I was severely bruised before I warmed up to my work; when I did warm up I +laid a man flat with every blow of the pole I wielded. + +When my adversaries had had a sufficient taste of my skill to cause them +to draw away from me, as far as they could in that press of men, horses +and mules, and I had cleared a space around me, I looked about. + +Agathemer, light built as he was, had wrenched a bludgeon from some Vedian +and was wielding it not ineffectually. + +Hirnio was doing his part in the fighting like a gentleman and an expert. + +But Murmex and Tanno chiefly caught my eye. + +It was wonderful to see Tanno fight. Every swing of his pole cracked on a +skull. Men fell about him by twos and threes, one on the other. + +If Tanno was wonderful Murmex was marvellous. Never had I seen a man +handle a staff so rapidly and effectively. + +By this time my nine tenants were afoot, and uncloaked. Now a Sabine +farmer, afoot or horsed, is never without his trusty staff of yew or holly +or thorn. These the nine used to admiration, if less miraculously than +Tanno and Murmex. + +Since there were now a round dozen skilled fencers plying their staffs on +our side, and four huge and mighty Nubians doing their best (with no mean +skill of their own, either) to assist us, we soon were on the way to +victory. + +The remnant of our adversaries still on their feet fled; fled up the +alleys between the houses, into the houses, down the bank towards the +stream or into the stream, over the barricade of the twin logs. + +That barricade made it impossible for us to go on. The number of men laid +low, some of whom were reviving from their stunned condition and crawling +or staggering away from under the hoofs of the crazed horses and mules, +made it unthinkable that any explanation of the mistake which had led to +the fracas could be possible, or if possible, that explanation could +quench the fires of animosity which blazed in the breasts of all +concerned. + +With one accord, without any conference or the exchange of a word, our +party made haste to escape from Vediamnum before our assailants rallied +for a second onset. No horse or mule was hamstrung or lamed, no man had +been knocked senseless. All of us were more or less bruised and sore, some +were bleeding, two of my tenants had blood pouring from torn scalps, but +every man, horse and mule was fit to travel. + +We carried, lifted, dragged or rolled out of the way the disabled Vedians +in the roadbed, making sure that not one was killed, we somehow got the +travelling carriage turned round, no small feat in that narrow space; we +readjusted the litter-poles, Tanno climbed in, Hirnio and Murmex and I +mounted, Tanno's extra litter bearers led my farmers' horses and mules and +we set off on our retreat, my nine tenants, even with two of them half +scalped, forming a rearguard of entirely competent bludgeoners; certainly +they must have impressed the Vedians as adequate, for no face so much as +showed at a doorway until we were clear of the village and my tenants +remounted. Then came a few derisive yells after us as the mist cut off our +view of the nearest houses. + +We made haste, you may be sure. Outside of the village we passed the idiot +and his goats. He mowed and grinned at us, but uttered no word. We saw no +other human figure till we had passed the entrance to Villa Vedia and felt +safer. Nor did we pass anyone between that cross-road and the foot of my +road, save only the same immobile horseman on the same knoll, in the same +position, and, apparently, at precisely the same spot, as if he were +indeed an equestrian statue. His salutation was as curt as before. + +At the foot of my road we held a consultation. Hirnio advised returning to +my villa and demanding an apology from Vedius, even instituting legal +proceedings at Reate if he did not make an apology and enter a disclaimer. +But Tanno, Martius and all my tenants, even the two with cracked heads, +were for going on, and, of course, Murmex, who talked as if he had been a +member of our company from the first. + +"Hercules be good to me," Tanno cried, "to get out of this cursed +neighborhood I am willing even to face the horrors of the bit of road I +suffered on as I came up. Let us be off on our road to Rome." + +"With all my heart," I said. "But first tell me who or what is that +voiceless and moveless horseman we passed twice between here and the +crossroads. You said you knew." + +"I do know," Tanno grunted, "and I'm not fool enough to blurt it out on a +country road, either. Let's be off. Attention! Form ranks! Ready! Forward! +March!" + +Off we set, ordering our caravan as at first, except that Agathemer rode +by me, with Hirnio and Murmex in advance. + +We plodded down the muddy road, through the fine, continuous drizzle, +wrapped in our cloaks, all the world about us helmed in fog, mist and +rain, the trees looming blurred and gray-green in the wet air. + +Without meeting any wayfarers, with little talk among ourselves, we had +passed the entrance to Villa Satronia and were no great distance from the +Salarian Highway, when, where the road traversed a dense bit of woodland, +the trees of which met overhead, the underbrush on both sides of the road +suddenly rang with yells and was alive with excited men. + +It was almost the duplicate of our experience in Vediamnum, save that our +assailants were more numerous and shouted: + +"Xantha, Xantha, rescue Xantha!" + +"Satronius forever! Eat 'em alive, boys! Get Xantha! Get Xantha!" and such +like calls. + +This time we had an infinitesimally longer warning, as the bushes to right +and left of the road were further apart than had been the houses lining +the streets of Vediamnum; also we reacted more quickly to the yells, +having heard the like such a short time before. + +The fight was fully joined all along the line and was raging with no +advantage for either side, when I missed a parry and knew no more. + +Afterwards I was told that I fell stunned from a blow on the head and lay, +bleeding not only from a terrific scalp wound but also from a dozen other +abrasions, until the fight was over, our assailants routed and completely +put to flight, and Tanno with the rest of the pursuers returned to the +travelling carriage and litter to find Marcia, pink and pretty and placid, +seated as she had been when she left home, and me, weltering in a pool of +blood. + +A dozen Satronians lay stunned. Tanno reckoned two of them dead men. + +I was the only man seriously hurt on our side. + +Agathemer was for convoying me home. + +Tanno hooted at the idea, expatiating on the distance from Reate and the +improbability of such a town harboring a competent physician, on the +number of excellent surgeons in Rome, on the advisability of getting me +out of the locality afflicted with our Vedian-Satronian feud, and so on. + +He had me bandaged as best might be and composed in his litter. + +He took my horse. + +To me the journey to Rome was and is a complete blank. I was mostly +insensible, and, when I showed signs of consciousness, was delirious. I +recall nothing except a vague sense of endless pain, misery and horror. I +have no memory of anything that occurred on the road after I was hit on +the head, nor of the first night at Vicus Novus nor of the second at +Eretum. I first came to myself about the tenth hour of the third day, when +we were but a short distance from Rome and in full sight of it. The view +of Rome, from any eminence outside the city from which a view of it may be +had, has always seemed to me the most glorious spectacle upon which a +Roman may feast his eyes. As a boy my tutors had yielded to my +importunities and had escorted me to every one of those elevations near +the city famous as viewpoints. As a lad I had ridden out to each many +times, whenever the weather promised a fine view, to delight my soul with +the aspect of the great city citizenship in which was my dearest heritage. +To have been born a Roman was my chief pride; to gaze at Rome, to exult at +the beauty of Rome, was my keenest delight. + +More even than the acclaimed viewpoints, to which residents like me and +visitors from all the world flocked on fine afternoons, did I esteem those +places on the roads radiating from Rome where a traveller faring Romeward +caught his first sight of the city; or those points where, if one road had +several hill-crests in succession, one had the best view possible anywhere +along the road. + +Of the various roads entering Rome it always appeared to my judgment that +the Tiburtine Highway afforded the most charming views of the city. + +But, along the Salarian Highway, are several rises at the top of each of +which one sees a fascinating picture when looking towards Rome. Of these +my favorite was that from the crest of the ascent after one crosses the +Anio, just after passing Antemnae, near the third milestone. + +This view I love now as I have always loved it, as I loved it when a boy. +To halt on that crest of the road, of a fair, still, mild, brilliant +afternoon when the sun is already visibly declining and its rays fall +slanting and mellow; to view the great city bathed in the warm, even +light, its pinnacles, tower-roofs, domes, and roof-tiles flashing and +sparkling in the late sunshine, all of it radiant with the magical glow of +an Italian afternoon, to see Rome so vast, so grandiose, so majestic, so +winsome, so lovely; to know that one owns one's share in Rome, that one is +part of Rome; that, I conceive, confers the keenest joy of which the human +heart is capable. + +It so happened that Tanno had his litter opened, that I might get all the +air possible, and the curtains looped back tightly. Somehow, at the very +crest of that rise on the Salarian Road, on a perfect afternoon, about the +tenth hour, I came to myself. + +I was aching in every limb and joint, I was sore over every inch of my +surface, I was all one jelly of bruises, my head and my left shin hurt me +acutely. More than all that I was permeated by that nameless horror which +comes from weakness and a high fever. + +Now it would be impossible to convey, by any human words, the strangeness +of my sensations. My sufferings, my illness, my distress of mind enveloped +me and permeated me with a general misery in which I could not but loathe +life, the world and anything I saw, and I saw before me the most +magnificent, the most noble, the most inspiriting sight the world affords. + +At the instant of reviving I was overwhelmed by my sensations, by my +recollections of the two fights and of all they meant to me of misfortune +and disaster, and I was more than overwhelmed by the glory spread before +me. I went all hot and cold inside and all through me and lost +consciousness. + +After this lapse I was not conscious of anything until I began to be dimly +aware that I was in my own bed in my own bedroom, in my own house and +tended by my own personal servants. + +Strangely enough this second awakening was as different as possible from +my momentary revival near Antemnae. Then I had been appalled by the rush +of varying sensations, crowding memories, conflicting emotions and +daunting forebodings, each of which seemed as distinct, vivid and keen as +every other of the uncountable swarm of impressions: I had felt acutely +and cared extremely. Now every memory and sensation was blurred, no +thought of the future intruded, I accepted without internal questionings +whatever was done for me, and lay semi-conscious, incurious and +indifferent. Mostly I dozed half-conscious. I was almost in a stupor, at +peace with myself and all the world, wretched, yet acquiescing in my +wretchedness, not rebellious nor recalcitrant. + +This semi-stupor gradually wore off, my half-consciousness between long +sleeps growing less and less blurred, my faculties more alive, my +personality emerging. + +When I came entirely to myself I found Tanno seated by my bed. + +"You're all right now, Caius," he said, "I have kept away till Galen said +you were well enough for me to talk to you." + +"Galen?" I repeated, "have I been as ill as all that?" + +"Not ill," Tanno disclaimed, "merely bruised. You are certainly a portent +in a fight. I never saw you fight before, never saw you practice at really +serious fencing, never heard anybody speak of you as an expert, or as a +fighter. But I take oath I never saw a man handle a stave as you did. You +were quicker than lightning, you seemed in ten places at once, you were as +reckless as a Fury and as effectual as a thunderbolt. You laid men out by +twos and threes. But jammed as you were in a press of enemies you were hit +often and hard, so often and so hard that, after you were downed by a blow +on the head, you never came to until I had you where you are." + +"Yes I did," I protested, "I came to on the hilltop this side of +Antemnae." + +"Not enough to tell any of us about it," he soothed me. "Anyhow, you are +mending now and will soon be yourself." + +I was indifferent. My mind was not yet half awake. + +"Did I fight as well as you say?" I asked, "or are you flattering me?" + +"No flattery, my boy," he said. "You are a portent." + +Then he told me of the result of the fight with the Satronians, of their +complete discomfiture and rout, of how he had brought me to Rome, seen me +properly attended and looked after my tenants. + +"They are having the best time," he said, "they ever had in all their +lives." + +And he told me where he had them lodged and which sights of Rome they had +seen from day to day. + +"Just as soon as I had seen to you and them," he said, "I called on dear +old Nemestronia and told her of your condition. She is full of solicitude +for you and will overwhelm you with dainties as soon as you are well +enough to relish any." + +He did not mention Vedia and I was still too dazed, too numb, too weak, +too acquiescent to ask after her, or even to think of asking after her or +to notice that he had not mentioned her. + +"While I was talking to Nemestronia," Tanno said, "I took care to warn her +about that cursed leopard. She would not agree to cage it, at least not +permanently. She did agree to cage it at night and said she would not let +it have the run of her palace even by day, as it has since she first got +it, but would keep it shut up in the shrubbery garden, as she calls it, +where they usually feed it and where you and I have seen it crawl up on +its victims and pounce on them." + +I could not be interested in leopards, or Nemestronia or even in Vedia, if +he had mentioned Vedia. I fell into a half doze. Just on the point of +going fast asleep I half roused, queerly enough. + +"Caius!" I asked, "do you remember that man on horseback we passed in the +rain between my road entrance and Vediamnum?" + +"You can wager your estate I remember him!" Tanno replied. + +"What sort of man was he?" I queried, struggling with my tendency to +sleep. "You said you knew." + +"I do know," Tanno asserted, "I cannot identify him, though I have +questioned those who should know and who are safe. I should know his name, +but I cannot recall it or place him. But I know his occupation. He is a +professional informer in the employ of the palace secret service, an +Imperial spy. + +"Now what in the name of Mercury was he doing in the rain, on a Sabine +roadside? I cannot conjecture." + +This should have roused me staring wide awake. + +But I was too exhausted to take any normal interest in anything. + +"I can't conjecture either," I drawled thickly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A RATHER BAD DAY + + +Next morning, strangely enough, I wakened at my normal, habitual time for +wakening when in town, and wakened feeling weak indeed and still sore in +places, but entirely myself in general and filled with a sort of sham +energy and spurious vigor. + +By me, when I woke, was Occo, my soft-voiced, noiseless-footed, deft- +handed personal attendant. At my bidding he summoned Agathemer. When I +told him that I proposed to get up, dress and go out as I usually did when +in Rome, in fact that I intended to follow the conventional and +fashionable daily routine to which I had been habituated, he protested +vigorously. He said that both Celsianus and Galen, the two most acclaimed +physicians in Rome, who had been called in in consultation by my own +physician, but also he himself, had enjoined most emphatically that I must +remain abed for some days yet, must keep indoors for many days more, if I +was to continue on the road to recovery on which their ministrations had +set me, and that all three had bidden him tell me that any transgression +of their instructions would expose me to the probability of a relapse far +more serious than my initial illness and to a far longer period of +inactivity. + +I was determined and obstinate. When he added that I must not only remain +quiet, but must not talk for any length of time nor concern myself with +any news or any matters likely to excite me, I revolted. I commanded him +to obey me and to be silent as to the physicians' orders. + +I began by asking him what day it was. I then learned that I had been ill +fifteen days since reaching Rome, for I had left my villa on the eighth +day before the Ides of June and it was now the ninth day before the +Kalends of July. + +Next I asked after my tenants. Agathemer said that they had most dutifully +presented themselves each morning to salute me and attend my reception, if +I should be well enough to hold one; to ask after my progress towards +recovery if I was not; that Ligo Atrior, as recognized leader among them, +had also come each evening between bath-time and dinner-time to ask +personally after my condition; that, as all the physicians had, the day +before, stated that I must by no means be allowed to see anyone save Tanno +or to leave my bedroom, for some days, he had told Ligo the evening before +not to diminish his and his fellows' time for sight-seeing by coming on +this particular morning; that Ligo had expressed his unalterable intention +of coming each evening in any case. + +I commended Agathemer's discretion but told him to tell Ligo, when he came +in the afternoon, that I intended to hold a reception next morning and +wanted to see all nine of them at it. + +I then asked about Murmex. Agathemer said that Tanno had offered to bring +him to the Emperor's notice, but that Murmex had declined, thanking him, +but remarking that, as I had offered to bring him to the Emperor's notice, +it would be bad manners on his part to appear under the countenance of any +other patron and would moreover be inviting bad luck instead of good luck +on his presentation. + +Agathemer said Murmex had called twice to ask after me and had told him +where he lodged. I instructed him to apprise Murmex of my intention to +hold a morning reception. I knew Agathemer would send out notifications to +all my city clients of long standing without any admonition of mine. + +He told me that no message of any kind had come from Vedia nor from Vedius +Vedianus, the head of her clan, nor from Satronius Satro. I could not +conjecture just why Vedia had remained silent, and I was not only worried +over the fact of her silence and aloofness, but felt myself wearied, even +after a very short time, by the uncontrollable turmoil of my mind, +puzzling as to why she had ignored me. + +As to Vedius and Satronius, I was vividly aware of their state of mind and +acutely wretched over it. + +Only nineteen days before I had seen my _triclinium_ walled and floored +with flowers presented by the local leader of one clan; had seen my dinner +table groan under the fruit sent me by the local leader of the other clan, +had known that both clans were competing for my favor and that I was high +in the good graces of each. + +Now I felt that all men of both clans must be bitterly incensed with me, +for I knew their clan-pride. No man of either clan would weigh the facts: +that neither fight had been of my seeking; that both fights had been +forced on me; that I could not by any exercise of ingenuity have avoided +either, once the onset began; that each had been the result of the +headlong impetuosity and self-deception of my assailants, that both were +the outcome of conditions which I could not be expected to recognize as +dangerous beforehand, of a mistake not of my causing, for which I was in +no way to blame. I knew that every man of both clans, and most of all the +head of each clan, would consider nothing except that I had participated +in a roadside brawl in which men of their clan had been roughly handled, +some of them by me personally, and from which their men had fled in +confusion, routed partly by my participation. + +I saw myself embroiled with both clans, conjectured that the two fights +were the staple of the clan gossip on both sides, and that animosity +against me was increasing from day to day. I felt impelled to state my +case to both Vedius and Satronius, but I knew that even if I had been in +the best of health, even if I should be eloquent beyond my best previous +effort, there was little or no chance that anything I might say would +avail to placate either magnate or to abate either's hostility toward me. +And I knew that, in my dazed condition, the chances were that I would +bungle the simplest mental task. + +Yet I formed the purpose of attempting, that very morning, to see both +Satronius and Vedius, and of attempting, if I was admitted to either, to +convince him that he had no reason to be incensed with me, but that he +should rather be incensed against my assailants: an aim impossible of +attainment, as I knew, but would not admit to myself. + +As I was to have no reception that morning I lay abed a while longer, at +Agathemer's earnest solicitation. + +Little good it did me. In my mind, behind my shut eyelids, I rehearsed the +unfortunate occurrences on the road, I groped back to their causes. + +I could see that Tanno's jesting replies to the Satronians he had met on +the road had given them the idea that Xantha was being conveyed, in a shut +litter, to Villa Vedia: similarly his quizzical words to the Vedians he +had met had given them a similar notion that Greia was being smuggled +behind slid panels and drawn curtains, to Villa Satronia. + +The men of each side had spread their conjecture among their clansmen. +Each side had made the forecast that the abductors would try to carry off +their prize to Rome: each had calculated that the other side would try to +fool them, that they would not travel the obvious road, but try to escape +by boldly following the route least to be expected. So the Vedians +inferred that the Satronians, instead of taking their direct road to the +Salarian Highway, would expect an ambush along it and would try to sneak +through Vediamnum. Therefore they were in ambush at Vediamnum. Similarly +and for similar reasons the Satronians were in ambush below their road +entrance, calculating that the Vedians would pass that way. + +I had blundered on both ambushes in succession. + +I lay, eyes closed, raging at my lack of foresight and at my hideous bad +luck. + +When Agathemer knew that I could not be kept longer abed he brought me a +cup of delicious hot mulled wine and a roll almost as well-flavored as +Ofatulena's, for my town cook was fit for a senator's kitchen. I lay still +a while longer. + +When I stood up I felt dizzy and faint, but I was resolved and stubborn. +Besides, I craved fresh air and thought that an airing would revive me. In +fact, once out of doors and in my litter, with all Uncle's sliding panels +open, I felt very much better. I told my bearers to take me to the Vedian +mansion. + +There the doorkeeper, indeed, stared, and the footmen nudged each other, +but I was received civilly and was shown into the atrium, which I found +crowded with the clan clients and with gentlemen like myself. + +The atrium of the Vedian mansion had kept, by family tradition, a sort of +affectation of old-fashioned plainness. It was indeed lined with expensive +marbles, but it was far soberer in coloring, far simpler in every detail, +than most atriums of similar houses. Instead of striving for an effect of +opulent gorgeousness by every device of material, color and decoration, +the heads of the Vedian family had expressed, in their atrium, their cult +of primitive simplicity. Compared with others of the houses of senators +their atrium appeared bare and bleak. + +His guests gazed at me curiously as I advanced to greet our host. + +Vedius, the smallest man in the throng, stood blinking at me with his red +eyelids, his bald head shining from its top to the thin fringe of reddish +hair above his big flaring ears, his small wizened face all screwed up +into a knot, his thin lips pursed, his little ferret eyes, close-set +against his mean, miserly nose, peering at me under their blinking red +lids. + +His expression was malign and sneering, his tone sarcastic, but his mere +words were not discourteous. + +"I am delighted to see you, Andivius," he said, "and very much amazed to +see you here. + +"I have been told that on the eighth day before the Ides, you entered +Vediamnum early of a rainy morning, with an escort so numerous that none +could have conjectured that the cavalcade was yours; that, when three or +four of the inhabitants of the village accosted you civilly and asked who +you were and where you were going, your men, without any reply, fell on +them and beat them unmercifully; that, when the population of Vediamnum +rushed to the assistance of their fellows, your convoy set upon them and +started a pitched battle, mishandling them so frightfully that the street +was strewn with stunned and bleeding villagers; that you not only +participated in the affray, but fomented it and led it; that the two men +who have since died, fell under blows from your own quarter-staff. + +"Now, the fact that I see you here leads me to conjecture that, after the +occurrences which I have rehearsed, you would not have presented yourself +before me and come to salute me, had you not had some version of these +events other than that uniformly reported to me. If you have any version +differing from those which I have heard, speak; we listen." + +I had begun to feel dizzy and faint just as soon as I was indoors, I +seemed dazed and as if my faculties were numb; at his ironical mock- +courtesy I felt myself hot and cold all over. Yet I essayed to state my +side of the case. + +I explained all the circumstances, narrated Tanno's unexpected arrival, +his quizzical bantering of the persons whom he encountered on the road, my +tenants' petition, my agreement with Marcus Martins, the accretion of +Hirnio and Murmex to our party, Tanno's insistence on reaching the +Salarian Highway through Vediamnum, and all the other trivial factors +which had conspired to my undoing; I described the affray in Vediamnum, +both as I had seen it and as Tanno and Agathemer had told me of it; +similarly the fight below Villa Satronia. I thought I was lucid and +convincing. + +When I paused Vedius leered at me. + +"Andivius," he said, "I am not such a fool as you take me for. I am not in +any way deceived by all that rigmarole. I see through you and your words +as I saw through your actions. I comprehend perfectly that you connived +with the Satronians to entice my people into a roadside brawl to discredit +our clan. I understand how ingeniously you made all your arrangements, +even to concocting a sham fight with the Satronians to enable you to put +forward the excuses you have offered. + +"Your plans miscarried at only two points: you did not mean to leave any +corpses, yet you caused the deaths of two of my retainers; you did not +mean to suffer anything yourself, yet in your sham fight you were +accidentally hit on the head. + +"Blows on the head often unsettle the intellect. I take that into +consideration in dealing with you. If you go home now and recover from +your injury your mind will clear. Then you will have wit enough to decide +how soon and how often it will be advisable for you to return here!" + +His labored sarcasm was entirely intelligible. I bade him farewell as +ceremoniously as I could manage. + +He silkily said: + +"I have a bit of parting advice for you, Andivius. The climate of Bruttium +is far better than that of Rome or Sabinum in promoting a recovery from +any sort of illness; it is also far more conducive to long life. If you +are wise Rome will not see you linger here, nor will either Sabinum or +Rome see you return; a word to the wise is enough." + +Somehow I reached my litter. I understood his implied threat and saw +endless difficulties and perils confronting me. + +At the Satronian mansion the lackeys were insolent and it needed all +Agathemer's tact and self-control, and all mine to browbeat them into +admitting me. + +As much as possible in contrast with the Vedian atrium was the Satronian +atrium, a hall decorated as gorgeously, floridly and opulently as any in +Rome; fairly walled with statues almost jostling in their niches, so +closely were the niches set; and all behind, between and above them ablaze +with crimson and glittering with gilding; every inch of walls and ceiling +carved, colored, gilded and glowing. + +Satronius was similarly in contrast with Vedius, a man tall, bulky, +swarthy, rubicund and overbearing. + +No finesse about Satronius, not a trace. + +From amid his bevy of sycophants and toadies, over the heads of his +fashionably garbed guests, he towered, his face red as a beacon, his big +bullet head wagging, his great mouth open. + +He roared at me: + +"What brings you here, with your hands red with the blood of three of my +henchmen? No Greek can outdo you in effrontery, Andivius. You are the +shame of our nobility. To force your way into my morning reception after +having killed three of my men in an unprovoked assault on them on the open +road on my own land!" + +I kept my temper and somehow kept my head clear, though it buzzed, and I +kept my feet though I seemed to myself to reel. I spoke up for myself +boldly and, I thought, expounded the circumstances and my version of the +brawls even better than I had to Vedius. + +To my amazement Satronius, in more brutal language, all but duplicated +what Vedius had said to me, only reversing the clan names. He was +convinced that I had assaulted his men by prearrangement with the Vedians, +after a mock fight with them at Vediamnum. + +I saw I was accomplishing nothing and endeavored to escape after a formal +farewell. + +Satronius roared after me: + +"You left three corpses on the roadway below my villa. I'll not forget +them nor will any man of my name. If you have sense you'll keep away from +Sabinum, you'll get out of Rome, you'll hide yourself far away. My men +have long memories and keen eyes. There'll be another corpse found +somewhere by and by and the score paid off." + +I laughed mirthlessly to myself as I climbed into my litter. I had, in +fact, embroiled myself hopelessly with both sides of the feud. + +Then my men carried me to the Palace. + +The enormousness and magnificence of the great public throne-room had +always overwhelmed me with a sense of my own insignificance. On that +morning, chagrined at my reception by Vedius and Satronius, weak, ill and +tottering on my feet, needing all my will power to stand steadily and not +reel, with my head buzzing and my ears humming, feeling large and light +and queer, I was abased and crushed by the vastness and hugeness of the +room and by the uncountable crowd which thronged it. + +Necessarily I was kept standing a long time in the press, and, in my +weakened condition, I found my toga more than usually a burden, which is +saying a great deal. + +I suppose the toga was a natural enough garment for our ancestors, who +practically wore nothing else, as their tunics were short and light. But +since we have adopted and even developed foreign fashions in attire, we +are sufficiently clad without any toga at all. To have to conceal one's +becoming clothes under a toga, on all state and official occasions, is +irritating to any well-dressed man even in the coldest weather, when the +weight of the toga is unnoticed, since its warmth is grateful. + +But to have to stew in a toga in July, when the lightest clothing is none +too light, is a positive affliction, even out of doors on a breezy day. +Indoors, in still and muggy weather, when one is jammed in a throng for an +hour or two, a toga becomes an instrument of torture. Yet togas we must +wear at all public functions, and though we rage at the infliction and +wonder at the queerness of the fate which has, by mere force of +traditional fashion, condemned us to such unconscionable sufferings, yet +no one can devise any means of breaking with our hereditary social +conventions in attire. Therefore we continue to suffer though we rail. + +If a toga is a misery to a strong, well man, conceive of the agonies I +suffered in my weakened state, when I needed rest and fresh air, and had +to stand, supporting that load of garments, the sweat soaking my inner +tunic, fainting from exhaustion and heat. + +I somewhat revived when Tanno edged his way through the crowd and stood by +me. We talked of my health, he rebuking me for my rashness in coming out +so soon, I protesting that I was plenty well enough and feeling better for +my outing. + +There we stood an hour or more, very uncomfortable, Tanno making +conversation to keep me cheerful. + +I needed his companionship and the atmosphere he diffused. For in addition +to my illness and the circumstances I have described, I suffered from the +proximity of Talponius Pulto, my only enemy among my acquaintances in the +City. I had seen him once already that morning, in the Vedian atrium, +where he had stood beside Vedius Vedianus, towering over his diminutive +host, for he was a very tall man. Now, in the Imperial Audience Hall, he +was almost a full head taller than any man in the press about him, so that +I could not but be aware of his satirical gaze. + +He was a singularly handsome man, surpassed by few among our nobility, and +I had remarked how he dwarfed Vedius, how he made him appear stunted and +contemptible. He had a head well shaped and well set, curly brown hair, +fine and abundant, a high forehead, wide-set dark blue eyes, a chiseled +nose, a perfect mouth and a fine, rounded chin. His neck was the envy of +half our most beautiful women. His carriage was noble and he always looked +a very distinguished man. + +I could never divine why he hated me, but hate me he had from our earliest +encounters. He derided me, maligned me and had often thwarted me from, +apparently, mere spitefulness. + +As I knew his evil gaze on me I now, in my weakened condition, somehow +felt unable to bear it. + +Yet I was somewhat buoyed up, as I stood there, by a recurrence of +thoughts which I had often had before under similar circumstances. Most +men of my rank seemed to take their wealth and position as matters of +course. I never could. I have, all my life, at times meditated on my good +fortune in being a Roman and a Roman of equestrian rank. While waiting in +the great Audience Hall of the Palace, especially, the emotions aroused by +these meditations often became so poignant as almost to overcome me, on +this day in particular. As I viewed the splendor of the Hall and the +gorgeousness of the crowd that thronged it, my heart swelled at the +thought of being part of all that magnificence. It thrilled me to feel +that I had a share and had a right to a share in Rome's glory. + +The Emperor was busy with a succession of embassies, delegations and so +on, and, as far as I could see, was in a good humor and trying to appear +affable and not to seem bored. + +After the deputations were disposed of the senators passed before the +throne and saluted the Prince. Commodus barely spoke to most of them; it +seemed to me, indeed, that he said more to Vedius and Satronius than to +any other senators. + +Then came the turn of us knights, far more numerous than the senators. The +ushers positively hurried us along. + +To me, to my amazement, the Emperor spoke very kindly. + +"I am delighted to see you here today, Hedulio." he said. + +"And I am sorry that I have no time for what I want to ask you and say to +you. + +"I have heard of your illness and I know how it originated. Galen told me +you ought to keep your bed for days yet. Are you sure you are well enough +to be out?" + +"I think it is doing me good, your Majesty," I replied. "Your words are, I +know." + +"If you feel too ill to come here tomorrow," he said, "I'll hold you +excused, but in that case send a message early. I want you here tomorrow, +specially, come if you can. + +"Meanwhile, tell me, has coming here to-day tired you? Can you stay +longer?" + +"I certainly can," I replied, elated at his notice. + +"Then stay here till this tiresome ceremonial is over," he said, "and +accompany me to the Palace Stadium. I have some yokes of chariot horses to +look over and try out, and some new chariots to try. I want you there. I +may need your advice." + +Flattered, I felt strength course through my veins and fatigue vanish. I +passed completely round the lower part of the room and, with Tanno, took +my stand near the southeastern door, by which he would pass out if on his +way to the Stadium. + +Few senators passed through that door with the party of which I was one, +the invitations being based on horsemanship and good fellowship, not on +wealth, social prominence or political importance. + +In the Stadium, of course, it was not only possible but natural to sit +down and Tanno and I took our seats in the shade and as far back as our +rank permitted. + +I was amazed to find how much I needed to sit down, what a relief it was, +and to realize how near I had been to fainting. In the breezy shade I soon +revived and felt my strength come back. + +From my comfortable seat I watched one of those exhibitions of miraculous +horsemanship of which only Commodus was capable. + +The Palace Stadium, of course, is a very large and impressive structure +and its arena of no mean extent. But compared, not merely with the Circus +Maximus, but with the Flaminian Circus or Domitian's Stadium it seemed +small and contracted. + +In this comparatively cramped space Commodus, divested of his official +robes and clad only in a charioteer's tunic, belt and boots, performed +some amazing feats of horsemastery. + +The pace to which he could speed up a four-horse team on that short +straight-away, his ability to postpone slowing them down for the turn, and +yet to pull them in handily and in time, the deftness and precision of his +short turns, the promptness with which he compelled them to gather speed +after the turn, these were astonishing, enough; but far more astonishing +were his grace of pose, his perfect form in every motion, the ease of all +his manoeuvres, the sense of his effortless control of his vehicle, of +reserve strength greatly in excess of the strength he exerted; these were +nothing short of dazzling. His pride in his artistry, for it amounted to +that, and his enjoyment of every detail of what he did and of the sport in +general, was infectious and delightful. I felt my love of horses growing +in me with my admiration for so perfect a horseman, felt the like in all +the spectators. + +Team after team and chariot after chariot he tried out. + +Meanwhile Tanno and I, seated comfortably side by side, varied our +watching of Commodus and our praises of his driving with talk of my +embroilment with both sides of the feud, with rehearsing to each other the +unseen missteps which had led me into such a hideous predicament, and with +discussions of what might be done to set me right with both clans. Also he +described again to me what had occurred on the road after I was knocked +senseless and rehearsed his version of both fights, I commenting and +telling him what I recalled. + +"What occupies my thoughts most," he said, "is that statuesque horseback +informer planted by the roadside in the rain. What in the name of Mercury +was he doing in your Sabine fog so early on a wet day?" + +I was unable to make any conjecture. + +For some time Commodus was almost uninterruptedly on the arena, making his +changes from team to team, with scarcely an instant's interval. When he +lingered under the arcade at the starting end of the Stadium Tanno +remarked: + +"We had best join the gathering. Do you feel sufficiently rested?" + +I stood up and, for the first time that day, did so without any dizziness, +lightheadedness or weakness in my knees. I felt almost myself. + +Under the arcade we found Commodus explaining the merits of a new chariot +made after his own design. It was a beautiful specimen of the vehicle- +maker's art, its pole tipped with a bronze lion's head exquisitely chased, +the pole itself of ash, the axle and wheel-spokes of cornel-wood, all the +woodwork gilded, the hubs and tires of wrought bronze, also gilded, the +front of the chariot-body of hammered bronze, embossed with figures +depicting two of the Labors of Hercules; every part profusely decorated +and the whole effect very tasteful. + +Commodus ignored all these beauties entirely and discoursed of its +measurements. + +"Come close, Hedulio," he commanded, "this is just what I wanted you for." + +The jockeys, athletes, acrobats and mimes about him made way for Tanno and +me and some other gentlemen. + +"I have always had very definite theories of chariot construction," +Commodus went on. "I hold that the popular makes are all bad; in fact I am +positively of the opinion that the tendencies in chariot building have +been all in the wrong direction for centuries. They have followed and +intensified the traditions from ancient days, when chariots were chiefly +used for battle and only once in a while for racing. + +"For battle purposes chariots, of course, were built for speed and quick +turning, but after that, to avoid upsets. When a man was going to drive a +pair of half-wild stallions across trackless country, over gullies and +boulders, through bushes, up and down hill, often along a gravelly +hillside, he saw to it that his chariot would keep right side up no matter +how it bounced and tilted and swerved. He made sure that his axle was +long, his wheels far apart, and their spokes short, so that his chariot- +bed was as low as possible. He was right. + +"But, after fighting from chariots was wholly a thing of the past in Italy +and chariots were used, as they are used, for racing only, why cling to +provisions for obsolete uses? + +"A good general thinks of winning victories, not, like the fools I have +disgracing me along the Rhine, of avoiding defeats. So a good charioteer +ought to think, not of avoiding upsets, but of winning races. Yet all +charioteers appear to want their vehicles as low built as possible, with +short spoked wheels, wide apart on the ends of a long axle. That makes +them feel safer on a short turn, and, so help me Hercules, I hardly blame +them, anyhow. Besides, they all want to spraddle their legs apart and set +their feet wide, so as to stand firm on the chariot bed, so they want the +chariot body made as wide as possible. + +"Now I don't need to plant my feet far apart when I drive. I believe I +could drive on one foot and keep my balance. So I hold a broad chariot +body is worse than unnecessary. More than that I maintain that the lower +the axle is set, the less the team's strength goes into attaining speed. +The lower the axle is set, the more sharply the pole slopes upward from +the axle to the yoke-ring; the less of the team's energy goes into pulling +the chariot along, the more of it is wasted, so to speak, on lifting the +chariot into the air at every leap forward. The higher the axle is set, +the nearer the pole is to being level, the less power is wasted on that +upward pull and the more is utilized on the forward pull and goes to +produce speed. + +"Then again, I maintain that the farther apart the wheels are set the more +one drags against the other, not only at the turns, where anyone can see +the outer wheel drag on the inner, but at every swerve of the team on the +straightaway. All such dragging reduces speed and tires the team with +pulling which is energy utterly wasted. + +"I hold the ideal racing chariot should have a chariot body as narrow as +possible, not much wider than the width of the driver's hips; should have +the wheels as close together as possible, to diminish the drag of one +wheel against the other, should have the axle set as high as can be +managed. + +"All charioteers exclaim that such a chariot tends to overset. So it does. +But I never have had an overset and I never expect to overset. I know how +to drive and poise myself so as to keep my chariot right side up, and I +never think of oversetting, I think of winning my race, and always do. + +"Anyhow, here before your eyes, is my new racing chariot and of all the +chariots ever made on earth this has the longest wheel-spokes, the +highest-set axle, the closest-set wheels and the narrowest chariot body. +Now I'm going to try it out and show it off." + +He did to admiration, amid excited acclaims, his four cream-colored mares +fairly flying along the straights and taking the turns at a pace which +made us hold our breath. + +After this thrilling exhibition he came back under the arcade and spoke to +me first. + +"Hedulio," he said, "you are one of the most competent horsemasters I ever +knew. What do you think of my idea of the best form for a racing chariot?" + +"I think," I said, "that it has all the merits you claim for it, but that +not one charioteer in ten thousand could drive in it and avoid an upset, +sooner or later, at a turn." + +"Right you are!" he replied, "but I am one charioteer in ten thousand." + +"Say in a hundred thousand," I ventured to add. "For surely you could not +find, among all the professionals in the Empire, any other man to equal +you in team-driving." + +He beamed at me. + +When we left the Palace Tanno saw me in my litter and insisted on +following behind mine in his until he had seen me out of mine and into my +own house. + +There I had a very brief and very light lunch, Agathemer hovering over me +and reminding me of Galen's orders for my diet, so that I found myself +forbidden every viand which I craved and asked for, and limited to the +very simple fare which had been prepared for me. + +After lunch I went to bed and to sleep. + +I woke soon and very wide awake. When I rolled into bed I had felt so +utterly done up with the excitement of my interviews with Vedius and +Satronius, with the exertion of standing in the Throne-room and through +the Emperor's lecture on chariot design, that I had renounced my intention +of calling on Vedia and had resigned myself to postponing my attempt to +see her until the morrow. + +I woke all feverish energy and restless determination to go to see her at +once. Therefore, between the siesta hour and the hour of the bath, I +presented myself at Vedia's mansion. + +I was at once ushered into her atrium, where I found myself alone and +where I sat waiting some time. + +When a maid summoned me into her _tablinum_, I found her alone, seated in +her favorite lounging chair, charmingly attired and, I thought, more +lovely than I had ever seen her. + +"Oh, Caia!" I cried. + +She bridled and stared at me haughtily. + +"'Vedia,'" if you please, she said coldly. "You have no manner of right to +'Caia' me, Andivius." + +The distant formality of her address, her disdainful tone, the affront of +her words, chilled me like a dash of cold water. + +"Caia!" I stammered, "Vedia, I mean. What has happened? What is wrong?" +For I could not credit that she would be incensed with me because of my +involvement in the affray in Vediamnum nor that she would condemn me +unheard, especially as Tanno had told me, in the Stadium of the Palace, +that he had taken care to call on Vedia, and give her his version of my +mishap. + +She glowered at me. + +"Your effrontery," she burst out, "amazes me. I am incredulous that I +really see you in my home, that you really have the shamelessness to force +yourself into my presence! It is an unforgivable affront that you should +pretend love for me and aspire to be my husband and all the while be +philandering after a freedwoman; but that you should parade yourself on +the high road with her all the way from your villa to Rome, with the hussy +enthroned in your own travelling carriage, is far worse. That you should +get involved in roadside brawls with competitors for the possession of the +minx is worse yet. Worst of all that you should advertise by all these +doings, to all our world, your infatuation for such a creature and your +greater interest in her than in me. I am indignant that I have considered +marrying a suitor capable of such vileness, of such fatuity, of such +folly." + +I was like a sailboat taken all aback by a sudden change of wind. I could +not believe my ears. + +"I never took the slightest interest in Marcia," I protested, "except to +keep my uncle from marrying her, after he set her free. She made eyes at +me also, of course, for she made eyes at every marriageable man within +reach. But I never had anything to do with her, never called on her by +myself, never so much as talked to her alone. I went to her dinners, of +course. All widowers and bachelors of our district went to her dinners. +But her dinners were the pattern of propriety in every way. Your own +grandmother's famous dinners were not more decorous. Except for being a +guest, with others, at her dinners, I never was at her villa. I lent my +carriage not to her but to her bridegroom, Marcus Martius, a prosperous +gentleman of my neighborhood, of whom you have often heard me speak, a +friend of my uncle's and a friend of mine since boyhood. The fights, as +Tanno explained to you, had nothing to do with Marcia and her involvement +in them was as accidental as mine." + +Vedia did not look a particle mollified. + +"You men," she said, "are all alike. You will philander about your nasty +jades. But, at least, when you vow that you love one woman and one only, +and use every artifice to induce her to marry you, you should feel it +incumbent on you to keep away from such creatures as this Marcia of yours. +But you must needs dangle about her and go to her dinners. That was bad +enough. But, while wooing me, to arrange a mock marriage for her with a +local confederate and then positively bring her to Rome with you was +infinitely worse. I am insulted, of course. But, above and beyond your +treachery to me, I am insulted at your bungling your clumsy intrigues and +flaunting the minx in the face of all the world and setting all +fashionable Rome to gossiping about you and your hussy and to wondering +how I am going to act about it. + +"I'll show them and you how I am going to act! I'm angry at your double- +dealing; at your lies I am furious. I hate you. I hope I'll never set eyes +on you again. The sooner you are gone, the better I'll like it. And I'll +give orders to ensure your never darkening my doors again!" + +I tried to argue with her, to persuade her, to convince her, to induce her +to listen to me. + +She raged at me. + +Dazed, I groped my way to my litter and, once in it, lost consciousness +entirely, not in a faint, but in the sleep of total exhaustion. + +As I rolled into my litter, feeling utterly unfit to enjoy a bath with any +natural associates, I had ordered my bearers to take me home. + +There I rested a while, for I waked before I reached home. Then I bathed, +ate a simple dinner, alone with Agathemer, and went at once to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A RATHER GOOD DAY + + +I slept soundly all night but woke at the first appearance of light. I lay +abed, my mind milling over my situation, over Vedia's unexpected jealousy +of Marcia, over the absurdity of it, over her illogical but impregnable +indignation and over the equally baseless but similarly unalterable +hostility of Vedius and Satronius. + +I concluded to try again to placate all three. It seemed to me I could +recall many omissions and infelicities in what I had said to both +magnates, while in dealing with Vedia I seemed to myself to have been +tongue-tied and fragmentary. + +After the bit of bread and hot mulled wine which I did not crave, but +which Agathemer insisted on my taking according to Galen's orders, I held +a brief morning reception. My nine farmer-tenants were all present, all +pathetically and touchingly glad to see me again about, even old Chryseros +Philargyrus. + +They had a petition to prefer, namely, that I should give them permission +to leave Rome and return home, jointly and severally, just as soon as they +pleased. Ligo Atrior acted as spokesman and said that they had come +provided for a month's stay, as I had ordered, but they felt that they +could see all the sights of Rome which would interest them before the +month was out, and some sooner than others. Moreover they felt that +although they had left their farms in the best of condition and in +faithful hands, yet their desire to return home would soon overcome their +interest in sight-seeing and would grow more overmastering daily. + +I readily accorded what they asked. + +Murmex Lucro was there, and his appearance of superhuman strength +impressed me even more than on the road, I bade him meet me at the Palace, +and instructed him by which entrance to approach it and at what portal and +precisely where to take his stand in order that I might not miss him. +Agathemer suggested that I detail one of my slaves to act as his guide and +I did so. + +My salutants disposed of without hurry and to the last man, in spite of +Agathemer's protests, I ordered my litter. + +At the Vedian mansion I was refused admission. Agathemer and even I argued +and expostulated, but the doorkeeper said he had explicit orders not to +admit me, and the four big Nubians flanking the vestibule, two on a side, +looked capable of using muscular force on any would-be intruder and +appeared eager for a pretext for hurling themselves on me. + +I climbed back into my litter. + +As my men shouldered it, the doorkeeper or some one of his helpers made +the mistake of unchaining the watch-dog at me. + +He was a big, short-haired, black and white Aquitanian dog. He flew at the +calves of my bearers, snarling, and would have bitten them badly had I not +half rolled, half fallen from my litter, almost into his jaws; in fact, +not a foot in front of him. + +As all such animals always do with me, he checked, cowered, fawned and +then exhibited every symptom of recognition, delight and affection. I +patted him, pulled his ears, smoothed his spine and climbed back into my +litter. The dog took his place under it as naturally as if I had raised +him from a puppy and kept neatly underneath it, all the way to the +Satronian Mansion. + +There, at sight of me, as I descended from my litter, the doorkeeper +loosed his big fawn-colored Molossian hound at me. And he came in silence, +but his lips wrinkled off his teeth, swift as a lion and looking in fact +as big as a yearling lioness and not unlike one in outline and color. + +The Aquitanian from under the litter flew at him with a snarl, the +Molossian replied with a louder snarl, the two dogs clinched and tore each +other, snarling, and hung to each other, worrying and growling and +snarling, to the delight of my bearers. + +Out of the Satronian mansion poured a small mob of footmen, lackeys and +such house-slaves. But not one dared approach the two dogs. At a safe +distance they watched the fight. + +I seized the dogs, spoke to them, quieted them, separated them and when I +ordered them, they lay down side by side under the litter. + +I climbed in. + +As my bearers shouldered the litter, the Satronian doorkeeper came forward +and said truculently: + +"That is our dog under your litter." + +"Is he your dog?" I retorted. "Prove it! Take hold of him." + +The doorkeeper tried and the Molossian snarled at him. He called the +footmen to help him. + +At that somehow, I both lost my temper and felt prankish. + +"Chase 'em, Terror," I called. "Chase 'em, Fury!" + +It was a wonder to see the Aquitanian obey, to see the Molossian obey was +a portent. + +Into the mansion scuttled the doorkeeper, the footmen, the lackeys, the +hangers-on, the two dogs barking at their heels. + +I called them off in time to forestall any lacerated ankles, and still +more marvellously they obeyed instantly, checked, withdrew to under the +litter and there paced, side by side, to Vedia's home. + +There, also, I was denied admission, but urbanely, the porter asserting +that his mistress was not at home. + +While I was questioning the porter, who was becomingly respectful, a bevy +of Vedian retainers, house-lackeys and other slaves, overtook me, +demanding the return of the Aquitanian watchdog. + +"Take him!" I said, "take him if you can!" + +The boldest of them approached the dog, calling him by name and +wheedlingly. When he was but a yard or so away the dog flew at his throat +and almost set his fangs into it, for they snapped together a mere hand's +breadth short. + +The fellow recoiled and, when the dog followed like an arrow from a bow, +took to his heels, his companions with him, and they ran helter-skelter +down the street, the dog pursuing them to the corner of the Carinae, and +returning, his tongue hanging out, his tail wagging, with all the +demonstrations of a dog who feels he has done his full duty and has earned +approbation. + +Hardly had he returned when a band of Satronians appeared and a similar +scene was enacted, with the Molossian as chief actor. + +When the last Satronian had vanished round the corner of the thoroughfare +I reentered my litter and we set off for the Palace, both dogs sedately +pacing side by side underneath. + +At the Palace portal Agathemer had no difficulty in locating Murmex, even +in the crowd which packed all approaches to that entrance. I spoke to the +centurion on duty at the portal and to the head out-door usher, meaning to +arrange that Murmex should be let in among the first when the commonality +were admitted after the senators and knights had paid their duty to the +Emperor. To my amazement the head usher looked at a list or memorandum +which he had in his hand and said: + +"You are Andivius Hedulio, are you not? You are to take in with you +anybody you please, to the number of ten. Caesar has given special orders +about you." Murmex therefore passed in with me and took up a position in +the lower part of the Audience Hall, where I could send a page to summon +him if my plans worked out as I hoped. + +We were early and the vast public throne-room almost empty. Tanno joined +me after I had stood but a short time and not long afterwards the Emperor +entered, just as a fair crowd of senators had assembled. + +The formal salutation began at once and I noticed that the Emperor said +something personal to Vedius and that Vedius stepped out of the line of +salutants and took up a position behind the Emperor on his left. Similarly +he spoke to Satronius, who similarly took his station behind the Emperor +on his right. + +When, in the long line of my equals, in an Audience Hall now jammed to the +doors, I drew near to the throne, I felt a growing embarrassment at seeing +the Emperor flanked by my two enemies. But, when I made my salutation, to +my amazement, the Emperor took my hand and leaned over and kissed me as if +I had been a senator. + +"I love you, Hedulio," he said, "and I am proud of you. I have heard very +laudatory reports of you. My agents all agree in reporting that you have, +in very difficult circumstances, done your utmost to avoid giving offence +to any of your neighbors in Sabinum, and that, if you have given offense, +it was not your fault. They also agree in reporting that, mild and +peaceful as you are by disposition, you know how to defend yourself when +attacked, that you are not only a bold and resolute man in a tight place, +but resourceful and prompt, a hard and quick hitter, and what is more, a +past master at quarter-staff play. I love brave men and good fighters. I +commend you." + +He turned ironically to Vedius and asked: + +"Did you miss any part of what I have just said to Andivius? I meant you +to hear every word of it." + +Vedius, his mean face lead-gray, bowed and said: + +"Your Majesty was completely audible." + +Then Commodus similarly questioned Satronius. He, his big face brick-red, +his eyes popping out, seemed half strangled by his efforts to speak. + +"I could hear it all," he managed to say. + +"You two stand facing me," Commodus commanded. "Stand on either side of +Andivius." + +They so placed themselves with a very bad grace. + +The Emperor raised his voice. + +"Come near, all you senators," he commanded. "I want all of you to hear +what I am about to say and to be witnesses to it." + +Everybody, senators, knights and commoners crowded as close to the throne +as etiquette and the ushers would allow. + +"Now listen to me," spoke Commodus. "You know I hate all sorts of official +business and should greatly prefer to put my entire time and energies on +athletics, horsemanship and swordsmanship, archery and other things really +worth while. I make no secret of my love for the activities at which I am +best and of my detestation of my duties. + +"But, just because I hate my duties, it does not follow that I neglect +them. A lot of you think I do. I'll show you you are not always right, nor +often right. Just because I surround myself with wrestlers and charioteers +and gladiators and other good fellows, not with senile self-styled +philosophers, prosy and with unkempt beards and rough cloaks, as my father +did, half of you think I am incapable of being serious, or haven't +intellect enough to understand government or sense enough to care for the +Empire. + +"You are mightily mistaken. I realize the importance of my +responsibilities and the magnificence of my opportunities. I hate routine, +but I know well the value of our Empire and that I, as Prince of the +Republic, [Footnote: See Note A.] have a bigger stake in it than any other +citizen of our Republic. I am not wholly absorbed in the joys of +practicing feats of strength and skill. I put more time on governing than +you think. + +"I am autocrat of our world, and I know how to make my influence felt when +I choose. I have very positive views about fighting. Fighting has to go +on, on the frontiers of the Empire. My army can keep off our foes, but it +cannot kill off the Moorish and Arab and Scythian nomads, nor the hordes +of the German forests and the Caledonian moors. The Marcomanni and the +rest will claw at us. There must be fighting on the frontiers. It is +proper that there should be fighting where necessary, on any frontier, and +corpses scattered about. + +"Also corpses are in place on any arena of any amphitheatre anywhere +inside our frontiers; fighting inside amphitheatres is proper and seemly. + +"But I will tolerate no fighting inside our frontiers outside the +amphitheatres. I'll not condone any corpses on the pavement of any street +or on the road of any highway or byways. I'll not permit any battles, set- +tos, affrays or brawls in towns or villages or on roads. You hear me? You +hear me, Vedius? You hear me, Satronius? You hear me, all of you? + +"Now it so happened that I had heard of your disgraceful Sabine feud, +which mars the peace of a whole countryside near Reate, and I had sent a +competent and reliable agent with four assistants to investigate and +report. For once luck was with me: generally my luck as a ruler is as bad +as it is good for me as an athlete. It so happened that my agents had just +completed their preliminary investigations and acquainted themselves with +general conditions when your idiotic feud broke loose in two abductions of +women, one by each side, that put my agents on their mettle. They kept +awake. They are no fools. My head man has a keen scent for incipient +trouble; he managed to have one of his helpers get among the ambushers in +Vediamnum and another among those on your byway, Satronius. Each of these +two severally heard all the talk of the ambushers with whom he mingled; so +I have had a faithful report of just what the Vedian ambush meant to do to +the Satronian convoy they lay in wait for and similarly of the other side. +Each was waiting for a sheep; both caught a wildcat. If the men in the +ambushes had had any eyes or any sense, no fight would have occurred. As +it was they got no more than they deserved. Hedulio was set on without +provocation and merely defended himself and his associates as any self- +respecting free man would. I have no fault to find with Hedulio. I take +you all to witness. + +"Now that disposes of what is past. As to the future I shall tolerate no +illegalities of any kind anywhere in the City, in Italy or in the Empire. +You'll see. Dr. Commodus will cure this epidemic of lawlessness which +afflicts the Republic. You'll see my agents run down, catch and bring to +punishment the ingenious rascals who have been amusing themselves by +masquerading as Imperial Messengers, scampering across the landscape for +the fun of the thing, eating lavish meals at my cost, running the legs off +my best horses, lodging luxuriously in the best bed at every inn they stop +at, showing forged papers, or showing none at all, using no other means +than effrontery and assurance. I'll have them stopped. I'll stop them. And +I'll quell, I'll squelch this outburst of banditry of which we have too +much. I'll see that my agents hunt down and capture and execute these +highwaymen who rob not only rich travellers, but government treasure- +convoys, who even rob Imperial Messengers. A pretty state of affairs when +my couriers are fair game alike for impostors and robbers. I'll make the +slyest and the boldest quail at the idea of interfering with one of my +despatch riders and I'll exterminate all highwaymen. I'll have no one +swaggering up and down Italy, now in Liguria, now in Apulia, mocking the +law and its guardians, looting as he pleases, uncatchable, untraceable, +hidden and helped by mountaineers and farm-laborers and farmers, even +welcomed secretly in villages and towns, acclaimed as King of the +Highwaymen, until songs are made on him and sung even in Rome. He'll soon +decorate a gibbet, impaled there and spiked there too. You'll see. And +still less will I tolerate lawlessness among men of property and position. +The past actions of you magnates I dislike. As to the future I may say +that my agents were at your morning reception yesterday, Vedius, and heard +and reported your covert threats to Hedulio: likewise two were at your +house, Satronius, and heard and reported your open threats. + +"Now I perfectly understand what you two implied. You threatened Andivius +with assassination, if he returned to his estates in Sabinum or if he so +much as remained in Rome. + +"Beware! Be warned! Take care! I am easy-going enough, but I am Caesar and +I'll brook no trenching on my personal prerogatives or my legal authority. +I have the tribunician power for life, I am commissioned thereby to forbid +anything in the Republic and to see to it that no magistrate or citizen +oversteps the limits of what is permitted him. By your threats to Hedulio +you practically arrogate to yourself the right to exile a Roman of +equestrian rank. Banishment is a governmental power and a prerogative of +Caesar. I'll have no magnates of such overweening behavior. I am jealous +of my prerogatives, more than jealous! + +"I know what you intend and what you can accomplish by your henchmen. I +comprehend that hundreds of stilettos are being sharpened, up there in the +Sabine Hills, and down here in the slums, for a chance at Hedulio. + +"Now I can do much by legal authority and more by personal prerogative. Be +quick. Pass the word swiftly to all your satellites, here and in Sabinum. +Let them all know that if Andivius Hedulio dies by poison or violence or +is injured by any weapon, you two at Rome and your brother at Villa Vedia +and your son, Satro, at Villa Satronia, will not see two more sunrises. I +know how to enforce my will, and well you know that. Your lives are in +pawn for his, let all your clansmen know in good time. + +"And more: if you dare, either of you, to move against Hedulio in any +court at Reate or elsewhere in Sabinum for his participation in the brawls +which you fomented and he fell into, I shall see to it that not your +influence dominates any trial, but evenhanded justice, jealously watched +over by my best legal advisers. You know what that means to you." + +The Emperor spoke with a sustained, white-hot fury and it was comical to +watch Satronius and Vedius, as I did by sidelong glances when the +Emperor's eyes were not on my face. + +When he stopped, both magnates bowed low and each in turn expressed his +loyal submissiveness. + +The Emperor dismissed them with a wave of his hand. To me he said: + +"That will keep you alive, Hedulio and, I trust, help you to get back into +good health. Horrible bore, these small-size local matters; worse, if +anything, even, than the maintenance of the Rhine frontier. I loathe all +this routine. But my agents serve me pretty well. Besides putting me in +touch, with all this feud idiocy they have incidentally informed me that +you brought to Rome with you a son of Murmex Frugi, also a nephew of +Pacideianus, and a pupil of both, who has come to Rome to try his luck at +their former profession. Did you bring him here today? I hoped you would." + +"I did," I answered, "and thanks to your orders, I was able to pass him in +with me. He is in this hall now." "Fine!" cried the Emperor, "and how +about your nine tenants, who stood by you so well in both fights. Did you +bring them too?" + +"I should never have so presumed," I stammered, amazed, "It would never +have entered my head to ask entry here for such simple rustics. I should +have anticipated your wrath had I so far forgot myself." + +"Rustics," said Commodus, smiling, even grinning, "who can fight as I am +told your tenants can fight are always to my mind. Bring them here +tomorrow, if you like. I'll see them in the Palaestra. I'm going there +today after this function is finished. Bring your swordsman there. You +know the door. I have given orders to admit you in my retinue." + +In the Palaestra Tanno cheerfully presented Murmex to some of his favorite +prize-fighters and he stood talking with them, they appraisingly conning +the son of Murmex Frugi. + +Tanno and I seated ourselves well back on the middle tier of the +spectators' benches and chatted until the Emperor should have returned +from his dressing-room and should seem at leisure to notice us. + +"You must not be too puffed up at your good luck of today," Tanno warned +me. + +"In fact, I advise you to be very wary and to comport yourself most +modestly. You know Commodus. It has too often happened that when he has +overwhelmed a courtier with favors, his very condescension seems to cause +a reaction in his feelings and he becomes insanely suspicious. Respond +promptly to all his suggestions, of course, but do not obtrude yourself on +his notice. In particular ask no favor of him for a long time to come." + +I thanked him for his advice and assured him that I most heartily agreed +with his ideas. + +Presently a page summoned me, and Tanno came, too. + +Commodus had rid himself of his official robes and was now clad only in an +athlete's tunic and soft-soled shoes. I presented Murmex and the Emperor +questioned him, as to his age, his upbringing, his father's years in +retirement at Nersae, as to Pacideianus and put questions about thrusts +and parries designed to test his knowledge of fence. + +Then he seated himself on his throne on the little dais by the fencing- +floor and had Murmex called to him, made him stand by him, and asked his +opinion of several pairs of fighters whom he had fence, one pair after the +other. + +Appearing pleased with the replies he elicited he bade Murmex go with one +of the pages, rub down and change into fencing rig. While Murmex was gone +he viewed more fencing by young aspirants matched against accredited +Palace-school trainers. + +When Murmex returned he had him matched with the best of these tiros. But, +almost at once, he called to the _lanista_: + +"Save that novice! Murmex will kill him, even with that lath sword, if you +don't separate them." + +He then had Murmex pitted against a succession of experts, each better +than his predecessor. Murmex acquitted himself so brilliantly that +Commodus cried: + +"I must try this man myself." + +He stood up and stepped down from the dais. Then he spent some time in +selecting a pair of cornel-wood fencing-swords of equal length and weight +and of similar balance, repeatedly hefting the sword he had chosen and +repeatedly asking Murmex whether he was satisfied with his sword, whether +it suited him; and similarly of the choice of shields. + +When they faced each other they made as pretty a spectacle as I had ever +seen: Murmex stocky, so burly that he did not look tall, square- +shouldered, deep-chested, vast of chest-girth, huge in every dimension and +yet neither heavy nor slow in his movements; Commodus tall, slender, +sinewy, lithe and graceful, quick in every movement and amazingly +handsome. + +They had made but a few passes when Commodus exclaimed: + +"You show your training: it is some fun to fence with you." + +After not many more thrusts and parries he called out: + +"Be on your guard! I'm going to attack in earnest." + +There followed a hot burst of sword-play and when both adversaries were +out of breath and stepped back and stood panting, Commodus praised Murmex +highly. + +"You have the best guard I have ever encountered," he said, "steady-eyed, +cautious, wary yet quick too, and always with the threat of attack in your +defense. You are a credit to your training." + +When they stepped forward again Commodus commanded: + +"Attack now, attack your fiercest and show your quality. I shall not be +angry if you land on me, I shall be pleased. Do your utmost!" + +After the second bout he said: + +"You are most dangerous in attack. At last I have found a man really worth +fencing with. You gave me all I could do to protect myself. You are a +pearl!" + +He looked round at the envious faces of more than two score seasoned +professionals and addressed the gathering at large. + +"We have here a man who is nephew of Pacideianus and son to Murmex Frugi, +trained since infancy by both. No wonder he is a marvel. I have never +faced a swordsman who gave me so much trouble to protect myself or who +held off my attacks so easily and completely. He is the only man alive, so +far as I know, really in my class as a fencer." + +As he was eyeing the assembly to note their manner of receiving this +proclamation his expression changed. + +"Egnatius!" he called sharply. "Come here!" + +Egnatius Capito came forward. Like Tanno and myself he was conspicuous +since he was in his toga, most of those present being athletes and clad +for practice. + +"I did not notice you among your fellow senators at my levee," said the +Emperor. + +"I was not there," Egnatius admitted. "I had a press of clients at my own +levee this morning and reached the Palace just in time to hear what you +had to say to Vedius and Satronius. I tried to catch your eye as you +passed out, but you did not notice me at all." + +"I had rather see you here than in the throne-room," Commodus said. "I am +told that you have let your tongue run entirely too wild in talking of me +lately. If I had not been also told that you had had too much wine I +should animadvert on your effrontery officially. As it is I prefer to +prove you wrong before these experts and gentlemen." + +"Of what have I been accused?" Capito queried, steadily. + +"There has been no accusation," Commodus disclaimed. "But I have been told +that, at more than one dinner, you have been fool enough to say that I am +only a sham swordsman, that I take a steel sword and face an adversary +whose sword has a blade of lead: that it is no wonder that no one scores +off me, and that I run up big scores in all my bouts." + +"If I ever said anything like that," spoke Capito boldly, "I was so drunk +that I have no recollection of having said it. And I am a sober man and a +light drinker. Also I have never harbored such thoughts unless too drunk +to know what I thought or said." + +"You are cold sober now, aren't you?" Commodus queried. + +"Entirely sober," Egnatius agreed. + +"And you are a fencer far above the average?" he pursued. + +"I have been told I have no mean skill," said Capito modestly. + +"Such being the case," said Commodus, "you and I shall fence. Go with the +attendants and change into fencing kit. You'll find all styles and sizes +of everything needed in the dressing-rooms. First pick out a pair of +cornel-wood swords, entirely to your mind." + +When Capito had selected a pair of swords which suited both him and the +Emperor, he went off to change. While he was gone Commodus had the armorer +drill a tiny hole near the point of one sword and insert in it one of +those thorn-like little steel points which are commonly used on the ends +of donkey-goads. + +When Capito returned he showed him the two swords. Capito looked up at him +questioningly and amazedly. + +"The idea is this," Commodus explained. "I mean to demonstrate my perfect +ability to defend myself, as well as my dangerousness in attack. You are +to use the sword with the goad point set in it; so that, if you succeed in +hitting me, you will tear a long slash in my hide; for I am going to fence +with you in my skin only, stark; mother-naked as I was born. I shall use +the unaltered sword and you will have on your fencing-tunic, so that if I +hit you, it won't hurt you nearly as much as a hit from you will hurt me. + +"If you draw blood from me, I'll pay you one hundred thousand sesterces: +if I fail to lay you out on the pavement, totally insensible, in three +bouts, I'll pay you two hundred thousand sesterces. You can pick any +_lanista_ here to judge the fight and tell us when to separate and rest." + +Capito, cool enough, indicated Murmex as referee. + +"He's not a _lanista_," Commodus objected. + +"He's Frugi's pupil," Capito maintained, "and therefore the best _lanista_ +here." + +"I agree," said Commodus, and he called: + +"Who's the physician on duty?" + +When the official came forward he said truculently: + +"Get your plasters ready and your revivers. You'll have to attend a man +flat on the pavement, insensible and with a bad scalp wound, before much +time has passed." + +And actually, though Capito fenced well, he was no match for Commodus. + +The bout was worth watching. The adversaries were just the same height and +differed little in weight. Capito seemed more compact and steady; Commodus +more lithe and agile. Capito was a handsome man and made a fine figure in +his scanty, leek-green fencing tunic. Commodus, always vain, of his good +looks, delighted in exhibiting himself totally nude, not only because he +loved to shock elderly noblemen imbued with old-fashioned ideas of +propriety, but also because he rightly thought himself one of the best +formed men alive. He was fond of being told that he was like Hercules but, +except in the paintings of Zeuxis, Hercules has always been depicted as +brawnier and more mature than Commodus was then or ever became, to his +last hour. To me he suggested Mercury, especially as he appears in the +paintings of Polygnotus, or Apollo, as Apelles depicted him. + +Besides the grace and good looks of the two, they fenced very well, Capito +correctly and with good judgment, Commodus with amazing dash and +originality. + +Capito, though bold, was wholly unable to touch Commodus, while Commodus +slashed him, even through his tunic, till his blood ran from a dozen +scratches. Before the second bout was well joined Capito was felled by a +blow on the head, which laid him flat and insensible, bleeding from a +terrible scalp wound. + +After Capito had been carried off by the attendants, the Emperor, wrapped +in an athlete's blanket, talked a while to Murmex and then went off to +bathe, for he bathed many times a day. + +Set free, I went out and was helped into my litter. The two dogs were +still by it, took their places under it as if they had belonged to me +since puppyhood and under it trotted as I returned home. Once home I ate +the lunch permitted me and had an hour's sound, dreamless sleep. + +I woke feeling so well that I sent for Agathemer, bade him have my litter +ready and told him I was going to the Baths of Titus. + +Inevitably Agathemer protested that I was not well enough; naturally I +insisted and, of course, I had my way. + +As with court levees, I have never been able to take as a matter of course +without wonder and admiration, the marvellous spectacle afforded by an +assemblage of our nobility and gentry gathered for their afternoon bath in +any of our splendid Thermae. Of these I hold the Baths of Titus not only +the most magnificent, which is conceded by everybody, but also I hold them +the most impressive mass of buildings in Rome, both outside and inside, +and surpassing in every respect every other great public building in the +city. Most connoisseurs appraise the Temple of Venus and Rome as our +capital's most splendid structure, but I could never bring myself to admit +it superior to or even equal to the Baths of Titus. To enter this +surpassing building, always congratulating myself on my right to enter the +baths and use them; to be one of the courtly throng of fashionable +notables resorting to them: I could never take these things as a matter of +course. + +Nor could I ever take as a matter of course the sight of the bulk of +Rome's nobility, gentlemen and ladies together, thronging the great pools +and halls or roaming about the corridors, passage-ways or galleries, all +totally nude. + +Social convention is an amazing factor in human life. One may say that +anything fashionable is accepted and that anything unfashionable is +banned. But that does not help one to explain to one's self the oddity of +some social conventions. + +Oddest of all our Roman social conventions is the contrast between the +insistence on complete concealment of the human figure everywhere else and +the universal acceptance of its display at the Thermae. + +At home, if receiving guests, on the streets, at a formal dinner, at +Palace levees, at the Circus games or in the Amphitheatre, a man must be +wrapped up in his toga. Any exposure of too much of the left arm, of +either ankle, is hooted at as bad form, is decried as indecent. + +So of our ladies, on dinner sofas, on their reclining chairs in their +reception rooms, in their homes, in their litters abroad, at the +Amphitheatre or at the Circus games, from neck to instep they are muffled +up. If one catches a glimpse of a beauty's ankle as she goes up a stair, +one is thrilled, one watches eagerly, one cranes to look. + +Yet one encounters the same beauty the same afternoon in a corridor of the +Baths of Titus, with nothing on but a net over her elaborate coiffure and +the bracelet with the key and number of the locker in which the attendant +has put away her clothing and valuables and one not only cannot stare at +her, one cannot look at her, not even if she accosts one and lingers for a +chat. + +I have pondered over this, the most singular of our social conventions, +and the most mandatory and inescapable; and the more I ponder the more +singular it seems. + +Yet it is real, it is a fact. One meets the wives of all one's friends, +the wives of all Rome's nobility, naked as they were born; they mingle +with the men in the swimming pools, in the ante-rooms, in the rest-rooms, +everywhere except in the shower-bath cabinets and the rubbing-down rooms; +one swims with them, lounges with them, joins groups of chatting gentlemen +and ladies, chats, goes off, and all the while one cannot, one simply +cannot stare at a nude woman, any more than any of the women ever stares +at any man. + +It is a social convention. But not the less amazing, although a fact. + +One not only cannot scrutinize a woman, one cannot scrutinize a group of +women, even at a distance, even all the way across a swimming pool. So, +hoping to encounter Vedia in the gathering, I yet could not look for her. + +I had met and talked with many of my acquaintances, notably Marcus Martius +and his bride Marcia. + +Marcia, rosy as the inside of a sea-shell, with her gold hair confined by +a net of gold wire, was a bewitching creature, if I had been able to let +my eyes dwell on her. + +She was as contained and slow spoken and soft-voiced as always, but she +was, for her, notably complimentary as to my share in the two fights; +thanked me warmly for defending her, declared that she would certainly +have been carried off, either as Xantha or Greia, or as a hostage for one +or the other, if I had not fought "like both the Dioscuri at once," as she +phrased it. + +Martius corroborated her opinion of my services to them and thanked me +warmly. + +Delayed by chats with friends and acquaintances, held up by distant +acquaintances and even by persons hardly known to me by sight, who +congratulated me on the Emperor's public championing of me against my +powerful Sabine neighbors, I felt my strength ebbing and sometimes saw a +gray blur between my eyes and what I looked at. + +I was, in fact, so weak that I nearly fainted when, unseen in the swarm of +bathers until he was close to me, I encountered Talponius Pulto, tall, +handsome, disdainful, sneering and malignant as usual. From his proximity +I escaped as unobtrusively as I could and as promptly. + +The cold douche and a swim in the cold pool had revived me. Also, in the +cold pool I had encountered Nemestronia, still personable enough at +eighty-odd to mingle daily with her social world, as nude as they, and +enjoy herself thoroughly. Yet, at her age, she knew she looked better when +under water, and spent most of her time in the pools. She and I did some +fancy swimming together, while she questioned me about my health. + +I did not spend any more time than I could help between the cold pool and +the tepid pool; no more at least than importunate acquaintances exacted of +me. + +In the tepid pool I felt, somehow, weaker and more relaxed than at any +time since I had gone out the previous morning. The effect of the +Emperor's favor, the effect of the cold plunge, were wearing off: mind and +body were losing tone. I swam languidly, alone, on my back and so swimming +found myself about one third of the way from the upper end of the pool and +about midway of its width. I was staring up at the panels of the vaulting, +relishing the beauty of the color scheme, the gold rosettes brilliant +against the deep blue of the soffits, set off by the red of the coffering. + +So swimming and staring my eyes roamed downward to the great round-headed +coved window above the gallery. The railing of the gallery had a sort of +wicket in it, by which bathers could emerge one by one on to the bracket- +like platform which overhung the pool at that end, for use as a take-off +for a high dive. + +Suddenly, on this diving-stand, poised for her dive, outlined against the +window behind her, I recognized Vedia; Vedia, my angered sweetheart, rosy +as Marcia, more lovely, and nude as Venus rising from the sea. + +Seeing her thus, and seeing her thus unexpectedly, woke in me a volcanic +outburst of conflicting emotions altogether too much for my weakened +condition. + +I fainted. + +When I came to I felt weak and queer and did not at first open my eyes. I +heard subdued voices all about me, as of an interested crowd; I felt all +wet, I felt the cold of a wet mosaic pavement under me, but my head and +shoulders were pillowed on a support wet indeed, as I was, but soft and +warm. + +I opened my eyes. + +I realized that my head was in Vedia's lap, for I saw above me her +dripping breasts and, higher, her anxious face looking down at mine. + +I fainted again. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE WATER-GARDEN + + +Just how long I was entirely unconscious I do not know. For after I began +to come to myself at intervals which grew shorter, for periods which grew +longer, I was too weak to move a muscle or to utter a syllable. I lay, +flaccid, in my big, deep, soft bed, very dimly aware of Occo or of +Agathemer hovering about me, generally recalled to consciousness by an +eggspoonful of hot spiced wine being forced through my slow-opening lips +and teeth. + +How many times I was sufficiently conscious to know that I was being fed, +but too ill for any thoughts whatever, I cannot conjecture. When I began +to have mental feelings the first was one of dazed confusion of mind, of +groping to recollect where I was and why and what had last happened to me. + +When I recalled my last waking experience I lay bathed in sleepy +contentment. I could think connectedly enough to reason out, or my +unthinking intuitions presented to me without my thinking, the conviction +that, if Vedia could recognize me in a big pool among scores of swimmers, +if her perceptions in regard to me were acute enough and quick enough for +her and her alone to notice that I had fainted in the water, if she cared +enough for me and was sufficiently indifferent to what society might say +of her, for her to rescue me and sit down on the pavement of the +_tepidarium_ and pillow my wet head on her wet thighs till I showed signs +of life, I need not worry about whether Vedia cared for me or not. I was +permeated with the conviction that, however difficult it might be to get +her to acknowledge it, however great or many might be the obstacles in the +way of my marrying her, Vedia loved me almost as consumedly as I loved +her. + +In this frame of mind I convalesced steadily, if slowly, incurious of the +flight of time, of news, of anything; content to get well whenever it +should please the gods and confident that happiness, even if long +deferred, was certain to follow my recovery. + +After I could talk to Occo and Agathemer and seemed to want to ask +questions, which both of them discouraged, one morning, on wakening for +the second time, after a minute allowance of nourishment and a refreshing +nap, I found Galen by my bedside. + +He looked me over and asked questions, as physicians invariably do, +concerning my bodily sensations. After he seemed satisfied he asked: + +"My son, were you ever ill before you were hit on the head in your recent +affrays?" + +"Never that I remember," I answered. + +"I judge so," he said. "If you had not been blessed with the very best +physique and constitution you would have died in your friend's litter on +the Salarian Highway. Thanks to your general strength and healthiness, and +thanks, to some extent, to my care and that of my colleagues, you are +alive and on the way to complete, permanent recovery and to long life with +good health. But you very nearly committed suicide when you went out and +about contrary to my orders. I say all this solemnly, for I want you to +remember it. If you disobey again, you will, most likely, be soon buried. +If you obey you have every chance of getting so well that you can safely +forget that you ever were ill. + +"But, until I tell you that you are well, do not forget that you are ill." + +"I shall remember," I said, "and I shall be scrupulously obedient." + +"Good !" he ejaculated. "I infer that you find life worth living." + +"Very well worth living," I rejoined devoutly. + +"Then listen to me," he said. "You must remain abed until I tell you to +get up; when you first get up, it must be for only an hour or so. You must +not attempt to go out until I give you permission. You must not risk +eating such meals as you are used to. You must take small amounts of +specified foods at stated intervals. Agathemer will see to all that, with +Occo to help him. Do you promise to acquiesce?" + +"I promise," I said. + +"Remember," he cautioned me, "that the number, variety and severity of the +blows rained on you in your two fights were so great that you were almost +beaten to death. You had no bones broken, but the injury to your muscles +and ligaments was sufficient to kill a man only ordinarily strong, while +the blows affecting your kidneys, liver and other internal organs were in +themselves, without the bruising of all your surface, enough to cause +death. I had you convalescing promptly and rapidly; you went out and +overstrained all your vitalities. Your recklessness almost ended you. You +were far nearer death in your relapse than at first, and that is saying a +great deal. If you obey me you will certainly recover. If you disobey you +will probably kill yourself." + +"I shall take all that to heart," I said. "I have promised to be docile: +I'll keep my word and obey my slaves as if every day were the Saturnalia." + +"Good!" he exclaimed. "You are getting better." + +He looked me over again and asked: + +"Is there anything you want?" + +"I want to see Tanno," I said. + +"You shall the day after tomorrow," he promised, "or perhaps tomorrow, if +I find you improving faster than I anticipate." + +Actually, after a brief visit from him the next day, Tanno was ushered +into my sick-room. + +My first question was about my tenants. Not one such tenant-farmer in a +million would ever have a chance of being personally presented to Caesar. +They had been awestruck when I told them of their amazing good fortune. +They had said almost nothing. But I knew that they were, all nine of them, +as nearly rapt into ecstasy as Sabine farmers could be at the prospect of +personally saluting Caesar in his Palace, in his Audience Hall on his +throne. I had been too inert to worry about anything, but I almost worried +at the thought of their disappointment, through my relapse. + +Tanno told me that he, knowing the Emperor's character pretty well, had +taken it upon himself to have them passed in with him as the Emperor had +ordered, and had himself asked permission to present them and had +presented them. The next day, he said, everyone of them had returned home. + +I heaved a deep sigh of relief: my tenants and my Sabine Estate were off +my mind; I might be entirely easy about all things in Sabinum. + +He then told me what a brilliant success Marcia was among the pleasure- +loving, novelty-loving, luxurious high-living set in our city society. + +"Since the enforcement of the old-fashioned laws relaxed and became a dead +letter and some were even repealed," he said, "not a few men of equestrian +rank have married freed-women and such occurrences no longer cause any +scandal or much remark. But the results are not generally productive of +any social success for the ill-assorted pair. + +"I have known a few freedwomen married to men of wealth, and equestrian +rank, who gained some vague approximation of social standing among the +wives of their husbands' friends. But Marcia is the first freedwoman I +ever knew or heard of to be treated, by everybody and at once, as if she +had been freeborn and since birth in her husband's class. Martius has not +brought this about, or aided much; he is a good enough fellow, but he has +no social qualities; for all the power he has of attracting friends he +might as well be an archaic statue. Marcia has done it all. She's a +wonder." + +Then he told me of Murmex: how he was already rated Rome's champion +swordsman; how the Palace Palaestra was jammed with notables eager to see +him fence, how magnates competed for invitations to such exhibitions, how +Murmex was overwhelmed with attentions of all kinds from all sorts of +people, had had a furnished apartment put at his disposal by one admirer, +a litter and bearers presented him by another, already saw his domicile +crowded with presents of statuary, paintings, furniture, flowers and all +possible gifts, how he was an immediate and brilliant success with all +classes, even the populace talking of him, crowding behind his litter, and +demanding him for the next public exhibition of gladiators. + +That such luck had befallen a man whom I had presented to Court augured +well for me, indubitably. + +After I had been out of bed an hour or more for several consecutive days +Galen said to me: + +"You are almost well enough to be about, but not quite. If you go back to +your habitual hours of sleep you will fret and fidget indoors, and you are +not yet sufficiently recovered to resume your normal life. You need fresh +air. I have considered what is best and what is possible. I have talked +with your friend Opsitius. Through him I have arranged for you to have +short outings in this manner. On fair days if you feel like going out you +may call for your litter. In it you must keep the panels closed and the +curtains drawn. Agathemer will give your bearers directions. Nemestronia +has offered you the use of her lower garden. You are to have it all to +yourself, whenever you want it, as long as my directions to Agathemer +permit you to remain in it; and you need not remain a moment unless you +enjoy being there." + +I understood without asking any questions. Nemestronia's palace was one of +the most desirable, magnificent and spacious abodes in Rome. Her father, +who had been accustomed to say that he was too great a man to have to live +in a fashionable neighborhood, that any neighborhood in which he settled +would thereby become fashionable, had bought a very generous plot of land +nearly on the crest of the Viminal Hill and had there built himself a +dwelling which was at once noted among the dozen finest private dwellings +in the Eternal City. In one respect it was preeminent. From its lofty +position it had, down the slope of the hill, a wide view over the city and +this view was unobstructed, for below his palace Nemestronius had had laid +out six separate gardens, two large and four small. Next the house the +ground fell away so sharply that he had been able to create a terraced +garden, the only private terraced garden in Rome, extending across the +entire rear of his palace and with three terraces, from the uppermost of +which the view was almost as good as from the upper windows of the +mansion. Below this, each extending along but half the length of the +terraces, was a grass-garden, where it was possible to play ball-games, it +being a mere expanse of sward shut in by high walls covered with flowering +vines; and a formal garden, in the fashionable style. Below the grass- +garden was one of similar size, all flower-beds, to supply roses, lilies, +violets and other staple blossoms for his banqueting-hall, below the +formal garden was one called the wild-garden or shrubbery-garden, like the +grass-garden in being covered with sward almost from wall to wall, but +unlike it, in that it had four shade trees, no two alike, and many +flowering shrubs of all kinds and sizes. Lastly below these two was the +water-garden, the same size as the terraced garden, taken up with +fountains and pools, and all gay in season, with the flowers which thrive +in or beside ponds and pools. It had also eight beautiful lotus trees. + +High walls, through which one might pass from one to the other only by +gates generally shut fast, separated and enclosed these gardens, for their +creator's intention was to enjoy the peculiar charm of each undistracted +by the contrasting charms of the others. From the upper gardens it was +possible to see, to some extent, into those lower down the hill; but, from +the lower, one could see nothing of those above. + +One side of the property was flanked by a street, a mere narrow, walled +lane on which no dwelling opened. Along this were posterns in the wall, +giving access to or exit from the terrace-garden, the formal-garden, the +wild-garden and the water-garden. + +I understood at once what I later heard from Agathemer. The water-garden +was to be mine for my airings. I was to leave my litter at its postern in +the unfrequented lane and reenter my litter there. + +There I went next day and revelled in the beauty of the garden, in the +sunshine, in the breeze and in the sensations of returning health and +strength which inundated me. There I went for some days in succession +similarly. + +On the eighth day before the Kalends of August Galen came to see me, not +early in the morning, but about the bath-hour of the afternoon. He seemed +well pleased with his inspection of me and with my answers to his +questions. + +"You are practically well," he said, "and much sooner than I anticipated. +I am tempted to tell you to return to your normal routine of meals, eating +what you please; and to give you permission to resume your usual social +activities But I think it better, in a case like yours, to wait a month +too long rather than to be a day too soon. So I shall enjoin an adherence +to your diet and a continuance of your long rest hours and brief outings +for some days yet." + +He had me summon Agathemer and repeated to him much of what he had said to +me. + +"He might go out at once," he said, "but we had best be cautious. Limit +him to morning outings in Nemestronia's gardens. He may, however, see +friends, one at a time, according to his wishes and your directions. And +be particular as to his diet. Give him more of each viand at each feeding. +Feed him as soon as he wakes. Then time the feedings two hours apart. Are +your _clepsydras_ [Footnote: water-clocks] good?" + +"Of the best," I interjected. "My uncle was a fancier of time-keepers and +had one in every room, and no two alike in ornamentation, all beautifully +decorated." + +"The ornamentation doesn't matter," said Galen, impatiently. "Do they keep +time with anything approaching accuracy?" + +"As near accuracy," I said, "as any _clepsydras_ ever made." + +"Well," he said, "_clepsydras_ always work better when nearly full than +when nearly empty. When you feed him have a full _clepsydra_ handy and +start it when he begins to eat. Then by it feed him again after two hours. +Keep to that interval and to the diet I have enjoined." + +Next day I spent over three hours in Nemestronia's water-garden, Tanno +with me for most of the time. Twice, during the chat, Agathemer brought me +a tray with the drink and food enjoined for that hour of the day. Each +time I left not a drop or crumb: I was ravenous. + +The following morning Agathemer let in to me, in that same garden, Murmex +Lucro, who thanked me for my good offices with Commodus and narrated his +triumphal progress of professional and social success ever since I had +seen him fence with the Emperor. + +Agathemer did not permit Murmex to linger long, saying that it was against +Galen's orders. After I was alone and had eaten what he brought I basked +and idled happily, thinking of Vedia, entirely unruffled by the fact that +I had had no missive or message from her, considering her silence merely +discreet and judicious after her spectacular rescue of me in the +_Tepidarium_, and confident of seeing her as soon as I was entirely well. + +While I was in this mood my hostess came to chat with me. Nemestronia, at +eighty-odd, was as dainty and charming an old lady as the sun ever shone +on. And as lovable as any woman alive. I loved her dearly, as all Rome +loved her dearly, and I ranked myself high among her countless honorary +grandsons, for her motherly ways made her seem an honorary grandmother to +all young noblemen whom she favored. + +After a heart-warming chat she said: + +"I must go now, by Galen's orders. Before I go I want to ask you whether +you are coming here tomorrow?" + +"Certainly!" I cried, looking about me with delight. "Could there, can +there, be in Rome a more Elysian spot in which to feel health being +restored to one?" + +She beamed at me. + +"Be sure to be here," she said. "You will not regret coming." + +Between naps that afternoon and before I slept that night I soothed myself +with the hope that I was, by Nemestronia's influence, to have an interview +with Vedia. + +Next morning the weather was beautiful, the sky clear, the air neither too +cool nor too warm, the breeze soft and steady. Nemestronia's water-garden +appeared to me even more delightful than the day before. I admired the +lotus trees, the water-lily pads in the pools, the jets of the fountains, +the bright strips of flowers along the pools, particularly some water- +flags or some flowers resembling water-flags. + +I was idling in the sun on a cushion which Agathemer had arranged for me +on a marble seat against the upper wall, nearly midway of the garden, but +in sight of the postern gate by which I had entered. So idling and +dreaming day dreams I let my eyes rove languidly about the scene before +me. While meditating and staring at the pavement at my feet I heard +footsteps on the walk and looked up. + +To my amazement I saw Egnatius Capito approaching. + +No wonder I was amazed. I knew him but slightly. I should never have +thought of asking to see him, as I had asked to be allowed to see several +of my semi-intimates. Agathemer had insisted that I postpone seeing them, +because an interview with any of them was likely to overtire me. I knew +that no one could have entered that garden without Agathemer's knowledge. +I could not conceive how Capito came to be there. + +He greeted me formally and asked permission to seat himself beside me. I +gave it rather grudgingly. + +He asked after my health and I answered only less grudgingly. + +"I conjecture," he said, "that you are surprised to see me here?" + +"I am surprised," I said shortly. + +"Will you permit me to explain?" he asked courteously. + +I could not be less courteous than he and signified my assent. + +"Your secretary," he said, "is of the opinion that your illness, while +caused by your injuries in the affrays into which you were entrapped, was +greatly intensified by your chagrin at finding yourself embroiled with +both the Vedian and Satronian clans, and he also thinks that brooding over +the condition of affairs has delayed your recovery." + +"I assumed all that," I interrupted, "but I cannot conceive why he has +talked to you about it." + +Capito was always ingratiating. He gazed at me reproachfully, gently, +winningly. + +"If I have your permission," he said, "I shall explain." + +"Explain!" I cried impatiently. + +"Agathemer," he went on, "has left no stone unturned to find some means +for placating both clans and for reconciling you with both. In pursuit of +this aim he has been cautious, discreet, tactful and secret. He has +covertly tried many plans of approach. It was intimated to him, truly, +that I had on foot a scheme which promised to succeed in reconciling both +clans with each other and he rightly inferred that I might be able to +arrange for reconciling both with you at the same time. I am confident +that I can, as I told him when he tentatively approached me and +unostentatiously sounded me on this matter. I told him that it was only +necessary that I have an interview with you as soon as might be. Believing +that an early dissipation of your embroilment would conduce to your quick +and complete recovery he arranged for me to meet you as I have." + +While he was saying this my eyes roved about the garden. To my +astonishment I saw a man standing against the shut postern door, intently +regarding us as we sat on the marble seat conferring. In my half +convalescent state I had become used to acquiescence in anything and +everything, I was inert mentally and physically and my perceptive +faculties dulled and slow as were my intellectual processes. While +hearkening to Capito I gazed at the man uncomprehendingly, only half +conscious. I thought him a queer-looking fellow to be in Capito's retinue; +he did not look like a slave, but like a free man of the lowest class. I +did not recognize him, yet it seemed to me that I should; I did not like +the way he looked at us, yet I said nothing. He seemed to see me looking +at him, opened the postern, stepped through it and shut it after him. As +he went I was shot through with the conviction that I had seen him +somewhere before. + +"If you have in you," I said to Capito, "any such supernatural powers as +you would need for success in what you aim at, if you have any reasons for +anticipating success, Agathemer was fully justified in what he has done. +If you can really accomplish what you seem to believe you can accomplish, +I shall be grateful to you to the last breath I draw. But I am skeptical. +Speak on. Convince me." + +"I must first," he said, "have your pledge of secrecy for what I am about +to say." + +"What sort of secrecy?" I queried, repelled and suspicious. + +"If I am to disclose what I wish to disclose," he said, "you must give me +your word not to reveal by word, look, act or silence anything I may make +known to you, from your pledge until the termination of our interview." + +I was uneasy, but curious. I gave my pledge as he asked. + +He looked about, warily. He leaned closer to me. He spoke in a subdued +tone. + +"It must be known to you," he said, "that many of us nobles, many men of +equestrian rank, many senators, are gravely anxious concerning the +Republic, gravely dissatisfied with the character and behavior, I might +say the misbehavior, of our present Prince." + +"I don't wonder that you pledged me to secrecy," I blurted out. "You are +talking treason." + +"Hear me to the end," he begged, "and you will find that I am talking not +treason but patriotism." + +I grunted and he went on. + +"Many of us are of the opinion that the Republic, which was never as +prosperous as within the past eighty years, is in grave danger of losing +much of its Empire, so gloriously extended by Trajan, so well maintained +by his three successors, if it continues to be neglected and mismanaged as +it is. To save the commonwealth and retain its provinces we must have a +Caesar competent, diligent, discreet and brave; and not one of these +epithets can be properly applied to the autocrat now in power. We feel +that he must be removed and that there must be substituted for him a ruler +who is all that the State needs and has the right to expect." + +"Fine words," I said. "Masking a conspiracy to assassinate our Emperor." + +He looked shocked and pained. + +"Hear me out," he pleaded. + +"I am curious, I confess," I admitted, "to learn what all this has to do +with reconciling Vedius and Satronius and regaining me the good graces of +both. I ought to terminate the interview, but I am weak. Go on." + +"Naturally," he said, "both Vedius and Satronius resent what the Emperor +did and said concerning your entanglement in their feud and they are both +infuriated at their humiliation and at the effective means he took to tie +their hands as far as concerns you and to ensure your safety, as far as +they were concerned." + +"Commodus," I interrupted, "is not altogether a bungler when he gives his +mind to the duties of his office." + +"May I go on?" Capito enquired, mildly, even reproachfully and, I might +say, irresistibly. He was a born leader of a conspiracy, for few men could +be alone with him and not fall under his influence. + +"Go on," I said. "I am consumed with curiosity to discover how their rage +at the Emperor could lead to a reconciliation between them." + +"It is not obvious, I admit," he said, "but when I explain, you will see +how naturally, how inevitably a reconciliation might be expected to +result. + +"You have seen, perhaps often, a peasant or laborer beating his wife?" + +"Everybody has," I replied. "What has that to do with what you were +talking of?" + +"Be patient!" he pleaded. "You have seen some bystander interfere in such +a domestic fracas?" + +"Often," I agreed. + +"You have also seen," he continued, "not only the husband turn on the +outsider, but the wife join her spouse in attacking her would-be rescuer, +have seen both trounce the interloper and in their mutual help forget +their late antagonism." + +"Certainly," I agreed. + +"Well," he pursued, "human nature, male or female, low-life or high-life, +is the same in essence. Vedius and Satronius are so incensed with Caesar +for balking their appetite for revenge on you that they are thirsting for +revenge on Caesar and ready to forget all their hereditary animosities and +join in abasing him. In fact, they have joined the league of patriots of +which I am the leader. And they are so bent on their new purpose that they +are ready to be hearty friends to anyone sworn as our confederate. I can +arrange to obliterate, even to annihilate forever, all trace of enmity +between you and either of them, if you will but agree to let your natural +inherent patriotism overcome all other feelings in your heart and aid us +to abolish the shame of our Republic and to safeguard the Commonwealth and +the Empire." + +All this while I had been half listening to him, half occupied in trying +to recall where I had seen the man who had stepped through the postern. At +this instant, as Capito paused, I suddenly realized that he was the +immobile horseman whom we had twice passed in the rain by the roadside the +morning I had started from my villa for Rome. His hooked nose was +unmistakable. + +Somehow this realization, along with the recollection of what Tanno had +said of the fellow, woke me to a sense of the danger to which I was +exposed by being with Capito and also to a sense of the craziness of his +ideas and plans. + +I felt my face redden. + +"You have said enough!" I cut him short. "I perfectly understand. You +think yourself the destined savior of Rome and the deviser of priceless +plans for Rome's future. You are not so much a conspirator as a lunatic. +Your schemes are half idiocy, half moonshine. I have pledged you my word +to be secret as to what you have told me. My pledge holds if you now keep +silent, rise from this seat and walk straight out to your litter, by the +same way by which you came from it. If you utter another syllable to me, +if you do not rise promptly, if you hesitate about going, if you linger on +your path, I'll call my litter, I'll go straight to the Palace, I'll ask +for a private audience, I'll wait till I get one, I'll tell the Emperor +every word you have said to me. If you want protection for yourself from +my pledge, leave me. Go!" + +He gave one glance at me and went. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE SQUALL OF THE LEOPARD + + +When he was gone, when I had seen the postern door shut behind him, I felt +suddenly weak and faint. I was amazed to find how exhausted I was left by +the ebbing of the hot wave of indignation and rage which had surged +through me as I revolted from his absurd and contemptible proposals. I +felt flaccid and limp. + +At this instant Agathemer brought me a tray of food. My impulse was to +burst out at him with reproaches for having, without consulting me, +presumed to arrange for me an interview with a man not among my intimates. +But I was so enraged that I dreaded the effect on me, in my weakened +state, if I let myself go in respect to rebuking my slave. I kept silent +and was mildly surprised to find myself tempted by the food. I ate and +drank all that was on the tray, and Agathemer vanished noiselessly, +without a word. + +I sat there, revived by the food and wine, feeling the weakness caused by +my rage gradually passing off and meditating on the sudden change in my +condition. Before Capito accosted me I had felt perfectly well and was +looking forward to resuming my normal life next day, to going to the +Palace Levee, to enjoying a bath with my acquaintances at the Thermae of +Titus. Since Capito had left me I had felt so overcome that I was ready to +look forward to some days yet of strict regimen and isolation. + +Thus meditating I was again aware of footsteps on the walk. + +I looked up and was more amazed than when I had caught sight of Capito. +Approaching me, but a few paces from me, was one of the most detestable +bores in Rome, a man whom I sedulously avoided, Faltonius Bambilio. His +father, the Pontifex of Vesta, was an offensively and absurdly unctuous +and pompous man. His son, who had already held several minor offices in +the City Government, had been one of the quaestors the year before, and so +was now a senator. But he was, as he always had been, as he remained, a +booby. I do not believe that there was any man in Rome I detested so +heartily. + +He greeted me as if he had a right to my notice and said: + +"I was told that Egnatius Capito was in this garden." + +"He was," I replied curtly, "but he has left it." + +"I certainly am disappointed," he said, seating himself by me, uninvited. +"I particularly wanted to speak to Capito at once." + +"You might find him at his house," I suggested. + +But Bambilio was impervious to suggestions. + +"I wanted to talk to him and you together," he said, "but that can be +managed some other time." + +I was about to reply tartly, but I remembered how my irritation with +Capito had affected me and recalled Galen's injunction that I must avoid +all causes of excitement and emotion. I held my peace. + +Bambilio, as if he had been an intimate and had been specially invited, +lolled comfortably on the bench and gazed approvingly about. + +"Fine garden, Andivius," he said. "Fine trees, fine flowers and I say, +what a jewel of a slave-girl, eh! Hedulio!" + +I could have hit him, I was so incensed at his familiarity, I was already +choking with internal rage at Agathemer for having let anyone in to talk +to me in that garden, still more at his having done so without consulting +me and most of all that after doing so he had not made sure that no one +but Capito could pass the postern door. But I almost exploded into voluble +wrath when I looked where he indicated, saw a pretty, shapely young woman +in the scanty attire of a slave-girl picking flag-flowers into a basket +she carried, and recognized Vedia. That Agathemer's presumption should +have spoiled the interview with Vedia which she and Nemestronia had +manifestly arranged for us, that it should have exposed Vedia in her +undignified disguise to recognition by the greatest ass and blatherskite +in the senate, this infuriated me till I felt internally like Aetna or +Vesuvius on the verge of eruption. + +Vedia, for it was she, had evidently been approaching me circuitously, +hoping to be noticed and hailed from afar. Now when she was near enough +for not merely a lover but for any acquaintance to recognize her, she +looked up at me over her basket as she laid a flower-stalk in it. + +Instantly her face flamed, she turned away and went on picking flowers +diligently. After she had moved a few steps she sprang into the path and +scampered off like a child, her basket swinging, vanishing through a door +in the upper wall on my left. + +"Neat little piece!" Bambilio commented. "Taking, and every part of her +pretty. Fine calves, especially." + +I was by this time in a condition which, had I been old and fat, must have +brought on an apoplexy. But my hot rage cooled to an icy haughtiness, and, +though it took a weary, tedious long time, I kept my temper and my +demeanor, look, tone and word, managed to convey to him, even through the +thick armor of his self-conceit, that he was not welcome. He rose, said +farewell and waddled off to the postern. As soon as he was outside, more +rapidly than I had moved since I was felled in the roadside affray, I +walked to that door and made sure that it was bolted. + +I was strolling unhurriedly back to the seat I had left and was perhaps +half way to it, when I heard, loud and clear, the long-drawn, blood- +curdling hunting-squall of Nemestronia's pet leopard; heard in it more of +menace, more of adult ferocity, more of the horrible joy of the power to +kill than I had ever heard before. + +Instantly I comprehended what had happened. Either Agathemer when he took +off my tray or Vedia when she escaped had passed through the wild-garden +(probably it had been Vedia, who would not know that the leopard was +confined there), and had left a door imperfectly closed. The leopard, +which might have been asleep, under the shrubberies and invisible, had +roused and had passed through the unfastened door up into the terrace- +garden. This was the kind of morning on which Nemestronia would have many +visitors, the kind of weather which would tempt them to have their chairs +out on the upper terrace, the hour of the morning at which they would be +most likely to be out there. The leopard, I instantly inferred, was +stalking, not some hare, porker, kid or lamb, but her owner and her +owner's guests. + +I disembarrassed myself of my outer garments, threw off my sun-hat, and, +clad only in my shoes and tunic, sprinted for the door into the wild- +garden, through it, through its upper door, which, as I had forecasted, I +found open, and out on the lower terrace. From there I could not see +anything on the upper terrace, but, as I cleared the door, I heard again, +rising, quavering, sinking, rising, the leopard's hunting cry from the +upper terrace. I sprang up the stair to the middle terrace, and half way +up that to the upper; but, when my head was about on a level with the +pavement of the walk along the upper terrace, I checked myself and moved a +hairs-breadth at a time; for the rescue on which I had come was a delicate +task and any quick movement might precipitate the leopard's killing- +spring. + +Through the spaces between the yellow Numidian marble balusters I saw what +I had anticipated. Partly under the big middle awning, but mostly out in +front of it on the walk, were set a score of light chairs. On those +furthest out were seated nine ladies: Nemestronia, Vedia, Urgulania, +Entedia, Aemilia Prisca, Magnonia, Claudia Ardeana, Semnia, Papiria and +Cossonia. They were rigid in their chairs, white with terror and yet +afraid to move a muscle. Belly flat on the walk, about twelve paces from +them, crouched the leopard, moving forward a paw at a time. As I gained a +view of her she emitted a third squall. + +I saw that I was in time and felt so relieved that I almost fainted in the +revulsion from my agony of anxiety. As I began to move my mind was free +enough to wonder how Vedia had found time to change from her slave-girl +disguise into a bewitching fashionable toilet. Among those leaders of +Roman society, the very pick of Rome's noblewomen, she showed her best and +outshone them all. + +I moved evenly and steadily up the steps and along the balustrade till I +was past the crouching leopard and then on round till I was in her line of +sight and half between her and her victims. + +She recognized me at once, the evil switching of her tail ceased, she half +rose; she began to purr, a purr that sounded to me as loud as the roar of +a water-fall in a gorge; she took a few steps towards me, then, suddenly, +she made a peculiar movement hard to describe, something like the +curvetting of a mettlesome colt, but characteristic of a leopard and +therefore like the movement of no other animal save a leopard or lion or +tiger; she leapt daintily clear of the pavement and struck sideways with +her forepaws. The antic perfectly expressed playful delight and +friendliness. + +I recognized her mood and knew that I had not only distracted her from her +bloodthirst but had her entire attention. I knew what I must do, but I +raged at the ridiculous exhibition which I must make of myself before the +most fastidious and conventional of Rome's noblewomen. Yet, if I was to +save them, I must not hesitate. I threw myself flat on my side on the +pavement and made clawing motions with my hands and feet, the leopard +responded to my suggestion, capered again as before and, when close to me, +lay down before me on the pavement and began to paw at me, purring loudly +in her throat, now and then snarling softly. She played with me as she had +often played before, all her claws sheathed and her paws soft as +thistledown; mumbling my hands and forearms in her hot mouth, slavering +over them, yet never so much as bruising the skin with her needle-sharp +teeth. Yet I seemed to detect a subtle difference in her mood and, from +moment to moment, dreaded that she might claw me to ribbons or sink her +fangs in my shoulders or face. + +All the while she was mouthing, pawing and kicking me I was raging at +Agathemer for having put me in a position where I had to make so +undignified an exhibition of myself before such an assemblage. + +Presently I recognized that alteration in her mood which made it possible +for me to rise, take her by the scruff of the neck, and lead her off to +her cage. + +When I had her inside I realized how hot, sweaty, dusty tousled, rumpled +and mussed I was. Her cage was under the vaulted arcade beneath the second +terrace. I was, when I shot its bolts, altogether out of sight of Vedia, +Nemestronia and the other noble ladies who had been spectators of my +tussle with the leopard. I did not want them to see me again in my +dishevelled and dirty condition: I sneaked into the house by the passage +from the arcade into the cellars and up the scullery stairs, made the +first slave I saw escort me to the guest-room I usually occupied when at +Nemestronia's and bade him summon bath-attendants and dressers. +Nemestronia had a store-room lined with wardrobes of men's attire +containing every sort of garment of every style and size. I was soon clean +and clad as a gentleman should be in a fresh tunic and in the garment I +had left in the water-garden, which a footman had fetched for me. + +Then I went out on the upper terrace. + +There I found the nine ladies, with some maids and waiters. Before the +ladies, facing Nemestronia, stood Agathemer; behind and about him +Nemestronia's six big, husky, bull-necked slave-lashers, the two head- +lashers with their many-lashed scourges. + +I realized at once what had happened. Nemestronia had needed no one to +inform her that it was through Agathemer's negligence or mismanagement +that the leopard had escaped from the wild-garden. She had not waited to +ask me to investigate the matter and punish my slave. She had, like the +great noblewoman she was, assumed my acquiescence and approval and +summoned and questioned Agathemer. Before I appeared his answers had +convicted him. She did not look round at me as I joined the group and +seated myself in a vacant chair on her left, between Vedia and Claudia +Ardeana. As I seated myself she gave the order: + +"Strip him and give him a hundred lashes!" + +Now, then and there I found myself in the most cruel and painful situation +I had ever been in my life. Agathemer and I had been playmates almost from +our cradles; comrades, cronies, chums all our lives. Neither of us had +ever had a brother. Each had been, since infancy, a brother to the other. +I could not have loved a real brother any more than I loved Agathemer, nor +could he have had more implicit confidence in the goodwill of a blood +brother. I was, in fact, as solicitous for Agathemer's welfare as for my +own, and I rejoiced with his joys and mourned with his griefs. I would +have done anything to protect him and save him, as he had faithfully and +tirelessly nursed and cared for me in my illness. + +But I knew that no explanations could ever make Nemestronia understand our +mutual relations or accept my views of them; to her a slave was a slave; +she felt as unalterable a gulf between free man and slave as between +mankind and cattle. I could only let her have her way, though I was +inundated with misery at the thought of Agathemer's approaching agonies. I +had been hotly wrathful with him and had meditated, as I dressed, what +sort of punishment would befit his fault: now that Nemestronia had ordered +him flogged my resentment against him had all oozed out of me and I was +filled with sympathy for him and scorn of my cowardice in not protecting +him. I glanced at him as the lashers stripped and bound him. He sent back +at me a glance which said, as plain as words: + +"I am to blame. I know you are sorry for me. But give no sign, I must go +through this alone." + +And I had to sit there while the head-lasher flogged him till the pavement +on which he lay was all a pool of gore, till his back was in tatters from +neck to hips, till he was carried off, insensible, perhaps dead. + +Also I had to express my approbation of Nemestronia's orders, and had to +sit there and chat with the ladies, seven of whom were inclined to be +facetious over the figure I had cut sprawling on the mosaic walk, tussling +with that abominable leopard. They thanked me for saving their lives, or +at least, the life of some one of them. But they were sly about my comical +appearance while the leopard mauled and tousled me. + +Two did not speak. + +Vedia was cold and mute and spoke only when she rose, excusing herself to +Nemestronia and calling for her litter first of them all. + +Nemestronia was so weak from the reaction after her fright and so +unwilling to display her weakness that she hardly spoke, limiting herself +to the brief words courtesy demanded. + +When I reached home I forgot everything else in my solicitude for +Agathemer. I not only called for my own physician, but sent urgent +messages summoning Galen and Celsianus. Celsianus was affronted at the +suggestion that he stoop to prescribe for a slave and incensed at having +been called in haste for such a trifle: but Galen, who came in while +Celsianus was expressing his indignation, diverted his mind at once by +rejoicing that I was sufficiently recovered to take that much interest in +one of my slaves. He made haste to see, inspect and assist Agathemer: when +he was somewhat relieved and we had left him abed with Occo to watch him +and with injunctions that quiet was the best medicine for him, Galen +turned to me. + +"You have had a shock," he said, "and a superabundance of excitement. Tell +me all about it." + +When I had told him what had happened, omitting only Vedia's disguise and +her presence in the water-garden, he said: + +"I certainly should not have prescribed any such excitements and efforts +as medicaments for a case like yours. But it sometimes happens that being +startled accomplishes more towards a cure than long rest can. Your +perturbation of mind and activity of body has cured you. You are, as far +as I can judge, well. I am of the opinion that you may safely eat and +drink what you like in moderation, rest only as you please and may resume +your normal life." + +I was, naturally, much pleased, but had no impulse to resume my habits +that day. I kept indoors, denied myself to all visitors, slept long after +Galen had left, ate a moderate dinner and went early to bed. + +Next day I went through the normal routine of a Roman of my rank. The +story of the leopard had been noised about and the husbands of the ladies +concerned every one came to salute me at my morning reception and to thank +me for my miraculous intervention, as they called it. As six of the eight +were senators my atrium had an aspect seldom seen at the reception of a +man of equestrian rank. + +At the Palace I found the tale of the leopard had reached the ears of the +Emperor. He congratulated me, saying: + +"You are not only a good fighter, Hedulio, but also incredibly bold and +marvellously favored by the gods." + +Tanno was at the Palace to say farewell for the summer, as he was off for +Baiae to enjoy the scenery and sea-breezes. + +"I envy you," said Commodus. "I must remain, here many days yet to get rid +of the most pressing matters on my crowded files of official papers." + +After the Palace levee was over I went to Vedia's mansion and tried to see +her, but was rebuffed, the porter declaring that, by her physician's +orders, she was denying herself to all visitors. + +At home I found Agathemer still suffering terribly, but without fever, +with no sign of proud flesh anywhere on his flayed back and not only +entirely able to talk to me but eager to do so. We had a long talk on the +entire subject of our peculiar relations as a master and slave who were +more like brothers. He assured me that I had done just right to act as I +had and he begged my pardon for his blunders in arranging to have Capito +admitted to talk to me, in arranging it without my permission or even +knowledge, in neglecting to guard the outer door of the garden and so +admitting Bambilio, and in causing the escape of the leopard. I heartily +forgave him, told him to forget all that, that I forgot it all and, on my +side, begged his forgiveness for his agonies. He said there was nothing to +forgive: that my uncle's injunctions had compelled my leaving him a slave +and the rest had been his fault, not mine. + +I told him that I would do anything in my power to make him well, +comfortable and happy, except setting him free, from which I was +restrained by my uncle's behests. + +He asked to be allowed to return to Villa Andivia as soon as the +physicians pronounced him fit to travel. + +I agreed: commanded that my travelling carriage, which Marcus Martius had +returned to me, should be put in order and prepared for the journey; and +consulted Galen, who came of his own accord to see Agathemer two days in +succession. On his third visit he gave Agathemer permission to travel by +carriage the next day and he accordingly set off for Villa Andivia on the +Ides of August. + +Each day I had spent most of my afternoon at the Baths of Titus. Each +afternoon I had seen Vedia at a distance, but she had always taken pains +to avoid me, and one cannot pursue or seem to pursue, a lady in the +Thermae. + +Each day, also, I had called to see her at her house; each day I had been +rebuffed. On the morning of the nineteenth day before the Kalends of +September one of the runners brought me a letter. It read: + + "Vedia gives greetings to Andivius. If you are well I am well also." + +But this formal opening altered at once to familiar writing. + + "You are acting like a silly boy. As things are, both in my cousins' + clan and in that of my late husband, I cannot receive you at my house, + and you ought to have sense enough to realize that without being told. + Be patient and I shall arrange for an interview with you. Please avoid + me at the Baths, as I have you. + + "Farewell." + +This letter greatly encouraged me and I felt so elated that I really +enjoyed life for the next few days, which were filled up with a reception +of my own each morning, a round of receptions to salute magnates, my +salutation to the Emperor, a lunch always with some friends, a long nap at +home, a lingering afternoon at the Baths of Titus, and a jolly dinner at +some friend's house, for I was invited out twice each day. + +On the seventh day before the Kalends of September, as I was on my way to +the Palace levee, a runner inconspicuously clad ranged himself alongside +my litter and handed me a letter. + +It read: + + "She whose handwriting he will recognize gives greeting to Hedulio. + Take care! Do not let anyone see this letter; take care to seem + negligent and uninterested as you read it. + + "A conspiracy against the life of Caesar has been detected and + reported. Its leader is said to be Egnatius Capito. As some informer, + sponsored by Talponius Pulto, claims to have seen you in Capito's + company, you are implicated. Save yourself. Do not return home. Do not + go to the Palace, order yourself carried immediately to the + Querquetulan Gate. On the way there purchase a raincloak and an + umbrella hat and whatever else may be needful for your journey. + Outside the _Porta Querquetulana_, in front of Plosurnia's tavern, you + will find one of the fastest horses in Italy, a blood-bay, noticeable + for light-blue reins with silver bosses, his saddlecloth light-blue + with a silver edge. Descend from your litter in front of the tavern, + accost the man holding the horse, say to him: + + "'Is this the leopard-tamer's horse?' + + "He will reply: + + "'It is.' + + "Then say: + + "'I am the leopard-tamer.' + + "He will then allow one of your spare bearers to take the horse. + + "Divest yourself of your toga then, not sooner. Equip yourself for + your journey. Mount and order your bearers to take your empty litter + home. Follow the Praenestine Highroad till it meets the _Via + Labicana_. Then take the first crossroad to the Highroad to Tibur. + From Tibur press on to Carseoli. Prom there return to Villa Andivia as + you judge best. Provide for yourself thereafter as best you may. + + "Farewell." + +I recognized Vedia's handwriting. I trusted her implicitly. I was far more +elated at her concern for me than I was depressed at my impending ruin. +Somehow the fact that she had taken the trouble not only to warn me, but +to think out for me all the details of a plan of at least temporary +escape, the inference that she hoped, hoped against hope, that I might be +somehow saved, heartened me amazingly; so that I was rather inspirited at +the prospect of adventure than daunted by the shadow of inescapable doom. +I gathered myself together, determined to take as much advantage as +possible of Vedia's warning, and of the respite it afforded me. I resolved +to follow her suggestions. I had set out for the Palace unusually early. I +had plenty of time. I ordered my bearers to carry me through the heart of +the City down the whole length of the _Vicus Tuscus_ to the meat market. + +I should, I suppose, have been in an agony of vain regrets; I rather +expected from moment to moment to be drowned in an inundation of such +sensations, I was more than a little surprised at my actual feelings. Here +I was, hitherto a wealthy Roman nobleman in excellent standing with my +fellows, my superiors and the Prince; from now on a hunted fugitive and +not likely to postpone my last hour more than a few days. I was, +presumably, viewing the throbbing heart of glorious Rome for the last +time. I should have felt chief mourner at my own funeral. Actually I +relished, I hugely enjoyed, every pace of my progress through the filling +streets, where the passers-by and idlers were still fresh, and lively +after a night's sleep and where everything was irradiated by cheerful +morning sunlight. I felt cheerful as the sunlight. + +Beyond the Meat Market I had my bearers stop at the Temple of Fortune, +which I entered, there I prayed fervently before the statue of the +Goddess. + +When I was again out in the market I bought two live white hens, young and +plump, and assigned one of my relief-bearers to carry carefully the basket +in which the old market-woman ensconced them, after I had paid her well +for her basket as well as her hens. + +Then I had my men carry me down the straight empty street along the +southwest flank of the Circus Maximus. Half way along it I halted them +before the Temple of Mercury. This I entered and, bidding one of the +attendants lead me to the priest in charge at that hour, I requested him +to offer for me the two white hens and beseech for me the favor of the +God. + +Outside I reentered my litter and made my bearers trot all the way round +by the big and little Coelian Hills to the Querquetulan Gate. We passed on +this route many cheap shops. From one I bought a pair of horseman's high +boots, soft and supple and mud-proof. All the way I enjoyed hugely my +outing and the sights and sounds around me. From another shop one of my +reliefs brought me an umbrella hat which fitted me and a voluminous +horseman's raincloak which could not but protect anybody; at another I had +bought for me a wallet; at another flint and steel in a good horn case, +compact and neat. + +Outside the Querquetulan Gate, which my bearers reached blown and +sweating, although the reliefs had changed at short intervals, we had no +difficulty in locating Plosurnia's tavern. The holder of the bay horse +with the blue and silver trappings recognized my pass-words and +surrendered his charge to one of my extra bearers. At the tavern another +lined my wallet with bread, sausages, olives, dried figs and cheese, while +I was changing into horseman's kit. + +I put into the wallet my money, more than enough cash for my journey home, +and Vedia's letter. I then mounted, gave my boys their orders and set off +at an easy canter. I knew I must show no signs of haste until I was on the +Highroad, so I took my time about working round to it. Once on the _Via +Tiburtina_, where horsemen at a tearing gallop, going in either direction, +were too common a sight to cause any remarks, I let out my mettlesome +mount and covered the remainder of the twenty-four miles to Tibur not long +before noon. + +Between the bridge over the Anio and Tibur are a number of hilltops, from +each of which one has a fine view of Rome, if the weather is clear and +bright. The weather was very bright and clear and the views very fine. At +each hilltop I checked my mount, wheeled him and remained so for sometime, +contemplating the magnificence I might never see again, the glory upon +which my gaze, most likely, would never again feast. I should have felt my +eyes fill with tears at each of these prospects, the viewing of which was, +each time, in the nature of a last farewell. Yet, somehow, most +irrationally, I felt anything but dejected, rather hopeful and full of +conjectures about my future, instead of being filled with forebodings of +doom, with sorrow for my hard fate. + + + + +BOOK II + +DISAPPEARANCE + + + + +CHAPTER X + +ESCAPE + + +At Tibur I put up at a clean little inn I had known of since boyhood, but +which I had never before entered or even seen, so that I felt safe there +and reasonably sure to pass as a traveller of no rank whatever. My +knowledge of country ways, too, enabled me to behave like a landed +proprietor of small means. + +After a hearty lunch I pushed boldly on up the Valerian Highway and +covered the twenty-two miles between Tibur and Carseoli without visibly +tiring my mount. He was no more winded nor lathered than any traveller's +horse should be at the end of a day on the road. At Carseoli I again knew +of a clean, quiet inn, and there I dined and slept. + +Thence I intended to follow the rough country roads along the Tolenus. +Stream-side roads are always bad, so I allowed two days more in which to +reach home, and I could hardly have done it quicker. The night after I +left Carseoli I camped by a tributary of the Tolenus in a very pretty +little grove. From Carseoli on the weather was fine. + +About the third hour of the day, on the fifth day before the Kalends of +September, of a fair, bright morning, I came to my own estate. On the road +nearing it I had met no one. I met no one along the woodland tracks +leading into my property from that side: on my estate I met no one save +just as I was about to enter my villa. Then I encountered Ofatulenus, +bailiff of the Villa Farm. He, of course, was amazed to see me. I bade him +mention to no one, not even to his wife, that I had returned home. + +"Be secret!" I enjoined. + +He nodded. + +I believed he would be dumb. Give me a Sabine to keep a secret; I'd back +any Sabine against any other sort of human being. + +Ofatulenus took my horse and swore that no one outside of the stable +should know it was there or suspect it. I told him to lock the trappings +in the third locker in my harness-room, which locker I knew should be +empty. + +I got from the stable to my villa without encountering any human being. +Outside I found Agathemer, as I had hoped I would, sunning himself on the +terrace. + +He was even more amazed than Ofatulenus and began to exclaim. I silenced +him and questioned him as to his health. He told me that his back was +entirely healed and that, while any effort still caused him not a little +pain, he was capable of the customary activities of his normal life. + +I then told him why I had returned home. He listened in silence, except +that he here and there put in a query when I omitted some detail in my +excitement. + +When he understood my situation thoroughly he asked: + +"And what do you propose to do?" + +"I propose," I said, "to live here unobtrusively, visiting no one, +receiving no one and, by all the means in our power, arranging that as few +persons as possible may know of my presence here. There is not the +faintest scintilla of hope in my doing anything whatever. But if I merely +exist without calling attention to my existence there may be some hope for +me. No man accused as I am is ever allowed an opportunity to clear +himself: but it has often happened that, by keeping away from Rome for a +time, a man in my situation has given his friends a chance to use their +influence in his behalf, to gain the ear of someone powerful at Court, to +get an unbiassed hearing for what they had to say, to prove his complete +innocence and rehabilitate him. Vedia and Tanno will do all they can for +me. I have hosts of friends, not a few of whom will aid Vedia and Tanno as +far as they are able. By keeping quiet here I shall give my friends a +chance to save me, if I can be saved. If not, I shall here await such +orders as may be sent me, or my arrest, if I am to be seized." + +"Is that your whole plan?" Agathemer queried. + +"All," I said. + +"May I speak?" he asked. "May I speak out my full mind?" + +"Certainly!" I agreed. "Speak!" + +"If you stay here as you propose," he said, "you will be arrested not +later than tomorrow and haled to your death, if not butchered at sight. At +most the centurion in charge might allow you an hour in which to commit +suicide. But if you remain here inactive your death is certain, you will +never see two sunrises. + +"But I agree with you that your friends will do what they can and I +heartily believe that Opsitius and Vedia will move sky, earth and sea and +Hades beneath all, as far as their powers go, to save you. If they have +any chance of succeeding they will need more time than Perennis will give +them. If you stay here you will be dead before they can so much as lay +plans to gain them the ear of Saoteros and Anteros or some other Palace +favorite, let along groping through all the complicated intrigues +necessary to arrange for an audience with the Emperor when he might be in +a compliant humor. + +"Your plan means certain death for you. I think I can save you if you will +put yourself in my hands. Will you?" + +"I most certainly will," I said, "and without reservation. If you think +you can save me, tell me what you want me to do and I shall do it. I shall +follow your suggestions implicitly." + +"Well," said Agathemer, "since remaining here means certain death and +since there seems a chance of final salvation for you through the efforts +of your friends and especially those of Opsitius and Vedia, since they +will need plenty of time to save you, if you can be saved, from every +point of view the right course of action is not merely inaction, not +merely hiding, but an immediate and complete disappearance. If you are +found you will be ordered to kill yourself or will be put to death. If you +cannot be found you cannot be killed or made to kill yourself. Since you +cannot be found you will stay alive until you can be rehabilitated with +the Emperor. If that cannot be done or is not done, at least you will be +alive. My deduction is, disappear at once and completely. You have many +times, for a lark, disguised yourself as an ordinary country proprietor or +small farmer and mingled with the crowd at a fair without being +recognized. What you have done for an evening in jest now attempt in +earnest and for as long a period as is necessary. And to begin with, +vanish from here at once and completely." + +"But how?" I queried. + +"If you are to disappear," said Agathemer, "why should I waste time in +explaining how. Let us disappear together, leaving no trace and let us do +it at once." + +"But," I cried, "I could never consent to anything like that! You are not +in any danger. You will be manumitted by my will and you can live safely, +comfortably and at ease. Why should I drag you into I know not what +miseries, hardships and privations along with me? Tell me what to do and I +will proceed to do it. But do you stay here." + +"If I told you my plan," said Agathemer, "you could not carry it out +alone. My scheme for your escape and vanishment pivots on my disappearing +along with you. If you agree, as I beg that you will, we shall both be +safe, I hope and trust; alive, able to return here if it can be arranged, +able to live elsewhere, somehow, if it cannot be arranged. If you refuse +your assent, I shall die with you or soon after you; I am resolute not to +survive you." + +"I agree," I said. "I am under your orders henceforth, not you under +mine." + +Agathemer at once guided me into the house and upstairs to his rooms, for +he inhabited the guest-suite next my rooms, which had been my uncle's. + +"The first thing to do," he said, "is for both of us to eat heartily, for +we do not know when we shall eat again. I have been choicy and whimmy +about my eating since I came back here and mostly my meals have revolted +me and I have left the _triclinium_ practically unfed, whereas I have +often been seized with imperative hunger between meals. I have an +overabundant supply of all sorts of tempting cold viands up here." + +And, in fact, in the room he used as a reading and writing room, on a side +table, I found an inviting array of cold meats, jellies, cakes, and fancy +breads, with an assortment of wines. We ate till we could eat no more, +masticating our food carefully and taking wine in moderation. + +Then Agathemer put up a liberal supply of bread and relishes in a small +linen bag, obliterated all traces of our meal and presence and went into +his dressing-room, where he stripped stark naked and rubbed himself down +with a rough towel, carefully disposing of his garments in his wardrobes. + +From one of his tables he took a small silver case containing flint, steel +and tinder. Then we went into my rooms, where he stripped me, rubbed me +down, and disposed of my garments as he had of his. My wallet he took +pains to hide in the bottom of a chest, after emptying it and putting the +contents about so that each article was hidden in a different place and +none could be connected with the others or with the wallet. The little +horn case with flint and steel he retained. + +The ante-room to what had been my uncle's bed-room and was now mine, had +on its walls trophies of hunting-spears and other weapons of the chase. +Agathemer selected two knives for killing wounded stags, dependable +implements, blade and shank one piece of fine steel, the handles of stag- +horn, fastened on with copper rivets. + +With the bag of food, the two knives and the two tinder boxes we went up +my uncle's private stair to his library and reading room. + +My uncle had had his own ideas as to nearly everything, usually much at +variance with other people's ideas. As to building his ideas, perhaps, +were less aberrant than his opinions on other subjects, but, certainly he +was as tenacious of them as of his other notions. + +He held, in the first place, that sleeping-rooms on the ground-floor of +any house were unhealthy and a relic of primitive barbarism. He was +equally positive that, in the country, where there was ample room for a +building to spread out, it was folly to construct a dwelling of three or +more stories: such villas he railed at as exhibitions of silly +extravagance and of a desire to appear different from one's neighbors. His +villa, therefore, was of two stories only. + +But, on the other hand, he loved fresh air, light, and wide prospects from +his windows; also he spent most of his daylight reading or writing, or +both. To gratify to the full all his chief tastes at once he included in +the plans of his villa a sort of tower, at the northwest corner, rising +well above the remainder of the structure, so that the floors of its third +story were on a level higher than that of the ridge-poles of the roofs of +the other parts of the villa and from the wide windows of its rooms there +was an unobstructed view over the tiles of the villa upon the farm- +buildings and beyond them across the fields to the woodlands and the +forested eastern and southern horizon as well as a fine outlook down the +valley northward and across it westward. + +In this third story of this tower he housed his library and there he spent +most of his time. It was reached by three stairs. One was connected with +the villa in general and was used by him when going down to meals in his +_triclinium_, or when escorting visitors up to his library, as he +sometimes did with his particular favorites; and this stair was also used +by such servants as he might summon to him while in his library or as +might have to go up there to attend to it in his absence. The second stair +connected with his living-rooms on the second floor, which rooms looked +northwestward, as he detested being waked early by the rays of the rising +sun and loved basking in the mellow radiance of afternoon sunlight. The +third stair is not easy to describe and was one of my uncle's oddest +eccentricities. It was inside a sort of minor tower built against the +tower in which his library was set aloft, which minor tower extended far +up towards the sky, like a great chimney. What was the primary purpose of +this minor tower I shall explain later. In it, however, was a narrow, +cramped, spiral stair, unlit by any window or loop-hole, unconnected with +the second or first floor of the villa, opening at the top into the +library and at the bottom into a cellar, a cellar so far down the hillside +that its vault was below the level of the floors of the cellars under the +villa in general. This stair my uncle had had constructed to enable him to +apply his idea that a master could ensure the diligence of his tenants and +slaves only if he was known to be in the habit of coming upon them +unexpectedly at any hour of the day, only if they never knew when he might +appear and so were spurred to continual diligence for fear he might catch +them idling. For my uncle, though he habitually spent his entire daylight +in his library, might at any hour slip down this stair, slip out onto the +northwestern slope from the villa through a door locked to all but him and +of which he kept the key, or might slip out southeastward or southwestward +or northeastward, through similar doors on the ground floor, reached by +passages built between the many cellars of the upper level of cellars +under the ground floor of the villa. By this plan and by popping out +sometimes many times a day, sometimes after an interval of many days, he +kept his underlings alert. + +My uncle's tastes in respect to books were as peculiar as in all other +respects. He had a really magnificent library, including all the Greek +poets, all our own, and other noble works of literature, such as the +historians in both the Greek and Latin tongues; the orators, and the +writers on painting, sculpture, architecture and music. + +But he paid more attention to his personal fads. He had a creditable +collection of all works on divination, a similarly inclusive assemblage of +works on the theory of government, and an almost complete array of the +writings of the Emperors, from the Divine Julius to the Divine Aurelius, +whose meditations he extolled. + +But he extolled above all other Princes and authors the Divine Julius. + +"Caius Julius Caesar," he was never tired of saying, "was, in all +respects, the greatest man who ever lived on earth. He was also the +greatest author earth has ever produced. His poems, his mimes, his +comedies, his dramas, compare favorably with the best of their kind. His +accounts of his wars, whether against the Gauls or against his domestic +adversaries, are models of narration, of lucidity, of terseness and of +style. His astronomy is the best manual of that subject in Latin. His +works on Engineering surpass anything of their kind in clearness and +preserve for the benefit of future generations more useful and original +ideas than ever before came from the brain of any one man. His works on +divination, particularly that on Auspices, excel everything previously +written on that most important of all human arts. + +"But his two books against Cato are his masterpiece. It is wonderful that +any man could have, in the space of eight days, written, with his own +hand, so fiery an invective, so compelling of the attention of any reader, +so completely annihilative of his antagonist's pretensions and +contentions, so convincingly establishing his own: to have made of it, in +the course of composition so rapid and totally unrevised, such a jewel of +Latinity, in a style not only pure and impeccable, but glowing and +charming, is astonishing. But it is downright miraculous that he should +have embodied in it the whole theory of government with all its principles +marshalled in their array with the most perfect subordination of +considerations of lesser importance to main principles. The two +Anticatones contain all that a ruler or any minister of a ruler need know +to guide him aright in his tasks. The First Book displays a complete +theory of internal policy, the Second of external policy. The two together +form a whole which is the most brilliant product of Rome's literary and +political genius." + +In accordance with his high esteem for Caesar's masterpiece he had +possessed himself of a beautiful copy of it, written by the celebrated +calligrapher Praxitelides, upon papyrus of the finest quality. It was in +seven rolls, each book of Caesar's text occupying two rolls, the index a +fifth, and the commentaries of grammarians two more. The rollers inside +the rolls were of Nubian ivory, their ends carved into pine cones, each of +the fourteen representing the cone of a different variety of pine. Each +roll was enclosed in a copper cylinder made accurately to be both +watertight and airtight. The seven cylinders were housed in an ebony case, +inlaid with mother of pearl. I have never seen any literary work more +beautifully enshrined. + +When Agathemer and I were in the library he shut and locked the door at +the top of my uncle's private stair, as he had the door at the bottom of +it. The two keys he hid far apart, where neither was at all likely to be +found easily or soon. He had laid the knives, tinder-boxes and bag of food +on a table. He went to the case containing my uncle's most highly prized +treasures. From it he took the ebony box, opened it and took out two of +the cylinders. From these he removed the rolls embodying the grammarians' +comments. These rolls he put back in the box, shut it, returned it to the +case and closed the case. + +The two cylinders he had laid on the table by the things which he had +brought up stairs. Inside each cylinder he placed a knife, a tinder-box, +and a selection of the food. The bag, with what remained of the food, he +tied up again. He handed me one cylinder. + +"Now," he said, "we are prepared to escape. My idea is to leave no trace +of how we leave this villa, to have no one see us leave, to have nothing +with us which could identify us after we have left. We are to go down the +secret stair, crawl out through the big lower drain pipe, hide in the +bushes till dark, take to the woods, hide by day, creep northward by +night, and, if we succeed in reaching a district where no one would +recognize us, press on northward boldly, passing ourselves off as runaway +slaves if anyone encounters us." + +"We'd be locked up as runaway slaves," I said, "advertised, sold to the +highest bidder if unclaimed and henceforth kept in slavery." + +"I'm in slavery now," said Agathemer. "You, if kept in slavery, would at +least be alive and in no danger of being recognized." + +"Let us go," said I. + +We looked at each other and burst out laughing. We made a sufficiently +absurd spectacle, each stark naked, each holding a copper cylinder, as we +stood in that elegant and luxurious room. According to the fashion of the +time, which aped the ways of the young Emperor, we wore our hair +moderately long and as both had hair naturally curly, were perfectly in +style as to hair. Our beards, also, we wore clipped but not shaved, and +long enough to show a tendency to curl, as the Emperor wore his. + +Our laugh over I gave a farewell glance about my little-used library. It +was then about the fifth hour. Agathemer gazing rather outside at the +landscape than inside at the room remained frozen stiff, staring northward +down the valley. + +"We are barely in time," he said. "Mercury is with us and Fortune." + +"Before I left Rome," I said, "I prayed to Fortune and sacrificed to +Mercury." + +"Time well spent," he said. "Look there!" + +Peering where he pointed I saw, where the road was first visible in the +distance, fully two miles away, a dozen or more horsemen, manifestly, even +at that distance, of military bearing: I caught, against the sunrays, a +gleam of crimson and a glint of gold; I conjectured a detail of Praetorian +Guards coming to arrest me or to put me out of the way. + +Agathemer opened the upper door of the secret stair, which unlike most +doors, could be locked on either side, for my uncle always wanted to lock +the doors he used, whichever way he passed through them. After we had +passed this door Agathemer closed it behind us, and, as we stood in the +pitch dark, locked it. + +We groped our way down the dizzying turns of the steep stair, Agathemer +going first and, at the bottom, whacking his knee-cap on the lower door. +This he unlocked and I found myself in a dim-lit cellar which I had +visited but twice before. Agathemer locked the stair-door behind us. + +Now the minor tower, in which was the spiral stair, was built as a vent to +carry up into the air, far above the roofs of the villa, any miasma, +effluvium or exhalation from the drainage-water of the villa's baths, +kitchen and latrines. On the subject of harmful vapours from drains my +uncle was fanatical and to bear out his contentions he quoted from the +works of many celebrated philosophers and physicians, including those of +Galen. + +Pursuant with his notions as to how to get rid of the exhalations from +drainage and to make certain that no whiff of any such vapours ever found +its way up any offset into his kitchen or any latrine or bathroom, he had +built in this small high tower a shaft reaching its top and full six feet +square all the way up. At its bottom it widened out into a chamber fully +twelve feet square, carried down below the level of the cellar floor to +form a cemented tank, vat, cistern or cesspool fully as deep as it was +wide. The outfall from this trap was by a terra-cotta pipe of considerable +size, its opening at such a point that the drain-water in the trap never +reached higher than a foot or so below the level of the cellar floor. The +various drainage-pipes from different parts of the villa were so led into +this trap-room that their lower ends were always under water, so that no +exhalations could ever pass up any of them. + +To the bottom of the trap settled the solid matter and sediment from the +drainage-water. The trap was cleaned by slaves so often that the ooze in +it never rose high enough to escape down the outfall pipe and befoul the +Bran Brook. For cleaning out the trap-room had an outer door, of heavy, +solid oak, carefully locked, which when opened enabled the slaves +entrusted with this task to dredge or bale or scoop out the filth and +convey it off to be used as garden manure. There was also an inner door, +as heavy and solid as the other, opening from the cellar, which enabled my +uncle to inspect the trap at his convenience. This door Agathemer opened. + +I peered in and, after my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, descried +the opening of the outfall drain opposite me. It was large enough for lean +men like me and Agathemer to crawl through, but certainly barely large +enough. I could see, after some moments, the lower ends of the drain +pipes, two dozen or more, dipping into the foul liquid which filled the +cistern. It was very foul, for since my uncle's death the cleaning out of +the trap had been neglected and the ooze came almost to the top of the +water. + +Agathemer hunted about the cellar, found some bits of stone about the size +of apples, put them in the bag of food, tied up its neck again, and threw +it into the trap, where it sank out of sight. After it he threw in the two +keys. + +Now was the moment for our plunge into the unknown. Agathemer's plan +implied that we must crawl a full furlong through the outfall drain. We +might be drowned, at any point of the crawl, by a rush of water from the +bath-tank. We might suffocate in the foul vapours of the drain. But, +plainly, Agathemer had pitched upon our only chance of escape, and we must +escape that way and at once or not at all. + +Agathemer threw the two copper cylinders, one after the other, neatly and +deftly into the mouth of the outfall drain. + +"Now," he said, "one of us must jump for that opening, and must cling to +it, his arms inside, his body in the ooze of the trap. The other must +stand on the narrow stone ledge inside this door, must contrive to slam +the door behind him so that it will shut fast and stay shut, must then, in +the pitch dark, jump for the shoulders of the other. If the drag of his +weight pulls the other down, both of us will drown in this deep trap in +the vile ooze. If the under man clings on, the upper must crawl over him +into the drain, pass back to him one of the cylinders and then we shall be +ready for our crawl down. Which goes first?" + +"You choose," said I. + +"Can you slam the door?" Agathemer queried. + +I considered the door, the sill, the ledge inside, the jambs of the door, +its edges; stood on the ledge, went through the motions and concluded that +I could slam the door shut and not be knocked off into the ooze by its +impact or topple off because of the sill's narrowness. I said so. + +"Then I'll go first," said Agathemer. "You are, even yet, far more +impaired in strength by your beating than I by my flogging. If I came +second you might not be able to hold on to the opening of the drain. I +know I can hold on, no matter how much filth is plastered over my head as +you crawl over me. I should not like the idea of defiling your head with +filth in crawling over you. Jump so that your clutching hands just reach +my shoulders; so that your weight will come on me gradually as you sink +into the ooze. Take your time about crawling over me. Be sure to pass back +to me one cylinder." + +Then he drilled me as to the signals he would give me by pinching my feet. +When he was sure we both knew them he grinned a wry grin, and made a +whimsical boyish gesture with his uplifted right hand, took a careful +stand on the sill, balanced himself and jumped. + +"I'm all right," he called back, "and ready for you." + +Three times I tried to slam that door and failed to shut it. The fourth +time I found myself, my back against the shut door, my toes sticking out +over the edge of the stone sill, balanced in the pitch dark on a too +narrow ledge. + +"Lean back against the door," Agathemer called, thickly. "If it gives it +is not shut." + +It did not give. + +I said so. + +"Then no one will ever know how we got out," said Agathemer; adding: "Jump +when you are ready, but say 'now.'" + +I jumped and my fingers caught his shoulders. He held on. My body sank +slowly through the ooze, which gave way with a sickening sliminess, until +I was in contact with Agathemer all the way to my toes. Then I began to +try to crawl up over him. I found it far harder than either of us had +anticipated. + +All slippery as we were with the foul ooze it was a fearful struggle for +me to scramble up over him, I slipped back so often. After what seemed an +hour of effort and apprehension I had my head, shoulders and most of my +body in the drain and knew I had succeeded. I wriggled forward till I felt +my feet beyond the opening, then about as far ahead, pushing before me the +cylinders. When Agathemer touched my foot I pushed a cylinder past my body +and felt, with my ankle, that he pulled it back. + +After that, escape was a matter of wriggling on down the drain. And +wriggling was not impossible, though excessively difficult and exhausting. +The drain was nowhere choked with silt, but all along was furred with ooze +and there was more than an inch of ooze along its bottom. In this, +hitching myself forward on my elbows by violent contortions, I slipped +back almost as much as I heaved forward. + +Agathemer seemed to have as much trouble as I had and to find the effort +as exhausting. For he had instructed me that I was not to crawl forward +until he pinched my foot. One pinch was to mean "advance," two pinches +"rest." More than once he had signalled me to rest. + +Our worst moment came somewhere near half way down the sewer. There I +encountered a cracked drain-pipe, the ragged edge of the broken terra- +cotta projecting into the sewer, its point toward me. I wriggled my +shoulders by it, though it gouged my shoulder-muscle on that side; but, at +my hips, it stuck into me so that I could not get past it. + +Agathemer, behind, kept pinching my foot, signalling for me to go forward. +I bellowed explanations, but could not suppose that he could hear them in +that horrible tube. But he either heard or guessed, he never could be sure +which. Anyhow, he felt that we must get forward or perish. In desperation +he sunk his teeth into the soft part of the inner side of the sole of my +left foot. The pain made me give a convulsive wriggle and I scraped past +the obstacle, tearing my hip badly in getting clear. + +From there on we wriggled frantically till I could see ahead a round patch +of light at the lower outfall of the drain. + +It seemed an age before I reached the opening, but reach it I did. I lay +there, my head just inside, panting and guzzling clean air in great +gulping gasps. Agathemer pinched my foot. I slipped out into the oozy pool +below the outfall, slid out as quietly as I could and kept myself +submerged up to my chin, clutching my cylinder with one hand, pulling +myself clear of the drain and keeping my head out of the drainage by +holding to the stem of an alder bush growing by the brook's edge. + +I came to rest, the sunlight dazzling my eyes, though the outfall was +shaded by willows above the alders, and looked for Agathemer. He, his face +purple, kept his head inside the sewer and I could see him suck in the +clean air in long gasps as I had. + +At that instant there was a squawking above us and, through the alders, +came, quacking and flapping their wings, a hundred or more of my uncle's +valued white ducks. Their alarm made me peep through the alder stems. I +saw, not ten yards from my face, the legs of horses, heard their hoofs +thud on the roadway, descried men's feet against their bellies, recognized +the gilded edges of the boot-soles, the make of the boots, the gilt scales +on the kilt-straps, the gilded breast plates, the crimson tunics and +short-cloaks, the gilded sword-sheaths and helmets. There, just above us, +was passing the detachment of Praetorian Guards sent to arrest or despatch +me. + +They clanked by us, never suspecting our proximity, though the ducks +resented our presence in their favorite pool and quacked at us +protestingly. They continued, in fact, to quack at us most of the time +until sunset, so that both of us were in an agony of dread for fear that +some passer-by might notice their voluble expressions of displeasure and +might take a notion to investigate to discover what was exciting their +wrath. + +But no one was attracted by the ducks' noise and, if anyone passed up or +down the road we, where we were, did not know it. + +We talked, at intervals, in whispers. Agathemer said that he had been +barely grazed by the broken drain-pipe and hardly noticed his scratches. +I, on the other hand, was in great pain from the gouge along my hip, and +hardly less pained by the tear in my shoulder. The water, under which I +had to keep up to my chin, dulled the pain of my wounds, but chilled me +till my teeth chattered, though the weather was hot; so hot in fact, that +the sunrays on my head seemed to scorch my hair, even through the willows +and alders. I was devoutly glad when the sunrays became more slanting and +the daylight began to wane, and the ducks, still quacking protestingly, +departed. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HIDING + + +It was fully dark before we dared to leave our hiding-place and attempt +the risky venture of essaying to reach a safer shelter or refuge in the +forests without attracting the attention of any dog at any of the several +farmsteads which we must pass. + +Agathemer led and I followed, my teeth chattering and the night insects +biting me severely. Hugging our precious copper cylinders we waded more +than waistdeep in the water, up the Bran Brook, sometimes all but +swimming, as we skirted some of the deeper pools. There was no moon and we +could see but little by the faint starlight. We had to go slowly, as we +could not swim and keep hold of our cylinders; and must not risk losing +one if Agathemer went over his head in a deep pool. It seemed to me that +we had been threading the curves of the brook for at least two hours when +I began to feel as if something were wrong. Even in the dark I had been +aware of a sort of recognition of each pool, shallow, riffle, bend, bank +or what not. Now, gradually, it came over me that I was among surroundings +as unfamiliar as if I had not been in Sabinum, or even in Italy. + +I caught Agathemer by the arm. + +"Where are we?" I whispered. + +"Don't talk!" he warned. + +But I insisted; for, as we were by now no more than knee-deep in the +water, I knew we must be well up towards the headwaters and it came over +me that we had not turned off anywhere as sharply as we should had we +turned up either the Chaff or the Flour. + +"Are we going up the Bran?" I queried. + +"Precisely!" Agathemer breathed. + +I almost spoke out loud. + +"This," I said, "is the last place on earth I'd expect you to guide me +to." + +"Precisely," he repeated, "and it's the last place on earth anybody else +would expect me to lead you to or you to be in, by any chance; therefore +it's the last place in Italy where any one will look for you; therefore it +is, just now, the safest place in Italy for you. Come on, I know every +stone of this brook." + +I followed him. His logic was good, but, on Ducconius Furfur's land I felt +hopelessly lost and overwhelmed by despair. + +We had not gone far from where I had forced Agathemer to reveal his ruse, +when he turned round and whispered: + +"This is the place. Here we leave the water. Follow me." + +I was dimly aware of a blacker blackness before us, as of a big, tall +rock. This we skirted and then stepped out of the brook towards the left. +There we stepped into deep drifts of dead leaves. + +"Here is bedding," said Agathemer, "such as Ulysses was content with after +his long sea-swim to the island of the Phaeacians. Perhaps we can get +along in such bedding." + +Naked as we were we burrowed into the dead leaves, and, after a bit I felt +less chilly, though by no means warm. + +Agathemer took from me the cylinder I had been carrying; opened one of the +two, a matter of some difficulty, as the top was so tight; sniffed at it, +and took from it some morsels of food: a bit of cold ham, a bit of cold +fowl and a bit of bread. These I ate, chewing them slowly. At the same +time he ate, as slowly, an equal share. + +After eating we tried to sleep. I was too weary and drowsy to keep awake, +and too cold and too much in pain from the scratch on my shoulder and the +gouge on my hip to be able to sleep long. I got some sleep before dawn, +but not much. + +Fortunately for us the night had been clear, warm and windless. Even so we +suffered severely with the cold; since the chilled air, of course, rolled +down the hillsides into the hollow along the bed of the brook, till the +valley was filled with thick mist and every leaf and twig dripped with +moisture. Through the mist the dawn broke pearly gray at first and then +iridescent; and, when the first sunrays penetrated the white haze and +gilded every leaf-edge, turning the tree-tops to gold and making every +waterdrop a diamond, no lovelier morning could be imagined. + +The trees about and above us were mostly beeches, with many chestnuts and +a few plane-trees and poplars. We were in a clump of willows with thick +alders under them, so that, even with no other protection, we could not +have been seen from any distance. And we were most excellently protected, +being on a little island where the brook forked and flowed, three or four +yards wide and nearly a yard deep, round a huge gray rock, fully fifteen +yards across and nearly seven yards high, a bulge of worn stone, shaped +much like half a melon and almost as symmetrical. And, as one might lay +half a melon, curve up, and then split it with one blow of a kitchen- +knife, so this great rock, as if cleft by a single sweep of a Titan's +sword, was rent in half and the halves left about four yards apart. The +fracture was clean and smooth, except that a piece about two yards square +had cracked loose at the ground level from the southern half and lay +bedded in the mud, its top a foot or so above the earth, leaving in the +face of one rock a rectangular niche about a man's length each way, in +which cavity two men could shelter from the rain. + +As soon as it was light enough to see I was for crawling into this little +cavern. But Agathemer restrained me. + +"The face of the rock," he said, "would feel cold as ice to your skin. You +have, even if you do not realize it, somewhat warmed the leaves next you. +For the present we are least uncomfortable where we are. The dawn-wind +cannot get at our hides while we are under these leaves. Keep still." + +He kept himself as much as possible under the leaves but wriggled nearer +the altar-shaped bit of rock. Half-sitting, half crouching by it, little +besides his head out of the heap of leaves in which he was, he opened both +cylinders and laid out on the top of the stone what food was in them. This +he divided into six equal portions, two he put back in each cylinder. We +munched interminably, making every morsel last as long as possible. + +The food revived me, and even before the dawn-wind had died, the rays of +the sun began to make themselves felt. I began to be restless; Agathemer +again checked me. + +"Keep still," he commanded. "As soon as the sun has dried the dew off the +leaves I can make you more comfortable. Just now we are best as we are." + +I kept under the leaves, but I peered about. At each end of the cleft +between the two halves of the rock I could see the brook brawling by among +the worn stones. The line of the cleft was directly across the bed of the +brook; and, along the cleft, past the detached, almost buried, altar- +shaped stone, I descried, barely discernible but unmistakable, such a path +as is made by the bare or sandalled feet of even one human being following +daily the same track. I conned it. I judged that it was many, many decades +old and had been trodden daily for a lifetime or so, but that it had been +totally disused for at least a year and possibly for more. + +I pointed it out to Agathemer and asked him about it. + +"That," he said, "is part of what used to be the shorter and more used of +the two paths from Furfur's villa to Philargyrus's farmstead. Naturally, +since the Philargyrus farm has been detached from Furfur's estate and has +become part of yours, there must be very little intercommunication between +the farm and the villa and I judged that any slave going from one to the +other would avoid the more obvious path and sneak round the longer way. +Therefore I judged it safer to locate here, as this path is probably +totally unused." + +"How did you know of it?" I queried. + +Up to his neck in leaves, arms under too, only his head out, Agathemer +blushed all over his handsome face. + +"Before Andivius won the suit," he said, "while Philargyrus was still +Furfur's tenant, I had an impassioned love-affair with one of Furfur's +slave-girls. We used to meet here, at first on moonlit nights, and, later, +when we each knew every inch of our way here and home again, more often on +moonless nights. I always waded up and down the bed of the brook, so as to +leave no scent for any dog to follow. I know this nook well and thought of +it the instant I began to plan an escape for you." + +I said nothing. + +"It is barely possible," he said, "that some one may use this path, even +if no one has passed along it for months. That is just the way luck turns +out. I mean to be invisible if anyone does come. There was no likelihood +of anyone coming by at dawn, and no possibility of doing anything if +anyone did come. Now it is warm enough for me to pick off the outer layer +of dew-wet leaves from whatever heaps of dead leaves are hereabouts. I can +gather the dry leaves into that little grotto. We can lie on a bed of +them, wrapped up in them we can cower under them, we can even pull our +heads under and be invisible if we hear footsteps approaching. You keep +still." + +He then stood up and went off. After a time he returned with a great +armful of leaves, which he threw into the niche. After many trips he had +the niche almost full of fairly dry dead leaves. By this time the warmth +of the sun was making itself felt and I stood up and stretched myself. I +did not feel weak, but my shoulder and hip, where the drain-pipe had torn +me, and the sole of my foot, where Agathemer had bitten me, were decidedly +painful. Agathemer, solicitously, steadied me on my feet and led me to the +streamside. There I seated myself on a convenient rock and he bathed my +foot, hip and shoulder. There was no sign of puffiness or heat in any of +the three wounds, but all three were raw and sore. We had nothing with +which to dress them and Agathemer merely dried them as well as he could by +patting them. + +Meanwhile, even in my misery and despair, even hungry, weak and cold and +in pain as I was, I could not but feel a gleam of pleasure at the +enchanting beauty of the woodland scene about our hiding place. I gazed up +at the bits of blue sky between the sunlit boughs, at the canopy of green, +at the tenderer green of the underwood, at the carpet of grass, ferns, +sedges and flowering plants which hid the earth and I almost rejoiced at +its loveliness. + +Agathemer led me back to our retreat and ensconced me in the nook of rock, +on a soft deep bed of dry dead leaves, under a coverlet of more. Into the +heaps he burrowed. The warmth of his naked body warmed me a trifle. There +we lay still till dark. I slept, I think, from about noon till after +sunset. + +While we could still see, Agathemer, making me keep flat as I was, +wriggled out of the leaves and pushed them aside from my head and face. We +then ate half our remaining food. As it grew dark Agathemer expounded to +me his plans. + +"Last night," he said, "there was no sense in doing anything. Hiding and +keeping out of sight was the best thing we could do. But tonight I must +try to steal what we need most. The risk must be taken. If I do not return +you will know I have done my best. But I feel confident of returning +before midnight. I know every farmstead on Furfur's estate and all the +dogs know me. On your estate I not only know the dogs, but I have just +finished an inspection and I know the location of every dairy, smoke- +house, larder and oven, I might almost say of every loaf, cheese, ham, +flitch, wine-vat and oil-jar on the estate, not to mention every store- +room where I might get us hats, tunics, sandals, quilts and what not. + +"If I cannot do it otherwise, as a last resort I'll wake Uturia and tell +her of our situation; she will help and will be secret. But I'll not +resort to her if I can help it. Her most willing secrecy will not be as +safe as her ignorance of our fate. No torture could surmount that." + +I wanted to say "Farewell," but restrained myself and uttered a not too +gloomy: + +"Good luck and a prosperous return!" + +After that, I lay and quaked till long past midnight. Then, I seemed to +hear sounds which I could but interpret as heralding Agathemer's approach. +In fact he soon spoke to me from close by and I heard the unmistakable +blurred noise made by a soft and yet heavy pack deposited on the ground by +my bed of leaves. + +"I've nearly everything I wanted," said Agathemer. "Keep still while I +untie the quilt I carried it all in, and find things in the dark." + +Presently he said: + +"Stand up, and I'll try to dress you." + +In the dark his hand found my hand and he guided me so that I extricated +myself from the heap of leaves without hitting my head on the jutting roof +of rock and without slipping on the wet earth or stumbling from weakness. + +In the dark he slipped over my head a coarse, patched tunic. (I could feel +against my skin the rude stitching of the patches.) Then he wrapped about +me a coarse cloak, also much patched. + +"Now," he said, "stand where you are till I make some sort of a bed for +you." + +He fumbled about in the dark, grunting and making, I thought, too much +rustling in the leaves. Presently he said: + +"I've laid a doubled quilt on the leaves and packed them down. Give me +your hand and I'll arrange you on it. Then I'll cover you with another +quilt." + +He did, deftly and solicitously. + +I began to feel warm for the first time since I had sunk into the ooze of +the drain-trap. + +Agathemer fumbled about in the dark for a while and then came near again +and felt me, making sure where my head was. He made me sit up. + +"Smell that!" he said, "and catch hold of it." + +I smelt ewe's-milk cheese and my fingers closed on a generous piece of it. +Then, he put into my other hand a big chunk of bread, not yet entirely +cold. + +I bit the bread. It was Ofatulena's unsurpassable farm bread, half wheat +flour and half barley flour and at that more appetizing and flavorsome +than any wheat-bread I ever tasted. + +"There is plenty for both of us," Agathemer said, "eat all you want, but +eat slow and be careful not to bolt a morsel." + +He sat down by me and we munched in silence. + +By and by he asked: + +"Do you want any more?" + +"No," I answered, "you judged my capacity pretty well. I am filled up." + +"Don't lie down," he said, "I have a small kid-skin of wine." + +We laughed a good deal before he made sure precisely where my mouth was +and put into it the reed which projected from one leg of the kid-skin. I +drank in abundance of a thin, sour wine, such as we kept for the slaves. +It gave me new life. + +After that draught of wine I composed myself to sleep and went to sleep at +once. I knew nothing of Agathemer's doings after that and did not feel him +when he lay down by me. I slept till broad daylight. + +When I waked Agathemer gave me a moderate draught of wine and all the +bread and cheese I chose to eat: also a handful of olives. Then he +displayed the total of his plunder: hats, with brims neither too broad nor +too narrow, the best pattern if one was to have only one hat, worn and +battered enough to suit us as being inconspicuous, yet nowhere torn, +broken or slit; a tunic and cloak apiece, about the oldest and most +patched in my villa-farm storage-loft, such as Ofatulena would hand out to +newly bought and untried slaves; three quilts, as bad as the cloaks and +tunics, yet, like them, fairly serviceable and far from worn out; the kid- +skin of wine, a whole loaf of bread and the remains of the one we had been +eating, what was left of a cheese and another whole; a little, tall, +narrow jar of olive oil; a small bag of olives; a tiny box full of salt, +the box of beechwood and about the size of a man's three fingers; a +whetstone, a pair of rusty scissors; two small beechwood cups; a little +copper dipper; some rags, old and worn, but perfectly clean; and a +flageolet! + +"In the name of Dionysius!" I cried laughing, "why the flageolet?" + +Agathemer laughed also. + +"My hand," he said, "came on it in the dark while feeling for the +scissors. I could not resist bringing it. It is small, it weighs little, +it will not add to our burdens and, once far away from here, I can play on +it when we are lonely and so cheer us up." + +"You appear," I said, "to have been able to help yourself as you pleased." + +"No more trouble," said he, "than if I had walked out of the villa night +before last and poked about the out-buildings to see whether everything +was as when I inspected them by day; only three dogs barked, and they +quieted down almost immediately. I am sure I roused no one and am ready to +wager that every slave was as sound asleep as if I had not been there." + +I lazily readjusted myself on my quilt and leaf mattress, tucking my quilt +close about me. The morning was still, warm and cloudy, not a ray of +sunshine visible, even for a moment, since sunset the night before. + +"Time to dress your wounds!" said Agathemer. + +He brought from the brook a cupful of water, and, with the smallest of the +rags, solicitously bathed the gouge on my hip. He pronounced it healing +healthily. He then anointed it with olive oil. The bathing and anointing +comforted me greatly. Then, he similarly treated my shoulder and foot. +When I was composed and covered he said: + +"Now for the scissors!" and he sharpened them on his whetstone until he +felt satisfied that he could get them no sharper, then he clipped my hair +and beard, as closely as those scissors could. Then I sat up and clipped +him, awkwardly and unevenly, but effectively. + +Hardly were we shorn when drops of rain began to patter on the leaves +above us. Agathemer wrapped his bread in the rags, put it between the two +hats and tucked it under the leaves in one inner corner of the little +grotto; bestowed the other things on it, or by it or in the other corner; +and then lay down by me and pulled his quilt over him, then managing to +cover both of us with leaves so that no trace of our presence would be +visible to any passer-by, yet we could breathe comfortably behind or under +our screen of leaves. + +It rained all day, a sluggish drizzle, soaking the earth, but not +accumulating enough water on it to produce visible trickles flowing on the +surface. The air was perfectly windless, so that no rain blew in on us as +we lay; we were damp, but not wet. + +Before dusk the rain ceased and a brisk, warm wind shook the drops from +the trees. We ate and Agathemer declared his intention of going on another +raid about an hour after dark. + +"What are you after this time?" I queried. + +"More food," he said, "all I dare steal. I must not steal too much from +any one place. I'll wager my pilferings of last night will pass, not +merely unheeded, but entirely unnoticed. Ofatulena herself is so scatter- +brained that she will never be sure that two loaves vanished from her +oven; I doubt if she will so much as suspect any loss. But I cannot repeat +that depletion of her baking tonight; she might talk. She is not quick- +witted enough to conjecture the truth, if she did her utter loyalty would +keep her mute; she'd impute the theft to some slave and likely as not have +an investigation and advertise her loss. If there happened to be a crafty +inspector with the Praetorians and if they have lingered, they might +suspect the truth, beat the woods for us and capture us. So I must take a +little here and a little there. + +"Then I want another quilt for myself, and shoes for both of us. Is there +anything else you can think of?" + +"Manifestly!" I said, "we need a slave-scourge, a branding-iron with the +long F for 'runaway', [Footnote: _Fugitivus_. The short F stood for _fur_, +"thief."] a brazier big enough to heat the branding iron and enough +charcoal to fire it once." + +"What, in the name of Mercury," he whispered amazedly, "do you want of a +branding-iron and a scourge?" + +"We are to pass as runaway slaves, if caught, according to your outline of +a plan," I said, "we had best do all we can to be sure of being thought +ordinary runaway slaves. Few slaves travel far from their owners' land +when they first venture to run away. We should be branded, to seem old +offenders. + +"As for you, thanks to Nemestronia, your back is all it should be to help +play the part we intend. My back has no scars. You must scourge me till I +have as many as you." + +In the late dusk, inside that grotto, under the dead leaves, I could see +the horror on his face. + +"I scourge you!" he cried aloud. + +"Hush!" I admonished him. "Scourged I must be, if I am to hope to escape +Caesar's agents as you have cleverly conceived that I might. Steal a +scourge and a branding-iron tonight, and let us be ready for the road as +soon as may be; we cannot set out northwards till my back is healed and +the brands on both of us, too." + +We wrangled and argued till it was past time for him to start on his +expedition. I finally declared that, unless he fetched a scourge and a +branding-iron, I would, at daybreak, walk back to my villa and give myself +up to the authorities. At that he consented. + +I went to sleep soon after he was gone and never woke till daylight. + +I woke from a troubled sleep, haunted by nightmare dreams, woke aware of a +general discomfort, misery and horror, and of acute pain in my wounds. I +seemed to have a good appetite and ate with relish; but, hardly had I +ceased eating, when I appeared definitely feverish and the pain in my foot +became unbearable. + +I told Agathemer how I felt and he examined my wounds. All three were +puffy, red, even purplish, and with pus at the edges. It was then and has +always been since a puzzle to both of us why wounds, seemingly healing +naturally when unwashed and undressed, should inflame and fester after +careful washing and dressing. + +My fever was not high, but enough to make me fretful and irritable. The +day was very hot and still. I made Agathemer show me what spoil he had +brought and at once ordered him to light the charcoal brazier, heat the +iron and brand me. He demurred. + +"If you feel feverish," he said, "the pain of the branding will double +your fever and, if you have three inflamed wounds, the brand will fester +to a certainty. You'll probably die of it, if I brand you." + +"As well die one way as another," I said. "If we stay here we are certain +to be discovered sooner or later. Our only hope is to get away as soon as +may be. That cannot be until my back and both brands heal enough for us to +tramp northward. Your back is healed, so your brand will heal promptly. I +have to get over these wounds and the branding and scourging too. We must +be quick." + +He argued, but I was half delirious and wholly unreasonable. I again +threatened to go straight to the villa and give myself up unless I had my +way. + +Agathemer, distraught and aghast, yielded. I argued that in the early +haze, the little trifle of smoke from the charcoal could not attract +notice. He complied. He had trouble getting a light from his flint and +steel, but he succeeded, and, when the charcoal caught, set the little +brazier close to our nook and fanned it with a leafy bough to disperse the +smoke. When no further trace of smoke appeared and the charcoal glowed +evenly, he put the iron to heat. + +When it was hot enough he suggested, again, that we put off branding me +till next day, and that he brand only himself. I insisted on his branding +me and branding me first. + +To my amazement, when he had bared my shoulder, set me in position, and +snatched the iron from the brazier, I shrank back with a sort of weak +scream. + +Agathemer instantly replaced the iron in the brazier and turned, staring +at me in silence. + +Instantly I had a revulsion of resolution, of obstinacy, of delirious +rage. I reviled him. I commanded, I threatened. + +Coolly he bared his left shoulder, knelt by the brazier and made as if to +brand himself. + +"You can't do it," I protested, "you'll scar yourself to no purpose and +anyone will know the mark is not a brand. Fetch the iron here and hand it +to me." + +He did, deftly. Without a wince or squeak he, kneeling and leaning, held +his shoulder to the white-hot iron. I could not have done better if I had +been well and standing, instead of delirious and sitting, wrapped in a +quilt, in a bed of dried leaves. I set the iron fair on the muscle of his +shoulder, held it there just the brief instant required for branding +without injury and snatched it away without any drag sideways. + +After witnessing the stoical heroism of my slave I could not but insist on +his branding me and was exalted to the point of nerve-tension at which I +bit in my half-uttered scream as the heat seared my flesh. Agathemer +dressed each brand with an oil-soaked rag and we composed ourselves to +hide until dark. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SUCCOUR + + +As on the days before, no one passed us and, indeed, as far as I could +judge, no living thing came near us, except a hare or two. We kept close +under our heap of leaves, inside our niche of rock. But this time I did +not snuggle inside my cloak and quilt; I cast off, first the quilt, then +the cloak, and lay in my tunic only, panting and gasping. For it was a +very hot, still day, and my fever increased, increased so much, in fact, +that I could stomach but little food at dusk and took but little interest +in anything; in my condition, in Agathemer's brand, in his departure. + +His return, late at night, was to me only one incident of a sort of +continuous nightmare: I was half asleep, wholly delirious and every +impression was as the half-delusion of a half-waking dream. I was barely +half-conscious, yet I had sense enough to lie still, except for writhing +and turning over, and to restrain myself from singing or screaming. + +At dawn I ate even less than at dusk, but I did eat something. Eating +roused me enough for me to insist on Agathemer's stripping me and +scourging me. He felt my forehead, my wrists and my feet, and shook his +head. + +"You have a terrific fever," he said, "and four festering wounds, for the +brand-mark is festering already; you are in danger of death anyhow as it +is; you will never recover from a scourging." + +I, with all a delirious man's unreasoning, insisted and again threatened +to give myself up. + +The sun was about two hours high, gilding the treetops and sending shafts +of golden light through the still wet foliage. One such shaft of sunshine +shot between the two halves of the great rock that sheltered us and fell +on the table-topped fragment of stone, like a nearly buried altar, which +lay midway of them. + +Writhing and groaning I slipped out of my quilt, cloak and tunic, and, +groaning, I crawled to the flat-topped stone. Face down on it I lay, my +chest against it, my knees on the ground, my arms outstretched, my fingers +gripping the far edge of the altar-stone. + +So placed I bade Agathemer lay on with the scourge. + +"Flay me!" I ordered. "I should be torn raw from neck to hips. The worse I +am scored and ripped the more protection the scars will be. Lay on +furiously. If I faint, finish the job before you revive me." + +He began lashing me, but hesitatingly; I reviled him for a coward; but the +pain, even of the first strokes, was too much for me. I could feel the +sweat on my forehead, my finger nails dug into the sides of the stone, its +sharp edge cut into the soft inside of my clutching fingers, I bit my +tongue to keep from shrieking, yet my voice, as I taunted Agathemer and +railed at him, rose to a sort of scream. + +He laid on more fiercely. After a dozen blows or more a harder blow made +me groan. At that instant I was aware of a shadow above me, of a human +figure rushing past me, and the blows ceased. + +I let go my clutch on the rock and tried to stand up. I did succeed in +kneeling up, supported by my hand on the altar stone. So half erect I +looked round. + +Agathemer lay under the intruder, who had him by the throat with both +hands. Partly by sight, even from behind him, partly by the objurgation +which he panted out, I recognized Chryseros Philargyrus and realized that +he thought that Agathemer had been torturing me in revenge for his +flogging at Nemestronia's. + +I instantly forgot my plight and my natural instincts asserted themselves. +As if I had been then what I had been ten days before, I ordered Chryseros +to loose Agathemer and he obeyed me, as if I had been what I felt myself, +his master. + +He and Agathemer stood up and looked at me and each other: I must have +made a laughable spectacle, swaying as I knelt, my hands on the rock, my +hair and beard mere clipped stubble, and I naked, with my back bleeding +and both shoulders and one hip inflamed, purple-red and puffy. Certainly +both Chryseros and Agathemer appeared comical to me, even in my pain and +misery and weakness and through the enveloping horror of my fever. +Agathemer, his hair and beard a worse stubble than mine, was gasping and +ruefully rubbing his throat, making a ridiculous figure in his brown +tunic, patched with patches of red, yellow and blue, all sewed on with +white thread. Chryseros was panting, and his bald head shone in the sun. +He had cast off his cloak as he rushed at Agathemer and stood only in his +rusty brown tunic, himself as dry and lean as a dead limb of a tree. + +Although he had obeyed instantly when I ordered him to loose Agathemer, +yet, perhaps from some vagary of my fever, I stared at Chryseros without +any other feeling than that he had been for most of his life the tenant of +our family enemy. As I looked at him I felt utterly lost, as if there was +now no hope for me, as if Chryseros would certainly betray me to the +authorities. I felt utterly despairing and totally reckless. This mood, +oddly enough, urged me to do the very best thing I could have done. + +Either from right instinct or delirious folly, I informed Chryseros fully +of our purposes, doings and plans. He apologized to Agathemer for his +assault on him, affirmed his complete loyalty to me and promised all +possible assistance and perfect secrecy. He examined me and said: + +"I'll have your wounds clean, your back dried up, every inch of you +healing properly and your fever cooled before morning. Here, Agathemer, +help get him abed." + +They washed my back and laid me, naked as I was, on the quilt laid over +the bed of leaves, then they covered me with the other quilt. + +"You two keep close till I come back," Chryseros advised. "Someone else +might use this path. I'll be back soon and I'll arrange to excite no +suspicion." + +When he returned he had me out on the flat-topped stone, washed my back +and wounds, and then bathed them with some lotion which, when first +applied, felt cooling and soothing, but almost at once burnt into me till +every part of my back, my hip and both my shoulders smarted worse than had +the one shoulder as the brand seared it: at least that was how I felt. I +writhed and groaned. + +"Keep still!" Chryseros admonished me. "Keep quiet! This is doing you +good." + +And he chafed my back, inundating it with his fiery liniment till I was on +the verge of fainting from mere pain. Half fainting I was as the two +raised me to my feet and put the tunic on me, as they helped me back to my +bed in the little grotto. When I was recumbent Chryseros made me drink a +nauseous, black, bitter liquid and then lie flat. + +"Keep there till morning," he said, "and fast. Food can do you no good +while you have such a fever and fasting can do you no harm." + +Actually I was asleep before I knew it and slept all day and all night, +not waking until Agathemer, when Chryseros ordered it, roused me. They +pressed on me a quart bowl of milk warm from the cow, and I drank most of +it. I felt much better and Chryseros pronounced me free from fever and +after he had inspected my back and wounds and again inundated them with +his fiery lotion, declared all inflammation had vanished and that I was +healing up properly. He enjoined Agathemer to let me have no food but +milk, said he would bring more after sunset, and told us to keep close in +the niche. I slept all day long, and after a second draught of milk at +dusk, all night till the sun was well up. + +I woke feeling stiff and sore, uncomfortable on my back, hip and +shoulders, but with no positive pain anywhere: also I felt like my usual +self. And I may say here, parenthetically, that I never had another day's +illness through all the vicissitudes of my flight, hiding, adventures and +misfortunes. + +Chryseros brought me milk; excellent wheat bread; a smooth and appetizing +veal-stew, with beans and lentils in it and seasoned with spices; cheese +newly made from fresh curds, and luscious plums. He let me eat my fill and +drink all the milk I wanted. But he would not let me taste the wine of +which Agathemer drank moderately. + +"If you feel sleepy," said Chryseros, "roll over, cover yourself and go to +sleep; we can talk tomorrow." + +"I do not feel sleepy," I declared, "and I feel very much like asking +questions." + +"Then we'll talk at once," he said, "we'll take all the time needed for +your recovery; but once you are recovered, we'll waste no time in getting +you out of Sabinum." + +The morning was fair and warm, with a light breeze. I was on my bed of +leaves inside my nook of rock. Agathemer was squatted by my head, his back +against that edge of the niche; by my feet, leaning against the opposite +edge of the niche, facing Agathemer, and therefore where I could best see +and hear him sat Chryseros. + +He began by telling me that I must remain where I was until he judged me +fit to travel, even if I remained ten days more; but that he thought I +might be able to start to-morrow night and would make his preparations +accordingly. His first idea, he said, had been to set off on horseback for +Spolitum, near, which he had a sister married to a prosperous farmer, to +whom he had paid visits at intervals of about five years. He had thought +that it would be easy and safe to take me and Agathemer with him on foot, +disguised as slaves. This idea, however, Agathemer had antagonized, +pointing out that any convoy from my estate would be severely scrutinized +and every man examined and searched; that there was no chance of our +escaping by such a plan. + +At this point of his discourse he told me that the Praetorians had already +departed from Villa Andivia leaving in charge Gratillus, a treasury +officer of the confiscation department, a man whom I knew too well as also +a member of the secret service, an articled Imperial spy and an active +professional informer, moreover a man who had always hated my uncle, and +who had hated me from my boyhood. + +According to Chryseros, Gratillus had made no great effort to find me, +since, in fact, neither he nor anyone connected with the government had +had any suspicion that I had returned home. He had merely made a +perfunctory investigation to assure himself, as he thought, that I had not +so returned. He had examined all the tenantry and slaves, had asked +questions, but had tortured no one and had been quite satisfied with the +answers he had received. Oddly enough, while he had closely questioned +himself and my other eight tenants as to the date of my departure for Rome +and as to whether they had seen me since they last saw me in Rome, and +while he had questioned Uturia and Ofatulena as to whether they had seen +me since I set off for Rome, he had somehow omitted or forgotten to ask +Ofatulenus the same questions, so that he had been able to answer +truthfully the only questions asked of him. Agathemer, I found, had told +Chryseros that only he and Ofatulenus had seen me between my return and +escape. + +Gratillus had especially questioned the wives of my eight tenants, and as +Chryseros was a widower, his widowed daughter, who lived with him. Each of +these he had summoned before him separately and had interrogated alone and +at length. This was like Gratillus. + +He had made but one arrest, and this dumbfounded me. Ducconius Furfur had +been interrogated, like all my neighbors, but, while the rest had been +dismissed after answering what questions were put to them, Furfur, with +two servants, had accompanied to Rome the Praetorians when they went away. + +The more I reflected on this the stranger it seemed. + +Neither Chryseros nor Agathemer had any doubt that a close watch was being +quietly kept to make sure that I could not now return to Villa Andivia +without being caught; nor yet leave it if I did return or had returned. + +As a result of his discussion with Agathemer they had agreed that we were +to leave by night and on foot, as we had originally intended. But he had +argued that, while it was perfectly sensible for us to plan to pass +ourselves off as runaway slaves if arrested and questioned, there was no +sense whatever in doing anything to appear like runaway slaves unless we +were actually arrested and questioned. Agathemer had admitted this, but +had pointed out that, while we had no hope of any assistance whatever, and +were planning to escape by our own unaided efforts, there was no +possibility of our trying to appear anything else than runaway slaves, as +he could easily steal slaves' cloaks and tunics from my spare stores, but +had no hope of getting his hands on any other garments. He had joyfully +accepted the ideas and suggestions which Chryseros put forward, as well as +his proffers of assistance. + +Chryseros directed that the two copper cylinders and most of the spoils of +Agathemer's pilferings should be left in our little grotto, hidden under +the dead leaves. He would then smuggle them away and dispose of them. He +would supply us with rusty brown tunics and cloaks of undyed mixed wool, +such as were worn by poor or economical farmers throughout Sabinum. Also +he would supply us with hats better than those Agathemer had fetched; +belts; and travelling wallets, neither too big nor too small, neither too +new nor too worn, and each with a shoulder-strap for easy carriage; good, +heavy shoes, two pair of them for each of us, so that we might carry a +spare pair in each wallet. In the wallets also we were to hide the hunting +knives Agathemer had taken from my uncle's collection; which knives, +blades, handles and sheaths Chryseros highly approved. + +At sight of the flageolet he grinned, the only smile I saw on his face +while he was helping us in our hiding and out of it. Agathemer, +obstinately, insisted on taking that flageolet. And Chryseros grudgingly +admitted that it might prove a really valuable possession, perhaps. We +took, of course, our two little flint and steel cases. + +Chryseros said we ought to eat all we could manage to swallow up to the +moment of our departure. He would pack our wallets with food which could +be made to last four or five days and would be plenty for two days. Most +important of all he would supply us with money, half copper and half +silver, as much as our wallets could properly hold, so as not to make us +appear thieves, if we were suspected and haled before a magistrate. With +money we could travel openly and by day after we were well out of Sabinum. + +We planned to make our way eastward, inclining very little to the north, +towards Fisternae. The crossing of the Tolenus and Himella should give us +no trouble whatever. We would pass south of Cliternia and north of +Fisternae. Chryseros questioned Agathemer closely as to his knowledge of +the byroads, and applauded him highly, only on a few points correcting him +or amplifying what he knew. North of Fisternae we could gain the mountains +and work northwards. + +The most dangerous part of our proposed route, the critical point of our +escape, would be the crossing of the Avens and the Salarian Highway, which +we must effect somewhere near Forum Decii, between Interocrium and +Falacrinum. Once in the mountains we should be able easily to continue on +northwards into Umbria. + +Chryseros suggested that, once in Umbria, we could pass ourselves off as +buyers of cattle, goats and mules, all of which were bred on the mountain +farms and regularly bought up by itinerant dealers who drove them or had +them driven to Rome. The Umbrian mountains had no such numbers of these +animals as Sabinum produced and their quality was far inferior, so that +the dealers were always men of small means, driving close bargains. + +All this sounded very promising and, about half way between sunrise and +noon, he left us to hide for the rest of the day. I slept well and woke +feeling almost myself, with merely trifling discomfort from my fast +healing wounds. + +When Chryseros returned in the dusk, I ate ravenously. He brought us good, +coarse tunics and cloaks, also hats, shoes, and belts; and for each of us, +a small leather case containing two good needles and a little hank of +strong linen thread. We talked in subdued tones, as before, and kept it up +until long after dark. + +Next morning I woke full of hope and eager to be off. Chryseros brought +our wallets and we packed them with everything they were to hold except +most of the food. We had a long wrangle over the money, as Chryseros +wanted to force on us more silver than I thought it safe to carry. + +That night, after a generous meal and a long final talk with Chryseros, we +set off to sneak our way into the Aemilian Estate and from there eastward. +Before we set off Chryseros insisted on hanging round each of our necks, +by the usual leathern thong, one of those tiny, flat leathern pouches, in +which slaves were accustomed to wear protective amulets. He declared that +these contained talismans of great potency and of inestimable value to us +in our flight, as in any risk or venture. At the moment of parting, to my +amazement, he burst into tears, threw his arms around me, held me close +and clung to me sobbing, and kissing me as if I had been his own son. As +we moved off I could still hear his sobs. + +We had excellent luck. Hiding by day and threading devious paths by night +we reached and passed the Avens and the Salarian Highway without any +encounter with any human being; and indeed without near proximity to any. +Our daytime hiding-places all turned out to have been well chosen and no +one approached us in any one of them. The moon, which was in her first +quarter on the night of our setting out, helped us nightly. There was no +rain and only some moderate cloudiness, enough to be helpful at the time +of the full moon, when there was enough light all night for us to see to +travel at a good rate of speed and without any error at forks in the +paths; and yet not enough light to make us conspicuous to any who might be +abroad late at night. + +Once beyond the Nar and almost at the borders of Umbria, we grew bolder, +travelled by day, bought food as we needed it, put up at inns and acted +the character we had assumed, of Sabines intent on stock-buying in the +Umbrian mountains. No one appeared to suspect us and we had no adventures. + +But, inevitably, once we had escaped, we did not so much think of +immediate danger as of permanent safety. Chryseros had confirmed our +instinctive opinion that, as Sabines, we should be much less likely to +arouse suspicion in Umbria and the Po Valley than in Samnium, Lucania or +Bruttium. We had never thought of escape southward; northward we had meant +to work our way, from the instant of conceiving the idea of escaping. But +we had no settled, coherent plan as to how to achieve safety and keep +alive. We could not hide in the mountains indefinitely. + +We both agreed that we could hide best in a large city. Marseilles might +have been a perfect hiding-place could we have reached it, full as it +always was of riff-raff from all the shores of the Mediterranean and from +all parts of Italy. But Marseilles we could reach only by the Aurelian +Highway, through Genoa along the coast, and the Aurelian Highway was +certain to be sown with spies and likely enough might be travelled upon by +officials who had known me from childhood and would probably know me +through any disguise. + +Aquileia, on the other hand, was far more populous than Marseilles, even +more a congeries of rabble from all shores and districts, even more easy- +going. In Aquileia we should be able to earn a comfortable living by not +too onerous activities and to be wholly unsuspected. Towards Aquileia we +decided to try to make our way. The roads, being less travelled, would be +less spied-on and we should meet officials less likely to recognize me. + +But, if we were to reach Aquileia, we must husband our silver. Agathemer's +idea was that, from where we reached the borders of Umbria, somewhere +between Trebia and Nursia, we should keep as near as possible to the chine +of the mountain-chain, using the roads, paths, tracks or trails highest up +the slope of the mountains; avoiding being seen as much as possible, and, +if we were seen, claiming to have lost our way through misunderstanding +the directions given us by the last natives we had met. He proposed to +steal food for us, instead of buying it, and expounded his ideas, +maintaining that it would be easy and not dangerous. + +We tried his plan and succeeded well with it. So wild and untravelled were +the districts which we traversed that, nearly half the time, we were +welcomed at farmsteads, (to which welcome Agathemer's flageolet-playing +greatly assisted us), invited to spend the night and had lavished upon our +entertainment all their rustic abundance, so that we visibly grew fat. +When such luck did not befall us we had no trouble in helping ourselves to +supplies, for, far up the mountains, most habitations were shacks tenanted +only in summer and only by lads acting as goat-herds or herdsmen, who +spent the day abroad with their charges, so that we could readily enter +their deserted cabins and take what we pleased; especially as, if a dog +had been left to guard the hut, I could always master him so that he +greeted me fawning and stood wagging his tail as we made off. + +Except these not very risky raids for provender and such encounters as +called for more than usually ingenious lying from Agathemer, we had no +adventures. + +But we realized from day to day and more and more insistently, that we +were progressing slowly, far slower than we had anticipated. It was plain +that we could not hope to reach Aquileia before winter set in. It was +manifest that it would be unsafe to attempt to winter anywhere in the Po +valley between the mountains and Aquileia. At Ravenna, Bononia or Padua we +should be noticed, investigated and perhaps recognized: anywhere in the +open country, at any village or farm, we should, even more certainly +excite suspicion. We must winter in the mountains. But how or where? + +The question was solved for us by our first considerable adventure. I +never knew the precise locality. We had, in traversing the mountains +trails, avoided any semblance of ignorance of our general locality and had +sedulously refrained from asking any questions except as to our way to +some nearby objective, generally imaginary. All I know is that we were +somewhere on the northeastern slope of the long chain of mountains beyond +Iguvium and Tifernum perhaps near the headwaters of the Sena. On the +morning of our adventure we were on a long spur of the main range, so that +we were headed not northwest but northeast. The weather was still fine and +warm, but autumn was not far off. We hadn't seen a habitation since that +at which we had passed the night, and we had made about three leagues +since we left it, following what was at first a good mountain road, but +which grew worse and worse till it became a mere trail. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE LONELY HUT + + +Some time before noon we were threading a barely visible track not far +below the crest of the spur, a track bordered and overshadowed by +chestnuts and beeches, but chestnuts and beeches intermingled with not a +few pines and firs, when, out of the bushes on our left hand, from the up +slope above us, appeared a large mouse-colored Molossian dog, very lean +and starved looking. I first saw his big, square-jowled, short-muzzled +head peering out between some low cornel bushes, his brown eyes regarding +me questioningly. + +He fawned on me, of course, and I made friends with him, fondled him, +pulled his ears and played with him a while. + +Agathemer tartly enquired whether we really had time to waste on +skylarking with strange dogs. I laughed, picked up my wallet, and started +to follow him as he swung round and strode on, ordering the dog to go back +home, a command which, from me, almost always won instant compliance and +disembarrassed me of any casual roadside friends. + +But the dog did not obey. He pawed at me, whined, and caught my cloak in +his teeth, tugging at it and whining. I could not induce him to let go, +could not shake him off, and was much puzzled. Agathemer, impatient and +irritated, halted again and urged our need of haste. + +After exhausting every wile by which I had been accustomed to rid myself +of too fond animals, I began to realize that the dog did not want to +follow us, did not want us to remain where we were and go on playing with +him, but, as plainly as if he spoke Latin, he was begging us to accompany +him somewhere. + +I said to Agathemer: + +"I'm going with this dog; come along." + +He remonstrated. + +I declared that I had an intuition that to follow the dog was the right +thing to do. Agathemer, contemptuous and reluctant, yielded. The dog led +us along an all but undistinguishable track through densely growing trees, +up steep slopes and out into a flattish glade or clearing at the brow of +the slope, overhung by merely a few hundred feet of wooded mountain side +and bare cliffs to the crest. The clearing was clothed in soft, late, +second-growth grass, and had plainly been mown at haying time and pastured +on since. In it we found some well-built, well-thatched farm-buildings: a +sheepfold, a goatpen, a cowshed, a strongly built structure like a granary +or store-house, another like a repository for wine-jars and oil-jars; +hovels such as all mountain farms have for slave-quarters and a house or +cabin little better than a hut, mud-walled, like the other buildings, but +new thatched. It was nearly square and had no ridge-pole, the four slopes +of the roof running together, at the top, yet not into a point, but as if +there were a smoke-vent: in fact I thought I saw a suggestion of smoke +rising from the peak of the roof. + +To this hut the dog led us. The heavy door of weathered, rough-hewn oak +was shut, but, when I pushed it, proved to be unfastened. I found myself +looking into a largish room, roofed with rough rafters from which hung +what might have been hams, flitches and cheeses. It was mud-walled and had +a floor of beaten earth, in which was a sand-pit, nearly full of ashes and +with a small fire smouldering in the middle of it. Opposite me was a rough +plank partition with two doors in it, both open. Against the partition, +between the doors, hung bronze lamps, iron pots and pottery jars. The room +was dim, lighted only from the door, in which I stood, and from the narrow +smoke-vent overhead. + +By the fire, on their hands and knees, and apparently poking at it, each +with a bit of wood, or about to lay the bits of wood on it, were two +little girls, shock-headed, barefoot and bare-legged, clad only in coarse +tunics of rusty dark wool. I am not accurate as to children's ages: I took +these girls for seven and five; but they may have been six and four or +eight and six. At sight of us they scrambled to their feet and fled +through one of the doors, one shrieking, the other screaming: + +"Mamma! Mamma! Strange men! Strange men!" + +In her panic she did not attempt to shut the door behind her and bolt it, +both of which, as I afterwards discovered, she might have done. + +No other voices came to our ears and I followed the children into the rear +room in which they had taken refuge. It was totally dark, except for what +light found its way through its door, and was cramped and small and half +filled by a Gallic bed. I had never seen a Gallic bed before. Such a bed +is made like the body of a travelling-carriage or travelling litter, +entirely encased in panelling, topped off with a sort of flat roof of +panelling, and with sliding panels above the level of the cording, so that +the occupants can shut themselves in completely; a structure which looks +to a novice like a device for smothering its occupants, but which is a +welcome retreat and shelter on cold, windy, winter nights, as I have +learned by later experience. As this was my first sight of one I was +amazed at it. + +Usually, as I learned later, such a bedstead is piled up with feather- +beds, so that the occupant is much above the level of the top edge of the +lower front on which the panels slide. But this bed was poorly provided +with mattresses and I had to stare down into it to descry the children's +mother, who lay like a corpse in a coffin, but half buried in bedding and +quilts, only her face visible. She was certainly alive, for her breathing +was loud and stertorous; but she was, quite certainly, unconscious. +Between the shrieking children, who clung to the frame of the bed, I spoke +to her and assured her that we were friends. She gave no sign of +understanding me, of hearing me, of knowing of my presence; but my +repeated assurances quieted the elder girl, who not only ceased screaming +but endeavored to calm her little sister. + +Seeing her so sensible, I questioned the child. All I could learn from her +was that her father had been away nearly ten days, her mother ill for five +and insensible for three and their four slaves had run away the day +before, taking everything they chose to carry off. I then examined the +other room which had a similar bed in it, and in which, the child told me, +she and her sister slept. She declared that she did not know her mother's +name, that her father never called her anything but "mother"; she also +declared that she did not know her father's name, her mother, always +calling him "father," as she and her sister did. Her name was Prima and +her sister's Secunda. + +As I could not rouse the woman and learned that the slaves had been gone +more than a full day, Agathemer and I went to save the bellowing and +bleating stock. We found in the shed two fine young cows with udders +appallingly distended. But our attention was momentarily distracted from +them by the sight of eight full-sized bronze pails, finer than those at +any public well in Reate or Consentia, which hung on pegs by the door, +four on each side of it. They were flat-bottomed, bulged, but narrowed at +the rim so that no water would splash out in carrying. The rims were +ornamented with chased or cast patterns, scallops, leaves, egg and dart +and wall of Troy: four patterns, showing that they were pairs. All had +heavy double handles. We looked for carrying-yokes, but could see none. +Such pails, which would be the treasures of any village and the pride of +most towns, amazed us in this fastness. Glancing at the pails took us less +time than it does to tell of it. The cows needed us sorely and we each +picked up one of the suitable earthenware jars which stood inverted just +inside the shed door and milked them at once. Agathemer said he thought we +were in time to forestall any serious and permanent harm to them. But +their udders were frightfully swelled and blood came with the milk from +one teat of the cow I attended to. + +The sheep were in a worse state than the cows. Not a lamb was visible; +besides the ewes there was only a two-year-old ram penned by himself in a +corner of the fold. There were eight fine young ewes, in full milk. As +with one cow, so among these ewes, four gave bloody milk from one teat +each, and we milked that onto the earth. We found plenty of empty +earthenware crocks, clean, and turned upside down, in which to save the +good milk. + +The he-goat, a noble young specimen, was penned by himself, like the ram. +There were nineteen she-goats, with not a kid anywhere, yet all in full +milk and far worse off than the ewes. All but two gave bloody milk and +three gave no clean milk. These three I judged might die, but Agathemer +vowed he could save them. + +When we had finished milking we searched about for water. Towards the +northeast the clearing narrowed and here we came upon a tiny rill +trickling through a fringe of sedge. It came from a clear and abundant +spring in a cleft of rock against the sharp up slope which rose there +under the pines. At the lower edge of that part of the clearing, near the +margin of the more nearly level ground, just before it plunged over the +rim of the flat, it was dammed into a drinking pool for the stock. We did +not dare let them out to drink and so laboriously carried water, I from +the spring and Agathemer from the pond, using each a pair of the bronze +pails, pouring the water into the troughs made of hollow logs, which were +set, one to each, in the shed, pen and fold. We kept this up till every +goat and ewe had had her fill, and then watered the he-goat and ram. The +cows, of course, we had watered first. After the watering we gave each cow +a feed of mixed barley and millet and then filled with hay all the mangers +and racks. + +When we had concluded this exhausting toil we filled the water-jar which +stood in one corner of the cabin and then carried some milk into the +house, and offered Prima and Secunda whichever they preferred. They chose +ewe's milk and drank their fill. Prima was much impressed by the dog's +confidence in me and seemed to give me hers. She said the dog's name was +Hylactor. I tried to make the mother drink some cow's milk, but she +swallowed only a few drops which I forced through her teeth by the help of +a small horn spoon which I found on the floor of the outer room. + +Agathemer roused the fire and piled more wood on it. There were no less +than seven tripods lying about the floor of the cabin, but all roughly +made and of the squat, short-legged pattern which holds a pot barely clear +of a low bed of coals; not one was fit to hold a cauldron over a newly +made deep fire of half-caught wood. + +On the tallest of them, or rather on that least squatty, Agathemer set a +small pot, which he filled with fresh water. When he had this where it +seemed likely to boil and certain to heat, he ferretted about for +supplies. He found a brick oven with about half a baking of bread in it; +medium-sized loaves of coarse wheat bread. Two forked sticks stood in one +corner of the cabin and with one he lifted from its peg in the rafters a +partly used flitch of good coarse bacon. There was a jar more than half +full of olive oil by the sticks in the same corner of the cabin. In a +small pot set in the ashes Agathemer stewed some of the onions he lifted +down from the rafters. In the other corner of the cabin was an amphora +nearly full of harsh, sour wine. We made a full meal of bread, onions, +bacon, olives and some raisins, drinking our fill of the wine. The little +girls ate heartily with us, now convinced that we were friends and +accepting us as such. They seemed to some extent habituated to their +mother's condition of helplessness and insensibility. + +As soon as we had fed we inspected the place. The glade or clearing was +enclosed all around by the tall trees of a thick primitive forest. Towards +the up slope and the cliffs below the crest of the mountain the trees were +all pines, firs or such-like dark and somber evergreens. There were a few +of these also on the lower slopes, but there, as along all that rim of the +clearing, the forest was mostly of oak, beech, chestnut and other cheerful +trees. Their tops towered far above the verge of the slope and screened +the clearing all round. Nowhere could we catch sight of any sign of a +town, village or farmstead, though there were three several rifts in the +forest through which we could see far into the valleys to the eastward. +The cliff above the clearing ran nearly from southwest to northeast, so +that the place was well situated towards the sun. + +The cow-shed was divided by a partition and half of it had been used for +stabling mules. Agathemer judged that no mule had been in it for about ten +days. We inferred that the children's father had taken the mules with him +when he departed. Over the cow-shed was a loft, well stored with good hay, +as were the smaller lofts over the sheds which formed one side of the +sheepfold and goat-pen. The hay was not mountain hay, but distinctly +meadow hay, such as is mown in valleys along streams. It was all in +bundles, such bundles as are carried on mule-back, two to a mule. This was +queer; even queerer the absence of any fowls or pigeons, or of any sign +that any had ever been about the place. An Umbrian mountain farm without +pigeons was unthinkable. + +In the granary we found an amazingly large store of excellent barley, but +only two jars of wheat, and that not very good, and neither jar entirely +full. On the floor were loose piles of turnips, beets and of dried pods of +coarse beans. There were jars of chick-peas, cow-peas, lentils, beans and +millet, more millet than wheat. From the rafters hung dried bean-bushes, +with the pods on; long strings of onions, dried herbs, marjoram, thyme, +sage, bay-leaves and other such seasonings, dried peppers, strung like the +onions, and bunches of big sweet raisins. Also many rush-mats of dried +figs, the biggest and best of figs, some of them indubitably Caunean figs. +On the floor, in heaps, were some hard-headed cabbages, only one or two +spoiled. It was a very ample store and we marvelled at it and wondered +whence it all came and how it came where it was. + +The other store-house amazed us. It was, as we had conjectured, full of +great jars; jars of wine, of olive oil, of pickled olives, of pickled +fish, of pickled pork, of vinegar, of plums in vinegar, and smaller jars +of honey, sauces and prepared relishes. The rafters were set full of +cornel-wood pegs till they looked like weavers-combs. From the pegs hung +hams, flitches, strings of smoked sausage, cheeses of all sizes, smoked so +heavily that they appeared mere lumps of soot, and bags of a shape +unfamiliar to both of us. Agathemer knocked one down and opened it. It was +full of tight packed fish, salted, dried and smoked, a fish of a kind +unknown to us. + +There was, along the upper edge of the clearing, under the boughs of the +pine trees, a huge pile of trimmed logs of oak, chestnut, pine and fir, +with a scarcely smaller heap of cut lengths of boughs and branches. Under +a lean-to shed was a small store of cut fire-wood. In a corner of the same +shed were four big cornel-wood mauls and eleven good iron wedges, not one +of them bearing any sign of ever having been used, but appearing as if +fresh from the maker's hands. By the woodpile were four even heavier +mauls, showing plenty of marks of hard usage and near them or about the +woodpile we found eight rusty wedges. + +We could find no axe, hatchet or any other such tool anywhere about the +place. The logs and six-foot lengths of boughs afforded a lavish supply of +fuel for two long winters; the cut fire-wood could not be made to keep the +fire going ten days. + +The slave-quarters, as I said, were mere hovels, but they were provided +with bedding, quilts, and stores of clothing by no means such as are +generally used for slaves. Slaves' quilts are mostly old and worn, made of +patches of woollen or linen cloth all but worn out by previous use; and +then, when torn, patched with a patch on a patch and a patch on that. +These quilts were the best of their kind, such as ladies of leisure make +for their own amusement, of squares and triangles of woolen stuff unworn +and unsoiled. The mattresses were stuffed with dried grass or sedge, +craftily packed to make a soft bed for any sleeper. The pillows were of +lambs' wool, as good as the best pillows. And, in a big chest in each +hovel, were good, new, clean tunics, cloaks, rain-cloaks, and with them +sandals, shoes, hats, rain-hats and all sorts of clothing, not as if for +slaves, but as if for middle-class farmers, prosperous and self-indulgent. + +We were dumbfounded at such abundance in such a place. + +By each bed in the hut was a chest. These we opened and found in both +women's clothing; tunics, robes, cloaks and rolls of linen and fine woolen +stuffs. + +The woman, although moaning and stirring in her bed, gave no more signs of +life than when we first saw her. Agathemer said, speaking Greek so the +children would not understand: + +"We must try to save this woman's life. You manage to get the children to +follow you outside and I'll lift her out of the bed, and wash her, put a +clean tunic on her, put clean bedding in the bed and put her back in it; I +can do all that handily. She is so ill she will never know." + +We went out in the slave-hovels and chose what bedding seemed suitable and +carried it into the hut. Agathemer had put more fuel on the fire and set a +big pot of water on the tripod. We put the bedding in a corner of the hut +and selected from the contents of the chests a tunic and some rough +towels, of which there were some in each chest. + +I was not hopeful of being able to wheedle the children; but my first +attempt was a complete success. I suggested to Prima that she tell me the +names of the sheep and goats and she at once became absorbed in +instructing me. Each had a name, she was certain; but, I found, very +uncertain as to which name belonged to which and not very sure of some of +the names. Her hesitations and efforts to remember took up so much time +that we were still at the goat-pen, Secunda with one hand clinging +confidingly to mine, when Agathemer called to me from the door of the hut. + +He told me in Greek that he had done all he could for the woman, had +effaced all traces of his activities and had put the soiled bedding out in +the late sunshine to dry and air. We strolled about the clearing, +remarking again that it seemed out of sight from any possible inhabited or +travelled viewpoint. Agathemer fetched a rough ladder he had seen in the +cow-shed, set it against the hut, which was highest on the slope, and +climbed to the top of its roof. From there, he said, he could descry +nothing in any direction which looked like a town, village, farmstead or +bit of highway. The place was well hidden, by careful calculation, for +this could not have come about by accident. + +We peered into each of the buildings and poked about in them, hoping to +find an axe or hatchet, and marvelling that a place so liberally, so +lavishly, so amazingly oversupplied with hams, flitches, sausages and +other such food should show nowhere any trace of the presence of hogs. +There was no hog-pen nor any place where one might have been, nor did any +part of the clearing show any signs indicating a former wallow, nor had +any portion of it been rooted up. It was very puzzling. + +As we returned to the house, about an hour before sunset, we +simultaneously uttered, in Greek: + +"Here we stay--" + +"Go on," said I checking. + +"Here we stay," he began again, "until the husband comes home, or, if he +does not return, until spring." + +"That is my idea, also," I said, "and there is but one drawback." + +"Pooh," said Agathemer, "if we do not find an axe somewhere hereabouts +I'll steal one from a farm if I have to spend two days and a night on the +quest." + +We agreed that there was no question but that we must spend the night +where we were. The stock, after their long neglect and late milking, would +be best left unmilked and unwatered till morning. As we must not leave the +woman unwatched, we must sleep in the hut. We could bring in sedge +mattresses and quilts from the hovels and sleep on the earth floor by the +fire. When we had agreed on these points we forced some more milk on the +semi-unconscious woman, gave the stock more hay, ate an abundant meal of +bread, oil, sausages broiled over the fire on a spit, olives and raisins; +and, soon after sunset, composed ourselves to sleep by the well-covered +fire, leaving open the door into the woman's bedroom, but shutting the two +children into theirs after telling them by no means to stir until we +called them in the morning. + +Hylactor curled up outside the cabin door, almost against it, after +Agathemer had convinced him that we would not let him sleep in the hut. We +slept unbrokenly till dawn woke us. + +It was cold before sunrise so high up the mountains. My face felt cold +even inside the hut and by the smouldering fire. I was reluctant to roll +out of my quilts. But, what with Agathemer's urgings and my own +realization of what was required, I did my share of the milking, watering +and feeding of the stock and ate a hearty breakfast. For, as when hiding +in Furfur's woods, as when anywhere on our escape, since it was not +possible to eat as if at home and at ease, we ate our fill soon after dawn +and again before dark, but during the day we ate nothing. We had from +necessity already formed the habit of two meals a day, at sunrise and +sunset. + +The woman seemed less violently ill than the day before. When we first saw +her she had been in the throes of a violent fever and it had lasted until +after Agathemer bathed her. From then on it seemed to abate, but, when I +last felt her forehead and hands before we lay down to sleep, she was +still feverish. When we first went to her in the morning she was +unconscious and as if in a stupor, but showed no signs of fever. She did +not struggle against feeding as on the previous day, but swallowed, a +spoonful at a time, as much milk as Agathemer thought good for her. + +When we had done what seemed necessary Agathemer suggested that I remain +by the cabin while he investigated the woods round the clearing to make +sure how many roads or paths led out of it. He proposed to carry his +sheath-knife and the stout and tried staff which had helped him along the +mountain trails, as a similar one had helped me, and to take Hylactor with +him: to make a circuit about the clearing some ten yards or so inside the +forest and, if necessary a second circuit, further away from our glade. +These two circuits should make him sure how many tracks led from or to our +clearing. Then he would follow each track and acquaint himself with it, +and, if possible, learn where it led. I approved. + +Before noon he reported that only three tracks approached our location; +that by which we had reached it up the slope of the mountain, and one +along the slope in each direction. About mid-afternoon he returned up the +track by which we had come, stating that the trail southwards, about a +league south of us, joined the road along which we had travelled till +Hylactor diverted us: he had made the circuit along the length of the +league or more of trail, back along the road by which we had travelled and +up the track by which Hylactor had led us; he had met no living thing, +save a hare or two, too fleet for Hylactor to catch; he had caught sight +of no town, village or farmstead, even afar. He had made sure that the +mules had left the clearing by the track he had followed out of it, so +that, probably, the children's father had gone south. Exploring the other +trail he had put off till the next day. + +Next day he found that the other track joined the lower road only about +half a league to northeastwards. He turned back along the lower road and +returned by the uphill track, as he had done the day before to the south. +He met no one and saw no town, village or farmstead anywhere in sight, and +at some places he could see far to the eastward. + +We discussed his proposal to go off alone, with a wallet of food and try +to steal an axe. Plainly he would have to go far. It would be easy enough +to sneak back to the farm where we had spent our last night before meeting +Hylactor, but we both felt bound by the obligation of our hospitable +entertainment there: though nameless fugitives we were still under the +spell of the standards of our former lives. We admitted to each other that +he might steal an axe from that farm and I condone the knavery and avail +myself of its proceeds; but we agreed that such baseness must be stooped +to only as a desperate last resort. He was to set off northwards next day. + +That night the woman, who had been inert and manageable, in a half-stupor, +became violently delirious and for a time it took all the strength +Agathemer and I jointly possessed to hold her in bed. Prima and Secunda, +waked by her shrieks, were in a pitiable panic, Secunda merely dazed and +aghast, Prima begging us not to kill her mother, fancying we were +attacking her. We managed to convince the child that we were doing our +best and what was best for her mother and that her mother's ravings would +quiet and that she might regain her reason and health. I induced both +children to return to their bed and shut and bolted their door. Agathemer +and I, by turns, and twice again each helping the other, kept the poor +woman in her bed all night. At dawn she quieted and fell into a profound +stupor. But the vigil left me and Agathemer worn out. We attended to the +milking, feeding and watering of the stock and then I went to sleep in one +of the slave hovels, which were free from vermin, not the least amazing of +the many amazing features of our place of sojourn. + +This outbreak of our insensible hostess made impossible the immediate +execution of Agathemer's project. He had to have adequate rest before he +could set off. After I had slept all the morning, he slept most of the +afternoon. During his nap I found, behind the water-jar in the hut, a +hatchet-head, with the handle broken off and what was left of it jammed in +the hole. It was small, but not very rusty or dull. Before Agathemer +wakened I had it well sharpened. We had found a mallet in the storehouse, +and, with this and a cornel-wood peg he whittled with his sheath-knife, +Agathemer drove out the broken bit of hatchet handle. He then fashioned +with his sheath-knife a good handle of tough, seasoned ash from a piece he +had found in one of the buildings. With this hatchet we could cut up small +boughs selected from the big woodpile, but it was too small to enable us +to cut logs into lengths or split lengths of logs. + +Again, when Agathemer was planning for the next day his axe-stealing +expedition, the woman had a fit of raving. This lasted a night, a day and +a night and left both of us to the last degree weary and drowsy. Before we +had recuperated our firewood was almost used up. The situation looked +hopeless. It was well along into the Autumn, though we were now unsure of +what month we were in, so completely had we lost count of the days. Again +Agathemer projected an expedition for the next day, in the faint hope of +obtaining us an axe, and I feared he now aimed for our last harborage. At +dusk, as he hunted for small wood under the margin of the woodpile, he +found a good, big, double-edged axe-head. It was dull and very rusty, and +he had a vast deal of trouble getting out the fragment of broken handle +and shaping a new handle, in which he was greatly helped by a fairly good +draw-knife, which I had that very morning found hanging on a peg behind +the hay in the loft over the cow-shed. He had quite as much trouble in +fitting the handle into the axe-head and in sharpening both edges. But he +did all that before we composed ourselves to sleep. Besides those on the +partition we had found a score of fine bronze lamps and we had olive oil +enough for all uses for two winters. + +Next morning we woke to find all our world buried under a foot of snow, +the pines laden with it, the boughs of the beeches, oaks and chestnuts +furred with it along their tops. It was a magic outlook, the like of which +neither of us had ever seen. + +After that, all through the winter, our life was an unvarying routine of +milking, feeding and watering the stock, preparing and eating meals +limited only by our appetites, nursing the sick woman, and chopping +firewood. From the first streak of dawn till the last gleam of twilight +one or the other of us chopped the firewood. Neither of us was an adept at +handling an axe. But Agathemer, with his half Greek ancestry and his +wholly Greek versatility and adaptability, taught himself to be a good +axeman in ten days. I bungled and blundered away at it all winter. +Agathemer could cut a two-foot oak log into suitable lengths with a +minimum of effort, with clean, effective strokes of the ringing axe, the +cuts sharp and even; I could cut any log into lengths and enjoyed the +effort, but I sweated over it and laid half my strokes awry, so that the +ends of my lengths were notched and unsightly. + +Also I broke five several axe-helves in the course of the winter. The +first time I broke a helve Agathemer had no substitute ready, and, what +was more, the fragment of the old helve was in so tight that he had to +burn it out in the fire and then retemper and resharpen our one precious +axe-head. His retempering and resharpening turned out all right, but he +said his success was accidental and he might ruin the axe if he tried +again. So he made two extra helves and had a dozen cornel-wood pegs ready +to drive out the bit of broken handle next time I broke it; as I did, +according to his laughing forecast. + +The incessant labor of our days hardened both of us. Our muscles were like +steel rods. We slept on our mattresses by that ash-covered fire as I had +never slept at Villa Andivia or at my mansion in Rome. We ate enormously +and relished every mouthful. + +Riving lengths of logs with wedges and maul was a kind of work calling for +no special skill; Agathemer taught me all he knew in a day or two. All +winter we alternated this work with woodchopping, afterwards chopping the +riven lengths into firewood lengths and then splitting these into +firewood. Although we worked at riving and chopping and splitting every +moment of daylight when we were not busy at something else, we never +accumulated any comfortable store of firewood, so as to be able to rest +even one day. We drank new milk by the quart, with both our meals; wine, +abundantly as we were supplied with it and good as it proved to be, we +drank sparingly, merely a draught at waking, one after each meal, and one +at bedtime. What we took we took strong, mixing wine and water in equal +proportions. + +Both Agathemer and I preferred cows' milk and drank that only, as we gave +cows' milk only to the sick woman. Both children preferred ewes' milk. As +we had no hogs to feed we were put to it what to do with our surplus milk. +Agathemer made a sort of soft cheese, by putting sour curds in a bag and +hanging it up to drain. We both liked this and so did the little girls. +But we could not use much this way. Agathemer, always resourceful, fed the +dog all the goat's milk he would lap up, and, after he had set to curdle +what seemed enough, mixed the rest, while fresh and sweet, with water and +gave this mixture to the cows to drink, saying it increased their yield of +milk. As the winter wore on he fed similarly the best milkers among the +ewes and goats. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WINTER IN THE MOUNTAINS + + +Neither Agathemer nor I knew anything about bread-making. He tried, but +merely wasted flour. And both of us hated the wearisome labor of grinding +grain in either of the rough hand-mills which were in the store-house. He +found a means of keeping us well fed, satisfied and looking forward to the +next meal with pleasure. He screened a peck or so of barley, put it to +soak in a crock, and then, when it was swelled, put it in a crock or flat- +bottomed jar, with just enough water to cover it, and bedded this in the +hot coals by the edge of the fire. There, under a tight lid, it stewed and +swelled and steamed all day, unless he judged it done sooner. When it was +cooked to his taste he mixed through it cheese, raisins, and several sorts +of flavorings, also a little honey. The porridge-like product he baked, as +it were, by turning a larger crock over the crock containing it. The +result was always tasty and relishable. + +I asked him why he used barley, not wheat, of which there was quite a +supply. He said barley was supposed to be heating, and we certainly needed +all the heating we could get. + +The old smoked cheeses, of which an amazing number hung in the hut and +store-houses, were, to me, very appetizing, used in this way, though too +strongly flavored for me to eat any quantity of any sort as one would eat +normal cheese. Agathemer said they had all been smoked too soon, while the +cheese was yet soft, so that the smoke had penetrated all through the +cheese. Certainly the outside of each cheese was mere soot to the depth of +an inch, so that we had to throw it away. Even Hylactor would not eat it. + +Soon after the first hard freeze we found, one morning, one of the goats +with a leg broken. Agathemer, with me to help him, got her out into one of +the buildings, out of sight or hearing of the other animals; and, there +later, butchered her. We had, by this time, found butchering knives and +kitchen knives, to the number of a score, but each hidden by itself, and +in the oddest places, one under a sill of the cowshed, another under a +wine-jar, several between the rafters and thatch, most buried in the +thatch itself, as if they had been hidden on purpose. They were all rusty, +but we soon had them bright and sharp. With some of these we butchered and +cut up the goat. The offal we fed to Hylactor, not much at a time. Most of +the rest of her we ate, a little at a time, as the frost kept the meat +from spoiling. + +The kidneys Agathemer used first. He washed them, soaked them, parboiled +them, cut them into bits, fried the bits in olive oil, and then, when they +were crisp, stirred some of them through one of his crocks of cooked +barley. The result was delicious. The kidneys sufficed for two or three +crocks of barley. Then he did something similar with the liver with a +result almost as appetizing. + +We had some chops, broiled over the hot coals; also collops, spitted, with +bits of fat bacon between. But neither of us cared much for goat's meat, +and Agathemer's attempt at a broth made of the tougher meat was not a +success. It had a repulsive smell and a more repulsive taste, though it +seemed nourishing. He made only one pot of broth. After that we fed the +coarser parts, little by little, to Hylactor. + +This loss of one goat led Agathemer to do some thinking. There was a +pretty large supply of hay, but not enough to keep in good milk all +through the winter, until grass grew next spring, two cows, eight ewes and +twenty goats. We talked the matter over. The ram and the he-goat were +manifestly of choice breeding stock, probably carefully selected and +cherished. We judged their owner would be angry if he did not find them on +his return. So Agathemer considered which of the ewes gave the least milk +and promised least as a breeder, and, after all the goat's meat was used +up, we killed her. Sheep's-kidneys and sheep's-liver are better eating +than goat's-kidneys and goat's-liver. We both agreed on that and we liked +mutton chops and mutton cutlets. Hylactor got only the offal and the +coarser bits, the rest Agathemer made into a relishable broth flavored +with marjoram, bay-leaves and other herbs. + +During the winter he killed six more goats and one more ewe, so that we +fed, all winter, six ewes and twelve goats. For these the hay sufficed and +not a little was left when we departed. + +For ourselves, while we wasted nothing, we were lavish with the food +stores. The bitter cold and our unremitting toil all day long, at a +thousand other tasks and always at preparing fire-wood, contributed to +keep us ravenous. We ate heartily twice a day, never taking anything +between meals except all the milk we chose to drink, and I found ewes' +milk and goats' milk, yet warm, or milked that morning, good to drink in +cold weather. Often we mixed hot water with the goats' milk and drank the +mixture while warm. + +One intensely cold and brilliantly clear day, as I was riving a log, +panting and glowing with the labor, yet with fingers numb and feet aching +with the cold, I heard a yell from Agathemer. Axe in hand, my left hand +making sure that my knife was loose in its sheath, where I wore it stuck +in my belt, I raced to the store-house. There I found Agathemer alone, +unhurt, standing by an olive-jar, staring into it. + +"What is wrong?" I queried. + +"Nothing wrong," he said, "but something amazing." + +He fumbled in the jar, reaching his arm down into it as far as he could, +his arm-pit tight down on the rim. After some straining he held up his +hand, all dripping with dregs, and, between his thumb and forefinger, +exhibited an unmistakable gold coin. How many there were in that jar we +never knew; there were too many to count. We turned the jar over on its +side, with some labor, and made sure that there were enough gold coins in +it to weigh more than either I or Agathemer weighed and we were about +normal-sized men, in every way. + +We discussed this find a good deal. We agreed that the coins were of no +use to us and could be of no use to us. As we meant to pass ourselves off +for Sabine cattle-buyers until we were out of Umbria, as we meant to press +on to Aquileia, as soon as the weather was warm enough, as we meant to +pass ourselves off for runaway slaves, if we were arrested and questioned +gold coins in our possession would have been most dangerous to us. We +agitated the idea of sewing a few into the hems of our tunics and into the +ends of our belts; but we came to the conclusion that any attempt to +exchange a gold coin for silver would be very dangerous and much too risky +a venture. + +We also agreed that if the master of the place returned he must not +suspect that we knew of his hoard. So we replaced the jar as it had stood, +effaced all signs of its having been moved and refilled it with olives, +taking them from another jar, which proved to contain olives only, all the +way to the bottom. + +This find led Agathemer to investigate every jar on the place, running a +long rod of tough wood down into each as a sounder. In another jar of +olives he found a similar hoard of silver denarii. Of these we took as +many as were necessary to replenish the store of coins Chryseros had +furnished us with. Even of silver we dared not carry too much. The hoard +was so large that the handful of coins we took was unlikely ever to be +missed. + +The little girls, early in our stay, became entirely accustomed to us and +utterly trustful of us. In the chests Agathemer found other tunics, warmer +than those they had on when we came, which were suited to them. But there +were no cloaks small enough for them to wear. With our precious scissors +Agathemer cut in two the smallest warm cloak he could find and, with the +needles and thread Chryseros had given us, he roughly hemmed the cut edge. +The two awkwardly-shaped cloaks, thus made, the children wore till spring. + +We could find no shoes for the children and they went barelegged and +barefooted all the winter. They did not seem to mind it, except on the +most bitterly cold days, when the wind howled about the hut, roaring +through the pines and naked-boughed oaks, blowing before it the snow in +silver dust. Then they kept inside the hut all day. But, on sunny and +windless days, they ran about barefoot in the snow and seemed entirely +indifferent to the cold, though they always appeared glad to dry and warm +their little pink toes at the fire, after they returned to the hut. +Agathemer, more knowing than I, would not let them approach the fire until +they had bathed their feet in a crock of water he kept standing ready +inside the hut door and had partially dried them afterwards. He said that +otherwise their feet would puff and swell and perhaps inflame. They seemed +happy-hearted little beings and Secunda was bright. But Prima was very +dull and less intelligent than her younger sister. We concluded that she +was, while not anything like an idiot, certainly a very backward child, +lacking the wit of a normal child of her age. + +After the first snow fell we had no more trouble with violent outbreaks +from the sick woman; or, at least, very little. Her next fit of raving +came about ten days after the first snowfall and began in the daytime, +when both Agathemer and I were in the hut. We forced her back into her bed +and then Agathemer had an inspiration. He bade me hold her where she was +and he took down his flageolet, from where it hung on a high peg on the +partition, and began to play it. + +The woman quieted at once and seemed to sink to sleep. After that her +fits, which recurred at frequent intervals, took up little of our time, as +upon each we had only to get her back into her bed and compose her by +means of Agathemer's music. + +It was well along towards spring, certainly far towards the end of the +winter, when Agathemer made his most astonishing discovery. By that time +the animals gave no more milk than sufficed for the five of us; there was +no surplus to feed back to the best milkers. Also we had a little reserve +of firewood and did not have to drive ourselves so unremittingly to escape +death by freezing if our fuel gave out. + +I was chopping wood in a leisurely way, and enjoying the exercise. The +little girls were inside the hut at the moment, after playing about most +of the morning. Agathemer came out of the store-house, glanced around, and +beckoned to me: together we went inside. There he showed me where he, led +by a very slight difference of color, had dug into the earth floor and +come upon a small maple-wood chest, like a temple treasure-box. It was, +outside, perhaps a foot wide and about as high, and not over a foot and a +half long. He had forced it open with the hatchet and a heavy knife, like +a Spartan wood-knife. The wood of the chest was so thick that the inside +cavity was comparatively small. But it was big enough to have held, say, +two quarts of wine. And it was almost full of jewels; opals, turquoises, +topazes, amethysts, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. + +Agathemer shut the store-house door and fastened it so the little girls +could not open it if they should chance to try. Then he spread his cloak +on the earth floor and dumped the contents of the chest on it. Most of the +gems were small, at least two score were very large, and there were many, +of notable, though moderate, size. We could see them fairly well, though +the store-house was dim, since, with the door shut, the only light was +what came through chinks. We ran our fingers through the heap of jewels, +picked up the largest and held them to the light and gained a general idea +of the value of the hoard. We put them all back into the chest, shut it, +and reburied it. It showed no marks of Agathemer's dexterous attempts at +opening it, for the lid was held down only by a clasp outside, and by the +swelling of the inside flange of wood against the overlapping rim of the +lid. + +We went out to the woodpile and I resumed my chopping, while Agathemer set +to riving logs with the wedges and maul. We had always kept the little +girls away from the woodpile and so were sure of being alone. Also we +talked Greek as an extra precaution. + +Agathemer, resting between assaults on a very big log, said: + +"I am of the same opinion I have held since we found the gold. This place +belongs to some Umbrian farmer who is in partnership with a bandit chief +or the leader of a gang of footpads. Just as the King of the Highwaymen is +said to have a brother in Rome, important among the Imperial spies, so +most outlaws have some anchor somewhere with associates apparently honest +and respectable. The owner of this place may be brother of a brigand, or +related to one in some other way or merely a trusted friend. At any rate I +am of the opinion that this fastness is used as a repository for robbers' +loot. Everything points to it. The gems and the coins make it certain, to +my thinking, but even if we had found none of these it is pretty plain +from everything else. There is no sign that there ever was a pig anywhere +about here: yet the store of fine old bacon surpasses anything any mere +farm ever kept on hand; there is not a square yard of ground hereabouts +that ever has been plowed, spaded or hoed: yet the place is crammed with +all sorts of farm produce. Manifestly it was all brought here, where there +are no pigeons to reveal the place by their flight above it, nor any cock +to call attention to it by his crowing. This is not a farm, it is a +treasure-house, lavishly provided with everything portable. + +"The absence of the man and the flight of the slaves puzzles me. As for +the slaves, I can form no conjecture. But I am inclined to think it +possible that the man was betrayed somehow to the authorities and is in +prison or has been executed. We must assume, however, that he is alive and +will return and must comport ourselves accordingly. + +"Now I tell you what I mean to do. In such a hoard of gems a few of medium +size could never be missed, even if missed, their abstraction could never +be proved. I'm going to select the best of the medium-sized emeralds, +topazes, rubies and sapphires; enough to fill the leather amulet-bags +Chryseros gave us. All slaves wear amulet-bags, if they can get them; ours +are old, worn and soiled and will make unsurpassable hiding places for as +many gems as they will hold. I'll take out the amulets and sew them into +the hems of our tunics, at the corners. I'll fill the bags as full of gems +as is possible without making them look unusually plump. Then, if we reach +Aquileia, we shall have a source of cash enough to last us years; for I +can sell the jewels one at a time at high prices." + +"Are you sure that the stones are worth all that care?" I cavilled. "May +you not be mistaken as to their value or even as to their genuineness?" + +"Not I," Agathemer bragged. "I am one of the foremost gem experts alive. +Your uncle, as you know, held it a wicked waste of money for a sickly +bachelor to buy gems; but he was a natural-born gem fancier. He knew every +famous jewel in Rome: every one of the Imperial regalia, every one ever +worn by anyone at any festival or entertainment, every one in every +fancier's collection of jewels. From him I learned all I know: I myself +possess the faculties to profit by my training. I know more of gems than +most, I tell you!" + +I agreed, and, during the nest few days, he selected the stones he judged +most valuable, enough to fill the hollow of one of my hands and as much +for him, and sewed the two batches up in our emptied amulet-bags. The +amulets, which were two Egyptian scarabs and two Babylonian seals, very +crude in workmanship and of the meanest glazed pottery, he sewed into the +corners of our tunics. + +Soon after this came the first thaw of the spring; a mild sunny day +cleared every bough of every tree of the last vestiges of clinging snow or +ice. Then we had two days of warm rain, sometimes a drizzle, sometimes a +downpour. Then, on the fourth day, the sky was clear again and the +sunshine strong. + +As usual after my morning duties, I went in to take a look at our +insensible hostess. She lay, as she had mostly lain all winter, breathing +almost imperceptibly, her eyes closed. As I bent over her, her eyes +opened. + +She sat up, wide-eyed, startled, the picture of amazement and it came over +me that she was no peasant woman, but a lady. + +"Who are you?" she demanded, supporting herself on one elbow. "I do not +know you; what are you doing here?" + +"I have been helping to nurse you," I said. "You have been ill a long time +and have needed much care. Lie down; you will hinder your recovery if you +exert yourself too soon." + +She lay back, but propped herself up on her pillows, and in no weak voice +insisted on knowing who I was. + +At that instant Agathemer entered. He, far more diplomatic than I, took +charge of the situation. The woman, instead of losing consciousness again +at once, as I expected, appeared possessed of much more strength than +anyone would have anticipated and asked searching questions. + +Agathemer, tactfully but without any attempt at beating about the bush, +told her the whole truth, as to her illness, our finding her alone with +the two children, our care of her, and the length of our stay. He said +afterwards that he hoped the shock would cure her. + +"Am I to understand you to say," she asked, "that I have been in this bed +since the middle of the autumn and that it is now almost spring?" + +"Just that," said Agathemer simply. + +"And that you two men have been, practically, in possession of this entire +place all that time?" + +"That is true also," I said. + +Agathemer and I looked at each other. We had used our one pair of scissors +mutually and our hair and beards were not shaggy or bushy. But we were a +rough, rather fierce-looking, pair. + +"This," she said, "is terrible, terrible! Where are my daughters?" + +"Playing about out in the sunshine," I said. "Plump and well-fed, and +healthy and cheerful." + +"This," she repeated, "is terrible, terrible! May I not see them, may I +not speak to them, will you not bring them to me?" + +"Indeed we will," I said and motioned to Agathemer. While he was gone the +woman and I regarded each other without speaking. When Agathemer returned +with the children I said: + +"We will leave you to talk to your daughters alone. When you wish us to +return send one of the children for us." + +The joy of the two at the sight of their mother, sensible and able to +recognize them, was pathetic. Sobbing and laughing, they flung themselves +on the bed and embraced her, kissing her and she kissing each. + +We went out and set to chopping and riving wood. + +Before very long Secunda came out and said her mother wanted to speak to +me. Leaving Agathemer plying his maul I went in. + +The woman was now well propped up against a heap of pillows. She told the +children to run off and play till she sent for them. Then she motioned me +to seat myself on the chest. I did so. + +She regarded me fixedly, as she had while Agathemer had gone for the +children. When she spoke she asked: + +"What god do you worship?" + +I was amazed at this unusual and unexpected question and hesitated a +moment before I answered: + +"Mercury, chiefly. Of course, Jupiter and Juno; Dionysius, Apollo, +Minerva. But most of all Mercury." + +She sighed. + +"I had expected a very different answer," she said. "But, whatever god or +gods you worship, you are a good man and your servant is a good man. I am +amazed. My children were truthful till I fell ill. I am sure they could +not have changed in one winter. In any case Secunda's precocity and +Prima's vacuity seem equally incapable of any deception. What they tell me +is all but incredible, yet I believe it. You two men have acted to me and +mine as if you had been my blood kin. If you two had been my own brothers +you could have done no more for us. I shall always be grateful. What are +your names?" + +Agathemer and I had agreed to use the names Sabinus Felix and Bruttius +Asper. These names, common enough in Sabinum, we, in fact, had given at +the farms where Agathemer's flageolet-playing won us entertainment in the +autumn. I gave them now. I added: + +"It seems best to me that you should not ask either whence we came or +whither we are bound." + +"I understand," she said. + +"And now," said I, "since you have our names, tell us how we should +address the mother of Prima and Secunda." + +"My name," she said, "is Nona. [Footnote: Ninth.] My mother had a larger +family than I am ever likely to be blest with." + +Nona recovered with marvellous rapidity. The weather continued fair and +warm, with no strong winds, only steady, gentle breezes. This aided her, +as it dried out the hut. She slept well at night, she said, and heavily in +the afternoons. When awake she ate heartily and was almost alert. She +questioned me again and again as to the condition in which we had found +the place. I told her the exact truth, except as to finding the hoards of +coins and jewels, to the smallest detail. I also told her of our +stewardship and of our having killed and eaten a brace of ewes and eight +goats. She approved. + +I asked her about the children's tale of the slaves running away. + +She sighed. + +"I should have trusted any one of the seven," she said. "I believed that +any one of them would have been faithful. I suppose almost all slaves are +alike, after all. Hermes died about midsummer. He was the oldest of them +and the best. I suppose that, in past winters, he had kept the others to +their duty. But then, I was never ill before. Without Hermes to lead them, +without me to order them, I suppose what they did was natural." + +I told her of the great cold and abundant snow of the winter. She +questioned me and said: + +"Evidently you have had more cold and snow in one winter than I have had +in ten." + +On the third day after her revival she was able to get out of bed and, +leaning heavily on me, to reach the door of the hut. There she sat basking +in the sun, Secunda on one side of her, Prima on the other, Hylactor at +her feet. + +Hylactor had proved himself a perfect watchdog that winter. We had never +allowed him to sleep in the hut, as he would have done if permitted, and +as he tried to do at first. Agathemer had fashioned him a tiny shelter and +into it he crawled nightly. Out of it, also, he dashed, if any sound or +scent roused him. Tracks of wolves were frequent in the snow out in the +forest, and not a few approached our clearing. But we lost not one sheep +or goat to any wolf. Hylactor frightened off most and killed three, a +medium-sized female and two full-grown young males, at the acme of their +fighting powers. We rated Hylactor a paragon among dogs. + +The warm weather held on, though unseasonable so early in the year. Nona +recovered so rapidly that she was able to visit each of the outbuildings. +Just when she was well enough to walk alone and firmly came a sharp spell +of cold, as unseasonable as had been the heat. It began about noon, one +clear day, with a high wind. By sunset everything was frozen. + +Nona said: + +"You two have had more than your share of sleeping on the earth floor by +the fire. My bed will hold me and my girls, for a few nights. You two take +their bed. It will be cold on the floor tonight." + +That night, therefore, Agathemer and I enjoyed a sound night's sleep in a +deep, soft bed. It was our first night in a Gallic bed, and we liked it. +Since our crawl through the drain we had slept abed but four times, at +farms in the Umbrian mountains. This was best of all. And we had a +succession of nights of it, for the cold held on and, even when it abated, +Nona insisted on our continuing to sleep so. + +During the cold she mixed a batch of bread, and Agathemer baked it. She +had praised his cookery, especially his savory messes of steamed barley, +flavored with cheese, raisins and what not. But when the cold snap came +after the thaws she suggested that we grind some wheat and she make bread. +We acceded with alacrity. The bread tasted unbelievably good. + +As soon as the weather was again warm it was plain that spring was coming +in earnest. Nona stood out of doors after sunset, went out again after +dark, staring up at the sky. + +Next morning, while the children were at play, she said to me: + +"Felix, you and Asper must leave this place at once and be on your way. My +husband will return soon. He may return any day now. He is a terrible man. +He will come with too many men for you to resist and he will not ask any +questions until after he has killed you both. I know him. If I could be +sure of telling him before he saw you what manner of men you are and how +deeply I am in your debt he would repay you lavishly, for he is liberal +and generous. But, being what he is, if he finds you here, you will be +dead before I can explain. You must go. Prepare to set off at dawn +tomorrow." + +I told Agathemer and he agreed with me that we had best do as Nona said. +She was, as she averred, well enough to care for herself and the children. +But we lingered next day. By dusk she was frantic, begging, imploring us +to depart at dawn. I feared a recurrence of her illness and gave her my +promise. + +We set off, actually, not at dawn, but about an hour after sunrise, the +broad brims of our travelling hats flapping in the wind, our cloaks close +about us, our wallets slung over our shoulders, our staffs in our hands. +At the hut door Nona, Prima and Secunda bade us farewell, Nona thanking +and blessing us. Hylactor was for following us: we had to order him back, +for he paid more attention to us than to Nona. + +With a last backward glance at the edge of the clearing we plunged into +the forest by the track leading northward. + +We had not gone a hundred paces when I thought I heard a scream and +stopped. Agathemer declared he had heard nothing. But, listening, we did +hear twigs snapping and Hylactor bounded into sight. He did not fawn on +us, but seized my cloak in his teeth and tugged, growling and snarling. + +"That dog," said Agathemer, "is asking for help. He knows what is too much +for him to fight." + +We threw off our shoes, wallets and cloaks, tucked up our tunics and, +staffs in one hand and sheathless knives in the other, barefoot, raced +back along the track after the guiding dog. + +From that entrance of the clearing the outbuildings hid the hut from us. +When our rush brought us in sight of the hut door we were not six paces +from it and just in time to see Hylactor spring on and bear to the earth a +man who stood before it. Leaving him to Hylactor we dashed inside, urged +by indubitable shrieks. + +In the dim interior we made out each child struggling with a man and Nona +with two. Before they could turn our knives had slaughtered the children's +assailants. One of the survivors Agathemer cracked over the head with his +staff. I stabbed the other. Whereupon Agathemer cut the throat of the man +he had downed, and dashing outside, finished the man Hylactor was +worrying. Quicker than it takes to tell it the five were dead. + +Nona had fainted, as we rescued her. But Agathemer revived her with a dash +of cold water in her face and some strong wine poured between her lips. We +laid her on her bed and told the children to watch her. Then we dragged +out the corpses, laid them in a row and considered them. All five were +pattern ruffians; black-haired, burly, brutal and fierce. We had had +amazing luck to dispose of them so easily. Five lucky flukes, Agathemer +called it, and we without a scratch. + +One by one we picked them up and carried them off, down the slope, to a +soft bit of soil among some beeches. There we laid them in a row. On them +we found a few silver coins, five daggers, five knives, five amulet-bags, +nothing else. Their tunics and cloaks were old and of poor material. + +Back to the hut we went and found Nona revived and at the door. + +"Begone!" she said. "Flee! Hasten! That man was my husband's bitterest +enemy. He was intent on revenge. But he could never have found this place +save by tracking my husband and conjecturing his destination. My husband +must have camped last night less than a day's journey from here. He will +be here today, he may be here any moment. Save yourselves. Begone!" + +Agathemer and I looked at each other. + +"We shall not set off," I said, "until we have buried the five corpses. +I'm not going to be haunted on my way and perhaps for life by any such +spooks as the ghosts of those five ruffians. We shall make sure that they +are safely buried." + +Agathemer agreed with me and we set about the task. During the winter we +had found mattocks, pickaxes, hoes, spades and shovels hid in the most +unlikely places, each by itself, and had hafted them; with these we dug a +big pit and in it laid the five corpses, and buried them too deep for any +wolf, badger or other creature to be at all likely to smell them and dig +them out or dig down to them. + +When the men were buried it was past noon. We went back to the hut, drank +a second draught of the strongest and sweetest wine and drank it unmixed, +as we had drunk our first before we set about carrying the corpses into +the forest. Nona renewed her adjurations to begone. + +But neither I nor Agathemer would listen to her. I said I was far too +tired to travel until after a night's sleep and that after having saved +her and her daughters, it was no more than fair that she should stand +watch over us while we slept all the afternoon: she could easily watch at +the hut door and explain matters to her terrible husband if he came and +were as terrible as she averred. + +We retrieved our wallets, cloaks and shoes, threw them down in a corner of +the hut, ate some bread with plenty of milk to wash it down, and went to +sleep in the children's bed, as we had slept the night before. We woke +before sunset, did what was needful about the place, ate a hearty dinner +of bread, bacon, olives, raisins and wine and at once went to bed for the +night. After dark Nona ceased adjuring us to begone; she said that, if her +husband came, she would hear him at the hut door and make him aware of the +facts in time to prevent any trouble. We slept till sunrise. Then Nona +declared that she and the children could milk the animals. We agreed with +her, for they had little milk by then. We ate a hearty breakfast and set +off. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE HUNT + + +That day we met no one and made a long march north-westwards along the +flank of the mountain, camping at dusk by a spring. There we rehearsed our +rescue of Nona and marvelled at the ease with which we had disposed of +five burly ruffians. Agathemer agreed with me that it had been mostly the +effect of complete surprise. But he took a good deal of the credit to +himself. He reminded me how he had practiced me, ever since we began our +flight, at the art of fighting with knives, at knife attack in general. In +particular he had drilled me, as well as he could without a corpse or +dummy to practice on, at the favorite stroke of professional murderers, +the stab under the left shoulder-blade, the point of the knife or dagger +directed a little upward so as to reach the heart. By this stroke I had +killed both my victims, and he one of his. I acknowledged his claims, but +was inclined to thank the gods for special aid and favor. We discussed +that amazingly lucky fight until too sleepy to talk any more. + +Next day we met some charcoal burners, who were both friendly and +unsuspicious and who gave us intelligible directions for making our way +towards Sarsina. The second night we again camped in the woods; the third +we spent at a farmhouse, thanks to Agathemer's flageolet. + +The farmer, whose name was Caesus, told a grewsome tale of the horrors of +the plague and of the death of almost all his slaves. He was gloomy about +his future, as he, his two sons, and their surviving slave were too few to +work his farm. He seemed to regard us as fugitives from justice and as men +whom it was his duty to help and protect. As the season was too early for +comfortable travelling along byways or for safety from suspicion along +highways, and as he welcomed us, we spent a month with him, well fed, well +lodged and rather enjoying the hard farm work and the outdoor life, though +we spent also much time under-cover, working at what could be done under +shelter during heavy rains. + +After he had come to feel at ease with us, our host, one day when we three +were alone, asked: + +"Are you some of the King of the Highwaymen's men?" + +On our disclaiming any connection with the King of the Highwaymen, or any +knowledge of such a character, he sighed and said: + +"Oh, well! Of course, if you were, you would deny it, anyhow. You may be +or you may not be. Anyhow, if you are, tell him I treated you well and +shall always do my best for any man I take for one of his men. + +"You don't look like his kind nor act like any I ever was sure of, but he +has all sorts. I thought it best to make sure. It is best to stand well +with him. He passes somewhere near here every spring or early summer on +his way north and again in the autumn on his way south." + +We left this bourne only on the solstice, the tenth day before the Kalends +of July, and trudged comfortably to Sarsina, where we put up at the inn, +frequented by foot-farers like us. So also at Caesena and Faventia. There +we agreed that we had had enough of the highway, as we might encounter +some Imperial spies of the regular secret service department, and not a +few of these spies might know me by sight in any disguise. So we struck +off due north through the almost level open country, intending to keep on +northward until we came to the Spina and to follow that to the Po. As +Agathemer said, if we could not find ferrymen by day we could steal a +skiff by night. + +Not far north of Faventia, after an easy-going day's march under a mild +spring sky, we came, just before sunset, to a forest of considerable +extent. As we could not conjecture whether to turn east or west, we camped +at its edge and slept soundly, comfortable in our cloaks, for the night +was warm and still. + +Next morning the weather was so charming that we were tempted to plunge +into the forest and cross it as nearly due north as we could guide +ourselves by the sun. Since we reached the edge of the forest we had seen +no human-being near enough for us to ask in which direction we had best +try to go round it. We plunged into it and in it we wasted the entire day. + +The country is very flat between Faventia and the Spina. I do not believe +that in any part of that forest the surface of the soil was four yards +higher than in any other part. And it was marshy, all quagmires and +sloughs, with narrow, sinuous ribbons, as it were, of fairly dry land +between them. We were hopelessly involved among its morasses before we +realized our plight and, after we did realize it, we seemed to make little +progress. We agreed that it would be folly to try to regain our camp: we +held to our purpose and tried to advance northwards. But we doubled right +and left, had to retrace our steps often and could form no idea how far we +had penetrated. + +There was an astonishing abundance of game in that forest: hares +everywhere; does with fawns, young does, and not a few stags; wild boars, +which fled, grunting, out of their wallows as we approached; foxes of +which we three times glimpsed one at a distance; and we came on +indubitable wolf tracks. We had plenty of food and ate some at noon, for +we were tired. Then we spent the day threading the mazes of that swampy +forest. We were careful not to get bogged and we kept our tunics and +cloaks dry, though we were mired to the knees. But our very care delayed +us. The day was breezy and mild but not really warm, so that we did not +suffer from the heat. But by nightfall we were exhausted and had no idea +how far we had advanced northward. Just at dusk we came to reasonably firm +going and walked due north about a furlong. There, as the twilight +deepened, we encountered another stretch of ooze. We retreated from it a +dozen paces and camped under some swamp-maples on comfortably dry ground. +We ate about half of our food, bread, olives, and dried figs; and while +eating dried and warmed our feet and shanks at a generous fire of fallen +boughs, which Agathemer, who was clever with flint and steel, had made +quickly. When our feet felt as if they really belonged to us, we wrapped +ourselves in our cloaks and slept soundly. + +We slept, indeed, so soundly, that it was broad day when, we waked. And we +waked to hear the wood ringing with the barking and baying of dogs and +with the cries of hunters and beaters. Instantly we realized that we were +in danger. For a hunt of such size as was approaching us must have been +gotten up by a coterie of wealthy land-owners; and such magnates, if they +caught sight of us, would at once suspect us of being runaway slaves. It +had been easy enough to pass ourselves off for farmerly cattle-buyers in +the Umbrian Mountains. But, habited as we were, camped in the depths of a +thick, swampy forest, we were sure to be suspected of being runaway slaves +by anyone who encountered us; and such gentry as organize big hunts with +swarms of beaters are always prone to suspect any footfarers of being +runaway slaves. + +We hastily girded ourselves for flight, meanwhile reminding each other of +the story we had planned to tell if caught. + +At first we seemed to have luck. We turned westwards away from the beaters +and found and passed the upper end of the morass which had stopped us the +night before. From there the going was good, through open underbrush, +beneath big beeches and chestnuts, over firm and gently rolling ground. +Stopping and listening we tried to judge by the sounds the location of the +line of beaters. We seemed to have a chance of getting beyond its western +end. We set off again; just as we started on nine deer dashed past us, a +big stag, two young stags and six does. + +Then we did run, for we knew it was our last chance and, indeed, but +little further, a young wolf raced down a ferny glade, vanishing into some +alders on the further side of the glade. I nearly trod on a fleeing hare. +The beaters could not be far off. + +Yet, for a bit, we seemed to be gaining on them, although we were +quartering their front on a long slant. The third time we stopped to pant +and listen we thought that our next dash would carry us where we might +crouch in the first thicket and let their line sweep past us. + +But, some fifty yards or so beyond, when we came to the dancing red +feathers on the cord and thought we would be safe in a few breaths, there +rose at us, from behind the feathered cord, three stocky men, armed with +broad-bladed hunting-spears, who yelled at us: + +"Halt! Stand! Surrender!" + +We recoiled from them, amazed, threw away our wallets, threw off our +cloaks, and bolted, incredulous; and as we ran, we heard them yelling: + +"Here! Here! Here they are! We see them! This way, all of you! We've got +them! Here they are!" + +No bogs, no sloughs turned us or delayed us. The going was good, over firm +footing, through light underwoods, among wide-set, big trees. For our +lives we ran. There seemed a very slender chance of our crossing the whole +length of the line of beaters and escaping on the other side, but that +slender chance seemed our only chance. We ran fit to burst our hearts. + +And the hunt was plainly converging on us. The noises of the beaters drew +nearer. We seemed in a swarm of fleeing hares: more deer and more deer +passed us, this time, I thought, does with young fawns. We caught a +glimpse of another wolf, of two foxes. And, in a moist hollow, we barely +avoided a nasty rush of eight panic-stricken, grunting wild swine. + +We did run across the entire line of beaters, but little good it did us. +Again we saw before us the feathered cord, the scarlet plumes dancing in +the sun. At it we ran, sure of safety if we passed it unseen and +penetrated even ten yards beyond it into the underbrush. But we were again +disappointed. + +This time only two huntsmen rose at us, but they, too, flourished hunting +spears with gleaming points, as big as spades. They too yelled at us and +yelled to their fellows: + +"Halt! You are caught! Hands up! Give yourselves up!" + +And: + +"There they go! Both of them! Come on! Here they are!" + +Off we went again, slanting back across the approaching line of dogs and +beaters, now closer together as they drew on towards the nets, and already +appallingly close to us. Again we crossed the whole line, now much +shorter. But this time we ran, not against part of the long stretch of +feathered cord, but against the outer yard-high net. Of course this was +well guarded and again we were yelled at and turned back. + +Doubling back, now steaming, panting, gasping, with knees trembling under +us, we reached the net on the other side. + +Turned again, we found the beaters so near us and so close together, that +we ran away from them rather than across their line. We ran, in fact, in +a sort of mob of hares, foxes, boars, deer and even wolves, for some of +each were in sight every moment. + +So running we came where we could see the line of nets, now of six-foot, +heavy-meshed nets, on either side of us. We made a last, desperate dash at +one of the nets, I hoping to leap it or vault it or clamber over it and +escape, after all. But six keepers, all with broad-bladed hunting spears, +rose at us beyond it, rose with triumphant yells: + +"We've got you now! We've got you now!" + +From them we shied off and ran, half staggering with exhaustion and +despair, between the converging lines of nets, ran in a veritable press of +terrified game of all sorts, ran madly, since we heard now, not the +barking and whine of dogs straining at their leashes, but the exultant +yelping, barking and baying of great packs of dogs unleashed behind their +game. + +Of course, although no single dog, however infuriated, would ever attack +me in daylight, when it could see my face, yet I could do nothing whatever +to protect myself, and far less Agathemer, against the massed onset of +more than a hundred maddened hunting dogs, each bigger than a full-grown +wolf. + +So running, staggering, stumbling, at the end of our strength, we found +ourselves running into the battue-pocket at the meeting of the two long +converging lines of nets. Anything would be better than that. We tried to +double back and were met by a dozen big dogs, some Gallic dogs of the +breed of Tolosa, spotted black and white, others mouse-colored Molossians. +To escape them we dodged apart, each ran for a tree, each jumped, each +caught the lowest limb of a thick-foliaged maple, the two not much over +five yards apart. So thick were their leaves that I could hardly make out +Agathemer in his tree. The two maples were close to the beginning of the +pocket net. From my perch I could see plainly how cunningly the pocket had +been set. + +It was of strong, close-meshed nets fully three yards high stretched on +sturdy forked stakes and well guyed back outside to pegs like tent-pegs. +These pocketing nets were set along the tops of the two banks of a gully +about twenty yards wide, sloping sharply downward from its top near our +trees and with sides three or four yards high and steep. Once in this +gully, between the pocketing nets along the upper edge of its sides, no +boar could scramble out, the lower meshes of the pocketing nets were too +fine for any hare to squeeze through; no doe, no stag even, could leap +such nets at the top of such banks. + +I could just spy a part of the heaviest net across the gully at the end of +the pocket. It seemed a large meshed net of rope thicker than my knee, +with the large meshes filled in with smaller meshes of rope the size of my +wrist. + +Hardly was I safe in the crotch of my tree when the last of the game swept +by below us, the dogs hot behind them, up came the press of beaters, and, +from each side, in rushed the hunters, a score of handsome nobles and +gentry, habited in green tunics, wearing small, green, round-crowned, +narrow-brimmed hunting hats and green boots up to just below their knees. +Each carried a heavy shafted hunting spear, tipped with a huge triangular +gleaming head, pointed like a needle, edged like a razor, broad as a spade +at its flare. + +Even in my terror and exhaustion I could not but feel a certain pleasure +in the beauty of the scene, a sort of thrill at its strangeness. I had +participated in such hunts in Bruttium and Sabinum, but never as hunted +game. + +The sun was not yet half way up the heavens, the dew had not yet dried +from the leaves, owing to the very late spring the freshness of springtime +had not yet passed into the fullness of early summer. Through the tender +green of the young leafage, starry with drops of moisture, the sunshine +shot long shafts of golden light. Under the beautiful canopy of blue sky +and golden green foliage was the amazing turmoil of the hunt. + +More than a hundred large animals, pigs, fawns, sows, does, boars and +stags had fled before the beaters and were now jammed pellmell in the +gully, for the end-net held. There they frantically jostled each other and +the half dozen wolves caught among them which, indeed, snapped, slashed +and tore at everything within reach, but, cowed themselves, had no effect +whatever on the maddened victims which all but trod them under and +actually trampled on foxes and on the swarm of squeaking, helpless hares. + +Upon this mass of terrified flesh the two hundred dogs flung themselves, +through the nets the huntsmen stabbed at the nearest victims, behind the +dogs the shouting hunters advanced to spear their game, the battue was on +and I watched it till the last animal was flat. The few which, frenzied, +doubled back through the dogs and hunters were met and killed by the +beaters. Not one escaped. + +As the battue ended up came the rush of beaters and our trees were soon +surrounded by a crowd of eager, exultant, infuriated beaters and huntsmen. + +Up the trees young beaters swarmed and we were plucked down, thumped, +whacked, punched, kicked and manacled, our tunics torn off, ourselves +mishandled till we streamed blood, all amid abuse, threats, epithets, +execrations and curses. + +We stood, half fainting, utterly dazed, supported by the two or three +captors who held each of us, but for whose clutches we should have +collapsed on the earth. + +We expected to be torn limb from limb, yet could not conjecture why we +were the objects of such infuriated animosity. A beater clutching either +elbow, a hand clutching my neck from behind, my knees knocking together, +naked, bruised, bloody, gasping, fainting, I, like Agathemer, was haled a +few paces to one corner of the pocket net. There we were held till the +gentlemen came up out of the gully. + +Up they came, a score of handsome young fellows, mostly each with his hat +in his hand and mopping his forehead. + +"Why!" the foremost of them cried. "These are not the men! These are not +the men at all! They are not in the least like them!" + +"Not in the least like Lupercus and Rufinus, certainly," another added. + +"What a pack of asses you are!" cried a third, "to mishandle two +strangers. Couldn't you look at them before you mauled them?" + +"We all took them for Rufinus and Lupercus," the head huntsman rejoined. +"Certainly they are desperate characters and runaways. Look at their +backs." + +They turned us round, to display the marks of scourging still plain on us +both. + +"They've both been branded," said a gentleman's voice. + +"Pooh!" cried another, "that proves nothing. They may have been scourged +and branded by former masters, and manumitted since. I'll have no stranger +ill-treated on my land until he has had a chance to explain himself." + +While he was speaking my guards turned me round again and took their hands +off me. + +Our champion was a tall, powerful, plump and florid young man, with very +curly golden hair, very light blue eyes, and the merest trace of downy, +curly yellow beard. He was very handsome, with small delicate nose and +mouth, a round chin and the most beautiful ears I ever saw on any man. He +wore senators' boots and a tunic of pure silk, dyed a very brilliant green +and embroidered all over with a flowering vine in a darker, glossier +green. + +"What are your names?" asked the elder man who had noticed our brand- +marks. He was swarthy and probably over thirty. + +I gave him the name of Felix and Agathemer that of Asper, as we had +agreed, neither of us thinking it advisable to claim to be free Romans by +prefixing, "Sabinus" and "Bruttius." + +"Shut up, Marcus," our champion ordered, "can't you see that these poor +fellows are in no condition to answer any questions? We'll interrogate +them after they have bathed, eaten and slept." + +"Here, Trogus," he called to one of the chief-huntsman's assistants, "take +charge of these two fellows. Treat them well; if they report any +incivility or omission on your part I'll make you regret it. When they are +bathed and fed, let them sleep all they want to. + +"And, here, Umbro" (this to the head-huntsman), "see that their effects +are found and restored to them." + +He turned to us. + +"Did you have wallets?" he asked. + +We nodded, too shaken to speak. + +"Umbro," he said, "scour the wood. Have their shoes, their cloaks and +especially their wallets found and brought to me. And make sure that +nothing is taken from those wallets, that they are handed to their owners +as they were found. If they find anything missing, I'll make you and your +men smart. Be prompt! Be lively. Get those wallets and cloaks and shoes." + +While he gave these orders, some beaters brought us our torn tunics; +which, even so, were better than no clothing at all. We put them on. + +Then we were led off to the edge of a forest, bestowed in a light Gallic +gig, drawn by one tall roan mule only, and in it, the driver sitting at +our feet, sideways, on one shaft, his legs hanging down, we were driven +off through a beautiful gently rolling country, clothed with the +superabundant crops, vines and orchards of the lower Po Valley, all bathed +in brilliant spring sunshine, to a magnificent villa, most opulently +provided with white-walled, neat outbuildings, all roofed with red tiles. +In one of these, apparently the house of the farm-overseer, we were +bathed, clothed with fresh tunics, far better than our own, lavishly fed +and led to rest in tiny white-washed rooms, very plain, but clean and +airy, where we went to sleep on corded cots provided with very thin grass- +stuffed mattresses. + +When we woke each found his wallet beside his cot, set on his neatly +folded cloak; with our old worn shoes, well cleaned, on the floor by the +folded cloaks. + +Later we were led before our host and champion, who turned out to be +Tarrutenus Spinellus; in no wise, it seemed, affected, by the downfall of +his great kinsman. He questioned us and Agathemer told the story we had +agreed on: that we had been slaves of Numerius Vedius of Aquileia, who had +been kind to both of us and had made him overseer and me accountant of his +vegetable farms on the sandy islets offshore along the coast of the +Adriatic by Aquileia. There we had lived contentedly till we had been +captured by raiding Liburnian pirates from the Dalmatian islands. They had +sold us at Ancona, where we had been horribly mistreated by a cruel and +savage master, who had branded and scourged us for imaginary +delinquencies. + +From him we had run away, intent on making our way back to Aquileia and to +our rightful owner. + +"This all sounds plausible," said Tarrutenus, "and I believe you, and it +falls out well. For my cousin, Cornelius Vindex, will leave tomorrow or +next day for Aquileia and you can travel in his company all the way." + +We were well fed and lodged while at Villa Spinella. While there we +learned that Lupercus and Rufinus, the two escaped malefactors for whom we +had been mistaken by the huntsmen and beaters, had been runaway slaves, +long uncatchable and lurking in swamps and forests, who had lately, tried +to rob at night the store-house of a farmstead: and who, when the farmer +rushed out to defend his property, had murdered him and even thereafter, +in mere wantonness, had also murdered two of his slaves, his wife and a +young daughter. This horrible crime had roused the whole countryside to +hunt them down and the great battue in which we had been involved had been +organized at a time of the year most unusual and ruinous to the increase +of deer-herds, precisely in order to snare the outlaws along with the +game. They had not been caught and we had. + +After two nights' good sleep, and a day's rest, with excellent and +abundant meals, we set off at dawn in Cornelius' convoy, our precious +amulet-bags untouched; our wallets just as we had flung them down in the +forest, not a coin missing; and we were clothed in new good tunics, our +bruises pretty well healed up or healing nicely, ourselves well content +with our escape, but meditating a second escape, this time from, +Cornelius. + +For we had no stomach for the road to Aquileia, if in such company that we +must present ourselves before Vedius as claiming to be slaves of his. + +We escaped easily enough, just after crossing the Po, by sneaking off in +the darkness from a villa where Cornelius, stopped overnight with a +friend. Without any difficulty we recrossed the Po, not far below +Hostilia, and from there made for Parma. + +For we agreed that, after our story to Tarrutenus, with Cornelius Vindex +in Aquileia, Aquileia would be no fit bourne for us. So we decided, after +all, to risk the highway from Parma to Dertona and from there make our way +across the Ligurian Mountains to Vada Sabatia and from there along the +highway to Marseilles, where we should be able to hide in the slums among +the mixture of all races in that lively city; and where Agathemer was sure +he could turn gems into cash without danger or suspicion. + +All, went well with us till we reached Placentia. There we put up at an +inn. As we were leaving the town next morning, when we were about half way +from the inn to the Clastidian Gate, Agathemer gripped my arm and motioned +me up a side street. We walked with every indication of leisurely +indifference until we had taken several turns and were alone in a narrow +street. Then he told me that we had barely missed coming face to face with +Gratillus himself. + +This barely missed encounter with one of the most dreaded of the Emperor's +spies, a man who knew me perfectly and who had always disliked me, so +terrified both of us that we left Placentia by the Nuran Gate and made our +way southwestward into the Apennines. + +Once in the mountains we avoided every good road we saw and kept to bad +byways, until we were completely lost. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE CAVE + + +The late spring or early summer weather was hot and clear. We had been +pressing on feverishly and were heated, tired and sleepy, when, while +following a faint track through dense woods, we took a wrong turn and soon +found that we had utterly lost our way. The sunlight was intensely +brilliant and the windless air sweltering. Stumbling over rocks and +through bushes was exhausting. We came upon a little spring and quenched +our thirst. Standing by it and staring about we noticed what looked like +an opening in an inconspicuous vine-clad cliff. It was, in fact, the +entrance to a spacious and, apparently, extensive cave. + +The outer opening was about the size of an ordinary door. Though it was +well masked by beeches above and cornel bushes below, such was the +position of the sun and so intense was the flood of light it poured down +from the cloudless sky, that the inside of the cave, for some little +distance, was faintly discernible in the glimmer which penetrated there. +After our eyes had become accustomed to the darkness we could make out +fairly well the shape and proportions of the first considerable grotto. + +From the outer opening a passage about a yard wide and two yards high +extended straight into the cliff for about four yards. There it bent +sharply to the right in an elbow. This offset extended three or four yards +and then bent to the left in a similar elbow, opening into a cavern more +than fifteen yards wide, twice as long or longer, and with a roof of dim +white pendants like alabaster, no part of which was less than five yards +from the conveniently level, rather damp floor, while some parts of it +were lofty. + +The two elbows in the entrance passage made it impossible to see into this +cavern from anywhere out in the woods, and impossible to see out from +anywhere inside it. Yet, as I said, so brilliant was the sunlight and so +favorable the position, of the sun at the moment of our entrance that, +after the outer dazzle had faded from inside our eyes, we could make out +the form and size of this rocky hall. + +To the right of the opening where the outer passage expanded, around a +jutting shoulder of rock, we found a recess about three yards across and +nearly as deep, in which we felt and smelt wood-ashes and charred, half- +burnt wood. We groped among the damp charcoal, convincing ourselves that +many good-sized fires had been made there, but none recently. We stood +back and regarded this recess, which was so placed that no gleam from any +fire, however large, kindled in it, could ever show outside the cave. +Investigating the recess yet again Agathemer looked up and pointed. Above +me, I saw sky. The recess was a natural fire-place with a natural chimney +from it, opening at a considerable height above. + +To the right of the fire-place recess, round another smaller shoulder of +rock, was a perfectly vertical wall of smooth stone terminating just above +our reach at an opening three yards wide or more. The top of the wall of +rock at the bottom of the opening was almost as straight as a door-sill. + +At first we could descry in the walls of the cavern no other openings than +the entrance, the chimney and this opening above our reach, unless one +boosted the other up. From under it we went all round the cave past the +fire-place and the entrance. The floor was all damp or moist, no place fit +for us to lie down to sleep and we felt along the wall opposite the fire- +place, where the light was too dim to see at all. After feeling for some +yards we emerged or came round into a less dusky space, where we could see +to some extent and so on along the back wall of the cave opposite the +entrance, later groping along the wall, when the light failed. + +Some forty to forty-five yards from the entrance, at the far end of this +extensive grotto, we came upon a passage, two or three yards wide and +about as high, leading further back into the bowels of the mountain. We +groped into it a few steps, but it sloped sharply downward and was wet, so +we retreated out of it, it being also pitch dark. + +Returning along the other side of the cavern towards the fire-place we +came upon a narrow opening, less than a yard wide and not much over a yard +high. It led into a passage which sloped upwards and was free from +moisture. Agathemer was for exploring it. I remonstrated. He insisted. +After some expostulation I bade him stand at the opening, which was out of +sight of the gleam of daylight at the entrance, being behind a big +shoulder of rock further in than the fire-place. While he stood as I told +him I went out towards the middle of the cavern floor till I could see the +fireplace, though very dimly, and the entrance, quite clearly, by the +mellow glow at it from the outer sunshine reflected along the walls of the +twice bent entrance-passage. + +When I had reached a position from which I could certainly see the +entrance and from which, as Agathemer told me, I could be seen by him, I +told him I would stay there while he explored the little passage into the +side of the cavern. I adjured him to be cautious and not venture himself +recklessly in the pitch dark. He declared he could feel his way safely +some distance and be sure of returning. Then he crawled into the narrow +opening. + +Before I had waited long enough to grow impatient, I heard him call: + +"Why, I can see you!" + +The voice came not from the direction of the opening into which he had +crawled, but from near the fire-place. + +"Where are you?" I called back. + +"Over here," said he, "come towards me." + +Advancing towards the voice and peering into the dimness, where the light +dispersed from the entrance made the darkness of the cavern just a little +less dark than blackness, I saw him standing on the sill, as it were, of +the opening up in the wall, beyond the fire-place as one approached from +the entrance, and above the vertical wall of rock. + +He had found a passage just big enough to crawl through leading from the +aperture up to this species of gallery-alcove. The passage curved and was +not much over twenty yards long. He pulled me up to the gallery and we +crawled back together out of the aperture by which he had entered the +passage. The whole passage was dry, unlike the floor of the cave. + +"I tell you what we ought to do," said Agathemer, "let us go outside and +gather armfuls of small leafy boughs and twigs. These we can throw up into +that gallery-opening and make a fine bed there where it is dry. Then we +can get a good safe sleep, and we need a long sound sleep." + +We did as he suggested till we had leaves enough for a good bed. Then we +ate, sparingly, for we had not much food in our wallets. After eating we +wrapped ourselves in our cloaks and went to sleep; Agathemer with his +wallet beside him and his head on his arm, I with my wallet under my head. + +I wakened with a hand over my mouth and with Agathemer's voice in my ear +saying: + +"Keep still! Lie still! Don't move or speak! Lie still!" + +He spoke in a tense whisper, so low that I could hardly understand him +with his mouth against my ear, so full of terror that the tone of it +startled me wide awake. + +My first impression was of a glaring orange light on the roof of the +cavern and a diffused reflection of it or from it on the roof of our +gallery-alcove. + +"Keep your head down!" Agathemer whispered. "If you turn over, turn over +quietly." + +I did turn over, very slowly, a muscle at a time and with great +precautions to avoid rustling the leaves or twigs of the bed on which we +lay. + +As soon as I turned over I perceived that a good, big fire must be burning +on the fire-place and that the light on the cavern roof was the direct +glare from that, while the subdued glow on the roof of our alcove was the +light reflected from the farther wall of the cavern or from its roof. + +As our alcove was separated from the fire by a jutting pillar of rock, no +direct light from the fire fell on its opening; it and we were well in the +shadow. So shadowed we could hunch ourselves forward as far as we dared +and peer down into the cave. + +Its floor was littered with wallets, blankets, staffs and other foot- +farers' gear. About it sat groups of men, every one with a sheath-knife or +dagger in his belt. I counted forty and there were more out of sight round +the shoulder of rock between our alcove and the fire-place. + +We smelt flesh roasting or boiling. The squatting groups seemed busy with +preparations for a meal. + +The men, except one lad like a shepherd, did not look Italian. Some struck +me as Spanish, others as Gallic, one or two as runaway slaves of mongrel +ancestry. Nearly all of them had the unmistakable carriage and bearing of +soldiers, even specifically of soldiers of out-of-the-way garrisons, in +the mountains or on frontiers. Yet their behavior was tin-soldierly. I +judged them discharged campaigners with an admixture of deserters and +outlaws. They all had travellers' umbrella hats, and all had thrown them +off; their cloaks were coarse and rough, many torn, but none patched, +their tunics similar; their boots of Gallic fashion, coming up nearly to +the knee, like Sicilian hunting-boots. They were all black-haired and +shock-headed, all swarthy, and most of them of medium height and solidly +built. They did not talk loud and they all talked at once, so that we made +out little of what was said and nothing informing. + +I could not but remark that, although the weather was exceedingly hot and +the fire seemed large, it made no difference whatever in the feeling of +the very slightly damp, gratefully cool and evenly mild air of the cavern. + +Presently the food was ready and was distributed: goat's-flesh, roasted or +broiled, some sort of coarse bread or quickly-made cakes, wine aplenty, +olives and figs. While they ate most of them sat in groups; some stood by +twos or threes; a few stood singly. From their looks, attitudes, the +direction in which they faced and other indications, we inferred that +their chief was seated to the right of the fire, between it and us, with +his back to the pillar of rock and just out of sight of us around it. Some +appeared to be standing in a half-circle before him, listening to him, or +conversing with him. A few of the men ate alone, sitting, standing or +walking about. + +One of these, munching a while as he strolled back and forth, came and +took his stand behind and outside of the respectful half circle, standing +facing the fire. When he finished eating and his face quieted as he stood +there silent, gazing at something out of our sight, all at once, +simultaneously, I gripped Agathemer and he gripped me. The fellow was +Caulonius Pelops, two years before secretary to the overseer of my uncle's +estate near Consentia in Bruttium. He had run away not long before my +uncle's death. + +I stared at him, revolving in my mind the difference of the attitude of +mind towards runaway slaves of a former master who catches sight of a +runaway from his estates and of the same being while pretending himself to +be a runaway. I could have laughed out loud at the contrast between the +feelings towards Pelops which I felt surge up in me and the feelings I +hoped for towards me, say in Tarrutenus Spinellus. + +Pelops, of course, knew me perfectly, knew Agathemer as well, would +recognize either of us at sight. Therefore, if we were now discovered, we +saw lost all that we had thought to gain and thought we had gained by our +crawl through the drain pipe and the other features of our escape up to +now. If Pelops set eyes on me, he, at least, would know that I was yet +alive, he might tell all the band; if he told them, any one of them, even +if not he himself, might inform the authorities and put new life into the +search for me, if it had not been abandoned, or revive it if it had; put +every spy in Italy on the alert to catch me: or even betray me to the +nearest magistrate. + +And Pelops had always disliked me and had always envied and hated +Agathemer. We were keyed up with anxiety. + +Just as we recognized Pelops a tall, red-headed, sandy lout, with a long +neck and a prominent gullet-knot, came forward into sight from the +direction of the entrance, apparently from beyond the fire. He put up his +right hand and called, slowly and clearly: + +"Eating time is over: Now we hold council!" + +The men speedily assembled in curving rows facing the fire and sat or +stood as they pleased, all facing where we inferred that their leader sat, +to the right of the fire-place out of our sight round the bulge of the +shoulder of rock. + +Between them and the fire, just far enough from it for him to be visible +to us, a burly shock-headed, black-haired southern Gaul took his stand. + +Then we clearly heard a voice, which we inferred must be the leader's, a +voice distinct and far-carrying, but a voice amazingly soft, mild and +gentle, say: + +"Council is called. Let all other men be silent. Caburus is to speak." + +The burly Gaul began blusteringly, with a strong southern Gallic accent +like a Tolosan: + +"It is no use, Maternus, trying to bamboozle us with your everlasting +serenity. We decline to be fooled any longer. Somehow, by sorcery or +magic, you infused into us the greatest enthusiasm for your crazy project. +You've dragged us over the Alps and into these Apennines. On the way we've +talked matters over among ourselves. The nearer we get to Rome the crazier +our errand seems. We have made fools of ourselves under your leadership +long enough. We go no further. + +"We admit that Commodus ought to be killed; we admit that, if he were +killed, it would be a good thing for all Gaul and for Spain and Britain, +too, and, we suppose, for Italy and all the provinces. We also admit that +it would be a fine thing for us if we could kill Commodus, avoid getting +killed or caught ourselves, and win the rewards we could properly hope for +from the next Emperor, and the glory we'd have at home as successful +heroes. + +"But, when free from the spell of your eloquence, we see no chance of +killing the Emperor and surviving to reap the reward of our prowess: none +of surviving: not even any of killing him. You say you have a perfect and +infallible plan which you will reveal when the time comes. You may have a +plan and it may be infallible and as certain of success as the sun is +certain of rising tomorrow and the day after. But we have followed you and +your secret plan long enough. We follow no further unless we know what +plan we are expected to take part in. We have all agreed to that and we +all stick to that." + +And the assemblage chorused: + +"We have all agreed to that and we all stick to that." + +Now, from, where we peered down from our hiding-place Maternus was +entirely out of sight. We could not see what attitude he took nor what +expression his face wore. Yet, by the flickering light of the leaping +fire, which flooded the cavern with its ruddy glare, we could plainly see +the effect of his personality on the assemblage. Even as their shouts of +assent to what Caburus had said still rang through the cave I could see +them half fawning, half cringing towards their chief. + +Yet his voice, when he spoke, was not harsh or domineering, but, while +perfectly audible, as bland and placid as a girl's. + +"Please remember," he said, "that a plan such as I have conceived, while +it is, if carried out as designed, as certain of success as the swoop of +the hawk upon the hare, is certain of success only while it is not only +undreamed of by its object but totally unsuspected by anyone outside of +our band. The success of our project depends on no one having any inkling +of any such project, far less having an inkling of what kind of a project +it is. + +"For your sakes and for your sakes only have I kept the details of my +plans locked in my own bosom. You are venturing your lives to help me to +the realization of my hopes of setting free the world. Your lives must not +be risked needlessly. Little will be the risk any of you will run in +carrying out my plans, so ingeniously are they conceived. But that +smallness of risk can be attained only if the nature of the project is +unknown to anyone save myself up to the latest possible moment before +putting it into effect. Every day, every hour, which elapses between the +giving of my instructions and their execution increases the danger of our +betrayal. We must have guides, we must, occasionally, induct into our +society new associates. Not one of these can be a danger to us as long as +the methods by which we are to effect our purpose is unknown except to me. +I propose no loitering in Rome. I mean to arrive at the right spot at the +right hour, at the hour of opportunity, to strike and to vanish before +anyone save ourselves knows that the blow has been struck. Only thus can +we succeed, only thus can we escape. Upon my silence our success depends. +Once I speak, every day, every hour makes it more likely that someone will +betray to some outsider the nature of our plot or even its details. Then +we shall certainly fail and perish." + +Thereupon ensued a long wrangle in which Caburus repeated that Maternus +had said all that before and Maternus repeated the same argument in other +words and brought up other similar arguments. The crowd, while swayed by +Maternus, appeared to lean more and more to the opinions of Caburus. It +became manifest that they would break away and disperse unless Maternus +revealed his intentions. He was, apparently, quick to sense the situation +and finally yielded. + +"I have three separate plans," he said, "and I mean to prepare to use all +three, so that, if the first fails the second may succeed; if both the +first and second fail I may hope to succeed with the third. + +"I mean to reach Rome two days before the Festival of Cybele and for all +of us to get a sound night's sleep. Then, on the eve of the great day, +most of you may wander about the city sight-seeing; Caburus and I and a +few with us will buy or hire costumes for the Festival. + +"As we have all heard, the wildest license in costumes is permitted on the +day of the celebration. Everybody dresses up as extravagantly as possible. +More than that it is so customary for jokers to dress up in burlesque of +notables that such assumptions of the costumes of officials are merely +laughed at and the wearers of them are never arrested or even reprimanded. + +"Caburus and I will buy at old-clothing shops or hire from costumers cast +off uniforms of the privates of the Praetorian Guard. Two squads of us, +all volunteers and approved as boldest, strongest and quickest, will dress +up as Praetorians. One will be led by Caburus and I myself shall lead the +other. + +"Caburus and his men will mingle with the crowd along the line of the +morning procession. The procession is so long, its route is so jammed with +sight-seeing rabble, the rabble is permitted so close to the line of the +procession, so many wonders and marvels form part of the procession, there +is so much interest in gazing at them, that it is possible that Caburus +may see a chance to achieve our object. I shall leave it to him whether to +give whatever signal he may agree on with his men, or to withhold it. If +he sees an opportunity, that will mean that, in his judgment, there is a +good chance of killing the tyrant and getting away unrecognized. You know +how cautious Caburus is: you will run no risk if he does not give the +signal and little if he does. + +"Now, Caburus, what do you think of this plan?" + +Not being able to watch Maternus making his speech, I, while straining my +ears to catch his softly uttered words, had kept my eyes on Caburus, had +marvelled to see the dogged spirit of opposition and surly disaffection +fade out of his expression, to see interest and excitement take their +place. + +"I think," he shouted, "that you are a marvel! I don't wonder that you +wanted to conceal this plan till the last possible moment. It is so good +that I already want to tell it to somebody, just to see his amazement. But +we'll keep your secret! And as to your plan, I'll risk it. No Gaul with a +drop of sporting blood in his veins would hesitate to embrace the +opportunity to try to carry out so ingenious, so promising a plan. + +"And you don't need a second plan or third plan. This plan, under my +leadership, is certain to succeed." + +At this a scrawny, tow-headed, long-armed, long-legged fellow sprang to +his feet. + +"I don't agree with that at all," he vociferated. + +"Just because the first plan pleases Caburus is no reason why we should +not hear the other two plans also." + +This utterance started a long discussion, from which Agathemer and I +learned nothing except that there was much insubordination among the men +following Maternus and that the scrawny objector was named Torix. + +The upshot of the discussion was a general agreement that Maternus ought +to disclose all three plans. + +Maternus then resumed: + +"The second plan is already known to Cossedo and it need not be known to +anyone else, as he alone is concerned and he, if Caburus decides not to +make his attempt, will attempt his alone, without any assistance from +anyone and without endangering anyone else; in fact without endangering +himself. I myself thought of this plan, which is so ingenious that, if it +succeeds, no one will ever know how Commodus came to his death; it if +fails no one will ever suspect that it was tried at all. + +"You have all been wondering how Cossedo came to be with us. Many of you +have jeered him; many of you have protested to me. But I know what I am +doing. Cossedo can do other things besides walk the tight-rope, juggle +five balls at once, and stand on his head on the back of a galloping +horse. He is just the right man to carry out my idea, which neither I nor +any other of us could put into effect. As Cossedo approves the plan; as he +is to try it alone, no one else need know it." + +"Just so," cried the red-headed lout who had heralded the council, coming +forward into the fire-light. "I can try it and I may do it. If I do it, +Commodus will be a corpse. If I fail, no one will know I have tried. And +it is a jewel of a plan." + +And he stood on his hands, feet waggling in the air, apparently from mere +exuberance of spirits. Standing up again, he threw three flip-flops +forward, then two backward, then turned a half a dozen cart wheels, during +which gyrations he passed out of our field of view. + +Torix sulkily agreed that the second plan remain unknown except to +Maternus and Cossedo, the assemblage not supporting him when he pressed +for its disclosure. But he was insistent about the third plan. + +"The third plan," said Maternus, "is merely the first plan over again, +except that I lead instead of Caburus and that we try after dark instead +of by day. From all I can hear the opportunity will be even better by +torchlight in the gardens about the temple than it will be by day in the +jammed streets. I mean to be as cautious as I expect Caburus to be: there +is no use making an attempt unless a really promising chance presents +itself. If I see an opening I'll kill the monster myself, and I do not +expect to need any help from anybody, except a little jostling in the +crowd to increase the confusion. As rigged up in Praetorian uniforms we +will be laughed at and indulged. Either in the noonday swelter or in the +torchlit darkness it ought to be easy to pass from aping, mimicking and +burlesquing Praetorians to personating and counterfeiting Praetorians. +Once mistaken for real guards we ought to be able to get close to +Commodus. Then in the torchlight it should be easy for me to finish him +and for you others to escape. I shall not think of escape until the deed +is done. Then I'll escape, if I can, but I shall let no thought of escape +interfere with my doing what I purpose." + +This speech was acclaimed by everyone except Torix. He said: + +"All this is most ingenious. But there is in this plan one flaw which no +one has noted. I suppose that you, Maternus, evolved this really promising +idea from pondering on what Claudius told us. All the hearsay about Rome +and its festivals which ever came to the ears of all of us put together is +as nothing at all compared with what Claudius told us in two months. +Claudius had lived in Rome, Claudius knew every alley in Rome. With +Claudius to pilot us we might have hoped to succeed. But Claudius is dead, +dead somewhere in the Alps, where he is no use to us. He had seen the +Emperor, he knew him by sight. Not one of us does. And, as Claudius told +us, at the Festival of Cybele, as at several other religious festivals, +the Emperor does not wear his official robes, so that anyone may recognize +him, but appears in the garb of a priest of the deity celebrated, as High +Priest or Assistant High Priest, or as a dignitary of some other degree, +the rank in the hierarchy varying with the deity worshipped. + +"Now not one of us, who have never set eyes on him, can tell Commodus, in +the garb of a priest of Cybele, from any other priest of Cybele. We have +no reasonable assurance of recognizing the mark at which we aim. Thus we +have only a small chance of success, by sunlight or torchlight." + +This utterance started another wrangle; the men, apparently, about equally +divided as backers of Maternus and of Torix. As I lay listening to this +hubbub someone stepped on the calf of my leg, his foot slipped off of it, +and he fell on top of me, with a smothered exclamation. + +"Who are you?" he demanded, adding some words which I did not catch. It +seemed that another man was occupied similarly with Agathemer. The man +who had fallen on me, in the act of scrambling up, yelled out: + +"Here are two men lying and listening and they do not seem to belong to +us. They do not respond to the pass-word." + +At that every voice stilled and every face turned to our alcove-balcony +where our captors, now four, gripped us and had lifted us to our knees. + +"Throw 'em down!" came a chorus of voices, "throw 'em down!" + +Down we were thrown, none too tenderly, but we landed without breaking any +bones. + +Two men clutched each of us and haled us towards the fire. There we had +our first glimpse of Maternus, who sat on a pack, his back against the +rock, not too close to the fire, the light of which played on his left +cheek. + +He looked plump and lazy. + +"Strip them," he commanded. + +As he was being obeyed somebody did something to the fire which increased +the light it gave. + +"Turn them round," Maternus commanded. "Humph," he commented, "by their +faces they are a Roman gentleman and his Greek secretary; by their backs +they are fugitive slaves with bad records." + +"They are both branded," added Torix, who had been inspecting us. + +"Where?" queried Maternus. "I don't see any brand marks." + +"On the left shoulder, each of them," Torix replied. + +"Humph!" Maternus commented, "rascally slaves and indulgent master, or +canny owner of valuable, if restive, property." + +Just as he said this there was a yell at our left and Caulonius Pelops +rushed in from somewhere beyond the firelight, probably from outside the +cave. + +"Here's the solution of our dilemma," he cried. "We are all right now. +We've two men who know Commodus by sight. This is Andivius Hedulio, my +former master's nephew, and the other is his secretary, Agathemer." + +"What, in the name of Mithras," Maternus breathed, "is your master's +nephew doing in a cave in the Apennines, with his back all scourge-marks +and a runaway-slave brand on his shoulder?" + +Then ensued a long series of questions and answers, in the course of which +Agathemer and I pretty well told our story. + +Maternus asked the assemblage whether they believed us and the consensus +was that they believed us and Pelops, who reminded them that Claudius had +read to them lists of those involved in conspiracies, who had been +executed or banished and their properties confiscated; that my name had +been among those he read; and that he, Pelops, had then told about me; all +of which most of them did not recollect at all, and the few who claimed to +recollect it recollected only vaguely. + +Maternus, in his mild way, suggested that we would make valuable additions +to their association. Torix opposed the idea, but Maternus pointed out +that no one of them had as much to gain by the Emperor's death as I had: +that after it I might hope to be restored to my rank and wealth, and that, +after my miseries, I ought to hate Commodus more viciously than any of +them. The assemblage approved, and, while throat-cutting was not +mentioned, as that was the obvious alternative, Agathemer and I took oath +as brothers in the confraternity. + +Upon this we were released and our wallets, cloaks, hats and staffs, which +had been deposited before Maternus, were restored to us. But Maternus +informed us that no member of the band was allowed any money of his own. +We must give up to him any coins we had. + +Agathemer spread his cloak, spread mine on it, and upon it I emptied my +wallet, that all might see its contents. I was allowed to retain +everything, except the denarii. Agathemer did the like, with the like +result. But at the sight of his flageolet there were exclamations and +questions. He kept it out when he repacked his belongings, only giving the +coins to Maternus. After we had fed he played tunes on it, to the delight +of the whole band. It seemed to me they would never let him stop playing +that flageolet and I was desperately drowsy. + +At last all were for sleep. Maternus decreed that Agathemer and I might +climb up again on the dry shelf where we had been found. Neither he nor +any of the band seemed to object to, or indeed to notice, the dampness of +the cave floor. + +Agathemer and I slept at once. Our precious amulet-bags, of course, had +not been investigated, or so much as suspected, and were safe on our neck- +thongs. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE FESTIVAL + + +Thus most strangely, and through no fault of mine, I found myself a full +fledged formally sworn member of a conspiracy against the life of +Commodus. + +Maternus, whether from innate considerateness or because it happened to +coincide with his plans, let us have our sleep out and wake naturally. We +woke hungry and fed with the whole band, totalling forty-nine with +ourselves, according to my count and to the statement of Pelops. He was +most absurdly, but naturally, more than a little shy and bashful at +finding himself in a position of complete equality with me. As we ate he +narrated his reasons for running away and how he had escaped to Clampetia, +from there on a fishing-boat to Sarcapus in Sardinia, and from there on a +trading ship to Marseilles. There he had attached himself to a slave- +dealer and with him had travelled to Tolosa and Narbo, where he had gotten +into trouble and had fled to the mountains. There he had joined some +outlaws, who had joined Maternus. + +The fellows who had found me and Agathemer told cheerfully how the +shepherd lad, their local guide, who knew nothing of them except that they +were accepted associates of some local mountain brigands, had been showing +them the inner passages of the cave, into which Agathemer and I had not +ventured, and, on their return, had proposed to lead them up the side- +passage to the outlook-opening. There they had trodden on us and so +captured us. + +After eating we set out on our way southwards to Rome. + +On the march, inevitably, I became acquainted with Maternus and marvelled +at that most amazing man. I had heard of him, of course, for his exploits +as mutineer, outlaw, insurgent and rebel had made him notorious, not only +in Spain and Gaul, but in Italy, even among the circles of society amid +which I moved by inheritance. His reputation for strength, vigor, valor, +resolution, ruthlessness, ferocity and cunning had made me picture him as +different as possible from what he really was. + +He was neither tall nor burly and nothing about him gave any hint of the +great strength for which he was reputed and which, on occasion, I have +seen him exert. Only one man of the band was shorter than Maternus and no +other looked so much the reverse of hard and tough. + +Maternus, in fact, looked soft. His very outline was plump, his feet and +hands small, his toes and fingers delicate. He was not a handsome man, but +he was by no means ill-looking and in some respects was almost boyish, or +even girlish. He had glossy, straight brown hair, soft brown eyes, a +complexion almost infantile in its rosy freshness, and all his features +were small, his ears close to his head, his mouth even tiny, his nose +likewise: and withal, Maternus was habitually mild, serene of expression, +slow and soft of speech, and deliberate in all his movements. I never +heard him raise his voice or speak or act hurriedly or urgently. + +Of course, I had been dumbfounded to find him in Italy and in the +Apennines when everybody supposed him a hunted fugitive, hiding in the +Pyrenees or the Cevennes; or even, perhaps, in the wilds of North Spain. +Still more was I amazed at the boldness of a man who could conceive such +plans for assassinating the Prince of our Republic and could feel serenely +confident of being able to execute them. + +He was perfectly open with me. He had been a worshipper and adorer of +Aurelius. If Aurelius had lived to a reasonable old age, he averred, the +Republic would have been firmly established, the Empire solidified, the +administration purified and the frontiers defended. Everything that had +happened in the past five years he blamed on Commodus. It was the +indifference of Commodus which had ruined the administration of the army, +so that incompetent, dishonest, and tyrannical under-officers drove young +patriots like himself into mutiny, outlawry and their consequences. Had +Commodus been a capable ruler he and his fellow malcontents would have +been listened to, placated and sent off, aflame with patriotic enthusiasm +and bent on redeeming their past records, to hurl back from the hardest- +pressed part of our frontiers the most dangerous foes of the Republic. +Upon Commodus he blamed his mutiny, all the atrocities he had committed in +the course of his insurrections, and all the blood he had shed, as well as +all the towns he had sacked and burnt in the course of his raids; also on +Commodus he blamed the destruction of his army of insurgents. + +He freely discussed with me his plans for assassinating Commodus. I could +not deny that they were brilliantly conceived. + +Almost equally brilliant I thought his management of his expedition. From +where I joined it, near the crest of the Apennines, somewhere between the +head-waters of the Trebia and the Nura, we advanced on Rome as rapidly as +footfarers could travel. In the Ligurian Apennines, until we had crossed +the upper tributaries of the Tarus, the Macra and the Auser, and were +between Luna and Pistoria, we travelled all together, tramping all night +in single file after a guide and sleeping all day in well hidden camps. +Everywhere we were well fed. Nowhere did we lose our way or meet anyone +not forewarned and friendly. It was as if the highwaymen, brigands and +outlaws of the whole Empire had formed an association, so that any of them +could travel secretly anywhere by the help of those of the regions which +they crossed. We advanced as if swift and reliable runners had preceded +us, advised of our approach the outlaws of each district and they had +prepared to entertain us and to forward us on our way. + +From somewhere between Pistoria and Luca we broke up into small parties of +three to seven, and travelled by day like ordinary wayfarers. Somewhere +not far south of the Arnus we reassembled, evidently by prearrangement and +as accurately as a well-managed military-expedition. Through the +mountains past Arretium we marched at night as in the Apennines. Again +somewhere to the west of Clusium, before we reached the Pallia, we again +dispersed. We struck the Clodian Highway about halfway between Clusium and +the Pallia. From there we proceeded like ordinary footfarers. + +Both between Pistoria and Arretium, along the byroads, and from the Pallia +to Rome, on the Clodian Highway, I was in the party headed by Maternus +himself, a party of five besides us two. When we dispersed near Luca I had +noted that Torix, Pelops and Cossedo with two more made a party; and that +Caburus took Agathemer with him. + +As Maternus had been open with me about his past and his plans so he was +perfectly frank about his attitude towards me. + +"I assume," he said, "that you are delighted at the opportunity which +chance and I have given you to assist in revenging yourself on Commodus. I +similarly assume that you and Agathemer would keep any oath taken by you. +But prudence compels a leader like me to take no chances. I must, as a +wary guardian of my associates, take all possible precautions. You will +understand." + +We did understand. We were watched as if he assumed that we were on the +alert for a chance of escape, as we were. On night marches a leathern +thong was knotted about my waist and the ends knotted similarly about the +waists of the man before me and the man behind me. Agathemer was made +secure in a like fashion. When he lay down to sleep, after he had composed +himself to rest, a blanket was spread over him and a burly ruffian lay +down on either side of him, the edges of the blanket under them. I slept +similarly guarded. On day marches Caburus kept Agathemer close to him; I +was never out of sight of Maternus. + +Somewhere in the Etrurian hills north of Arretium I overheard part of a +conversation between Maternus and Caburus. They were talking of me and +Agathemer. + +"You cannot be sure," said Maternus. "By every rule of reason Hedulio +ought to hate Commodus consumedly. But loyalty is so inbred in senators +and men of equestrian rank, in all the Roman nobility, that he may have a +soft place in his heart for him, after all. Instead of doing his best to +help us kill him he might try to shield him, at a pinch." + +"Just what I have been thinking," said Caburus. "I am half in doubt about +this enterprise, even now. Agathemer may after all, try to fool me and to +shield Commodus, by pointing out some other man to me, at the crucial +moment." + +"If you suspect him of anything of the kind," said Maternus gently, "just +drive your dirk good and far into him and be done with him. I'll be on the +lookout for any hanky-panky from Hedulio. If I see the wrong look in his +eye or the wrong expression on his face I'll make a quick end of him. I'll +tolerate no treachery after oath given and oath taken." + +It may easily be imagined how nervous and uncomfortable I felt after +hearing this mild, soft-voiced utterance. + +My anxiety was accentuated within an hour. Just as I, like the other +members of the band, was composing myself to sleep, I heard high words, +raised voices, threats, an oath and a yell. With the rest I rushed towards +the sounds. There, with the rest, I saw Caulonius Pelops in the agonies of +death, a dagger in his heart. One of our Spanish associates had +momentarily lost his temper. + +Maternus, calm and unruffled, mildly inquired the causes of the quarrel, +affirmed his belief in the Spaniard's account, absolved him of all blame +and ordered Pelops buried. Then, as if nothing happened, we all composed +ourselves to sleep. + +I did not sleep much. Evidently, stabbing on small provocation was taken +as a matter of course among my present comrades. + +At Vulsinii we had a sound sleep at an inn and a bountiful meal at dawn. +We needed both before dark, for Maternus marched us the entire twenty- +eight miles to Forum Cassii by sunset. I was in as hard condition as any +of his band and I stood the long tramp well. Next day we paused for barely +an hour, near noon, at Sutrium, and made the twenty-three miles to +Baccanae easily. The third day we even more easily made the twenty-one +from Baccanae to Rome. Rome, naturally, I approached with emotion. I had +gazed back on it from the road to Tibur, certain that I should never again +behold it. And I was now about to enter it under most amazing +circumstances, as the associate of cutthroats and ruffians, as a sworn +member of a conspiracy to assassinate the Prince of the Republic, as the +prisoner of a ruthless outlaw, as a suspected associate of a chieftain who +might stab me at the slightest false action, motion, word, tone or look. + +There is, I think, no view of Rome as one approaches it along the Via +Clodia or the Via Flaminia which is as fine as anyone of a score from +points on the Via Salaria and Via Tiburtina. But, on a clear, mild, mellow +summer afternoon I caught glorious glimpses of the city from the higher +points of the road as we neared it. The sight moved me to tears, tears +which I was careful to conceal. I could not but note the fulfillment of +the prophecy made by the Aemilian Sibyl. I could not but hope that I might +survive to see Rome under happier circumstances. + +Amid manifold dangers as I was, I was not gloomy. We entered the city by +the Flaminian Gate, of course, and, in the waning light, walked boldly the +whole length of the Via Lata, diagonally across from the Forum of Trajan, +under his Triumphal Arch, through the Forum of Augustus, and across, the +Forum of Nerva past the Temple of Minerva and so to the Subura. All the +way from the City Gate to the slum district I marvelled at Maternus: he +never asked his way, took every turn correctly; and, amid the splendors of +Trajan's Forum, behaved like a frequenter, habituated to such +magnificence. Equally did he seem at home amid such crowds as he could +never have mingled with. He comported himself so as to attract no remark. + +As we passed the Temple of Minerva I sighed and remarked that I would give +anything short of life itself for a bath. + +"You need not give that much; we can bathe for a _quadrans_, and, since +you mention it, we shall all be better for a bath." + +"There is no reason why you and the rest should not bathe," I rejoined, +ruefully, "but with my back and shoulder a bath is no place for me." + +"Pooh!" laughed Maternus, "you grew up in Rome and I never set foot in it +till today, yet you know no bath you dare enter, while I can lead you to a +bath-house where no one will heed or notice brand-marks or scourge-sears." + +It was, in fact, close by and I had the first vapor bath I had enjoyed +since leaving Villa Spinella. After we left the bath Maternus bought three +cheap little terra-cotta lamps and a small supply of oil. + +At the cheaper sort of cook-shop we ate a hearty meal, with plenty of very +bad wine. Then we went where, manifestly, arrangements had been made for +our lodging, in a seven-story rookery, such as I had never entered and had +hardly seen from outside. Its entrance was from the Subura and opened near +the middle of one of the long sides of the courtyard, the pavement of +which was very uneven from irregular sinking and its many shaped stones +much worn. Out in it, at almost equal distances from the ends, the sides +and each other, stood two circular curb-walls, each about a yard high; one +the well, whence was drawn all the water used by the inmates; the other +the sewer-opening, down which went all manner of refuge. The ascent to the +upper stories was by an open stone stair in one corner of the court. All +round the court was an open arcaded corridor, running behind the stair in +its corner. Above it were six similar arcaded galleries, one for each +upper floor. The rooms, judging from those into which I looked through +open doors, appeared all alike. Ours were floored, walled and roofed with +coarse cement, full of small broken stone, and not very smoothly finished. +The floors were worn smooth by long use. The only opening to each was the +door, over which was a latticed window reaching to the vaulted ceilings of +the gallery and room. + +Our rooms were on the fourth floor. There were three rooms, each with +three canvas cots. Maternus left the six others to dispose themselves as +they pleased. He and I took the middle room. Quite as a matter of course +he bolted he door, drew his cot across it, and as soon as I had composed +myself to sleep, sat on his cot and blew out the little terra-cotta lamp. + +Next morning he quite unaffectedly discussed with me what he was to do +with me. + +"In Rome, anywhere in Rome," he said, "you are likely to be recognized any +moment. I took the risk yesterday evening; I had to, I never attempt +impossibilities or worry over manifest necessities. But I never run +unnecessary risks. The natural thing to do with you is to leave you in +this room all day with two of my lads to watch you. I do not want to +irritate you, but I see no other way." + +"I'll agree to come back here and stay here quietly," I said, "if you will +let me go out first for a while with you or any man or men you choose. I +want to go to the Temple of Mercury and I want you to give me back enough +of my money to buy two white hens to offer to the god." + +"You surprise me," he said. "I shouldn't have expected a man of your +origin to pay particular attention to gaining the favor of Mercury. He is +more in the line of men like me. I am first and always devoted to Mithras, +of course. But Mercury comes high up on my list. I've a mind to take the +risk, go with you and buy four hens, two for you and two for me." + +Actually we went out together shortly after sunrise, down the Subura, +through Nerva's Forum, and diagonally across the Forum itself. There I +quaked, for fear of being recognized; and marvelled at the coolness of +Maternus. He feasted his eyes and mind on the gorgeousness about us, but +with such discretion that no one could have conjectured that he was a +foreigner, viewing Rome for the first time. + +On down the Vicus Tuscus we went into the meat market, where he bought +four plump, young, white hens. As we started on with them, each of us +carrying two, he asked his first question. + +"What building is that?" nodding. + +"The Temple of Hercules," I told him. + +"I thought so," he said, "they always build his circular. We'll stop in +there on our way back. I never miss a chance to ask his help." + +Whereas, when I made my offering before my flight the previous year, the +street had been deserted, since I passed along it within an hour after +sunrise, now it was humming with unsavory life, the eating-stalls under +the vaults crowded, throngs about the Babylonian and Egyptian seers who +prophesied anyone's future for a copper, tawdry hussies leering before the +doors of their dens, unsavory louts chatting with some of them, idlers +everywhere. This festering cess-pool of humanity Maternus regarded with +disdain and contempt manifest to me, but carefully concealed behind a +bland expression. + +When we came out of the Temple of Mercury, after making our offering, +Maternus whispered: + +"Walk very much at ease and as if your mind were as much as possible at +peace; two men opposite are watching us." + +I assumed my most indifferent air and carefully avoided looking across the +street, except for one cautious glance from the lowest step of the Temple. +Then I glimpsed, leaning against a pier of the outer arcade of the Circus +Maximus, two men wrapped in dingy cloaks, for the morning had been cool. +After we were in the Temple of Hercules, Maternus asked: + +"Did you recognize them?" + +"One I had never seen," I replied. "The other I have seen before, but I do +not know who he is nor where I have seen him." + +Not until after midnight that night did it suddenly pop into my head that +he was the same man whom I had first seen on horseback in the rain on the +crossroad above Vediamnum, the man whom Tanno had asserted was a +professional informer and accredited Imperial spy, the man who had glanced +into Nemestronia's garden and seen me with Egnatius Capito. + +After we left the Temple of Hercules I expected him to conduct me back to +our lodgings for the day. He never suggested it, but kept me with him, +strolling about the central parts of the city as if he had nothing to +fear, walking all round the Colosseum and loitering through the Vicus +Cyprius, frankly amused at the sights we saw there. + +He had no difficulty in finding shops of costumers: on the eve of the +Festival they displayed placards calling attention to their wares. The +first we entered had no Praetorian uniforms; but, as if the request for +them were a matter of course, its proprietor directed us to the shop of a +cousin of his who made a specialty of them. There I was amazed that such +laxity of law, or of enforcement of law, could possibly exist as would +permit such a trade. There was evidently a regular manufacture for this +festival of costumes simulating and travestying those of the Imperial Body +Guard. We were shown scores of them and the shop had them in a great pile. + +The tunics were genuine tunics formerly worn by the actual Praetorian +Guards but discarded and sold as worn or faded. There were also many such +kilts and corselets and helmets. But as helmets, corselets and even kilts +wore out or lost their freshness more slowly than tunics, there were many +imitation kilts and corselets of sheepskin painted, and many cheap, light +helmets of willow-wood, covered with dogskin. But all these had genuine +plumes, as cast-off plumes were even more plentiful than second-hand +tunics. + +As there was a strict enforcement of the law forbidding the sale, +transport, storage or possession of the weapons of any part of the +military establishment the shields and swords which went with the costumes +were all imitations; flimsy, but astonishingly deceiving to the eye, even +at a short distance. The shields were of sheep-skin stretched over an +osier frame, but painted outside so as to present the appearance of the +genuine Praetorian shields. The baldricks and belts were also of sheep- +skin, the scabbards of willow-wood, and the blades of the wooden swords of +fig-wood, so as to be completely harmless. + +When Maternus proposed to hire twenty-one of these suits the proprietor +took it as a customary transaction, inspected and counted twenty-one +costumes and stated the charge for hiring them until the day after the +Festival. But he also stated that he did not hire costumes except to his +regular customers; strangers must not only make a deposit but produce as +vouchers two Romans in good standing and well known. Seeing Maternus at a +stick he added, easily and at once, that he sold costumes to any purchaser +for cash, without question, and agreed to repurchase the same costumes +after the Festival at nine denarii for every ten of the sale price, if the +costumes were brought back in good condition; if damaged, he would even so +repurchase them, but only at their damaged value. + +Maternus at once agreed to buy on those terms and, without haggling, +accepted the price asked and paid it in gold. He then arranged for porters +to carry the costumes where he wanted them. This also was taken as a +matter of course. + +Followed by the porters we returned to our lodging. Maternus left two +porters, with their loads, in the courtyard and with the third porter we +climbed three flights of stairs. The porter bestowed his huge pack in my +cell and there Maternus left me in charge of three of the men, with orders +that two must watch me till he returned. The third was to be at my orders +to fetch any eatables or drinkables I wanted; to this man Maternus gave a +handful of carefully counted silver coins. + +There I remained until next morning, sleeping all the time I could get to +sleep and stay asleep; trying not to fret when awake; and by no means +displeased with the food and wine brought me. + +Maternus slept that night, as the night previous, with his cot across our +door. + +Next morning he said to me: + +"I feel unusually reckless today. I've been thinking the matter over and +it seems to me that, on the day of the Festival, there will be thousands +of sightseers in dingy cloaks and umbrella hats. I am of the opinion that +you will run little risk on the streets anywhere in the poorer quarters of +the city. I'm going to take you out with me to see the fun. We'll keep far +away from where Caburus and Cossedo and their helpers are to take their +stands. We'll see the morning fun and then eat a hearty meal and sleep all +the afternoon." + +Out we sallied, I and one varlet in our travelling outfit, Maternus and +six more habited as imitation Praetorians. Two of the ruffians had a +pretty taste in drollery and amused the crowd with buffooneries. Strange +to say the crowds seemed to think that they travestied Praetorians to a +nicety whereas neither had ever set eyes on a Praetorian and their antics +were the product of mere innate whimsicality. + +I found the procession really interesting, with its various wonders and +marvels. I had never been in Rome at the time of the Feast of Cybele, +which was, of all the Festivals of the Gods, peculiarly the poor man's +frolic. And I had always wondered how it was possible so to tame and train +two healthy full-grown male lions as to have them draw a chariot with +Demeter's statue through miles of crowded streets. After seeing them pass +I concluded that they were dazed by the glare, the crowds and the noise, +and too cowed to be dangerous. + +At the license in the streets I was amazed. I saw a dozen men, each +attired as Prefect of the Palace; a score of loose women dressed in an +unmistakable imitation of the Empress, consuls by scores and similar +counterfeits of every honored official or acclaimed individual. In +particular, every corner had a laborious presentation of Murmex Lucro, the +most popular gladiator in Rome. Almost equally frequent were presentments +of Agilius Septentrio, the celebrated pantomimist; and of Palus, champion +charioteer. + +And I saw, amid roars of laughter, jeers, cat-calls and plaudits, no less +than three different roisterers got up, cautiously and in inexpensive +stuffs, but recognizably, as caricatures of the Emperor himself; not, of +course, in his official robes, but in such garments as he wore in his +sporting hours. These audacious merrymakers were ignored by the police and +military guards. + +Not long after noon Maternus declared that he had had enough. We ate at a +decidedly good cook-shop, where we had excellent food and good medium +wine. When I waked near sunset Maternus reported that he had slept all the +afternoon: certainly I had. + +He then explained to me that he was to make his attempt in the Gardens of +Lucius Verus, where Commodus had this year decreed the torchlight +procession. He was again entirely frank. + +"Your part," he said, "will be merely to point out Commodus to me. If I +decide not to make any attempt on him I shall expect you to return here +with me and abide by whatever decision our association makes at its next +meeting: I cannot foresee whether they will vote to disband or to plan +another venture. If I make my attempt, and I think I shall, for, +apparently, both Caburus and Cossedo have blenched or failed, since no +rumors of any excitement have reached us, you will be free the moment you +see me stab Commodus. You must then look out for yourself and fend for +yourself: you and I are never to meet again unless by some unimaginable +series of miracles." + +And he gave me four silver pieces, saying: + +"This will keep you in food for a long time, if you are sparing. Good +luck!" + +Then, habited as in the morning, we sallied out, and ate at a cook-shop we +had never before entered, which was full of revellers dressed as votaries +of Isis, as Egyptians, as cut-laws, as Arabians, as anything and +everything. And as we crossed the city on our way to the Aelian Bridge, +as we were passing through a better part of it, I was struck with the +craziness of the costumes, many imitating every imaginable style of garb: +Gallic, Spanish, Moorish, Syrian, Persian, Lydian, Thracian, Scythian and +many more; but many also devised according to no style that ever existed, +but invented by the wearers, in a mad competition to don the most +fantastic and bizarre garb imagination could suggest. + +In the torchlit gardens I perceived at once that it would be very easy for +Maternus to edge close to the actual bodyguard, mingle with them, pass +himself off as one, get near the Emperor and make a rush at him. He had +chosen a spot where the procession was to circle thrice about a great +statue of Cybele set up for that occasion on a temporary base in the +middle of a round grass-plot. His idea was that I was to point out +Commodus to him on the first round and he to consider the disposition of +the participants in the procession and make his attempt on the second or +third round. + +Standing, as we did, in the front row of a mass of revellers packed as +spectators along the incurved outer rim of the ring, we had a surpassingly +good view of the procession as it entered the circle. There were various +bands of votaries and then six eunuch priests, their faces whitened with +flour, their garb a flowing robe of light vivid yellow, convoying a brace +of panthers, pacing as sedately as the brace of lions in the morning +procession, drawing a light chariot in which sat a diademed, robed and +garlanded image of Cybele, very gaudy and garish. Behind the chariot paced +two priests of Cybele, not Phrygian Eunuchs, but Roman officials, in their +pontifical robes, a pair of dignified old senators, ex-consuls both, +Vitrasius Pollio and Flavius Aper, full of self-importance. Then came the +Chief Priest, tall, full-bearded, swarthy, his robes a blaze of gold and +jewels, pacing solemnly, on either side of him, as assistant priest, a +young Roman nobleman, chosen from the college of the Pontiffs of Cybele, +habited in very gorgeous robes. One was Marcus Octavius Vindex, son of the +ex-consul, a very handsome young man; the other, to my amazement, +Talponius Pulto. + +At sight of my life-long enemy who had always rebuffed my overtures +towards the establishment of courteous relations between us, who had +insulted me a thousand times, who had sponsored the informer whose +insinuations had caused my downfall, revengeful rage and self- +congratulation at my opportunity filled me. + +For, between the two pompous old senators and this dignified, showy and +impressive trio, capered a score of eunuch priests clashing cymbals and +among them Commodus also clashing cymbals and amazingly garbed. I have +never been able to conjecture how his headgear was managed. He had a band +round his forehead and from that band rose a sphere of some light +material, apparently a framework of whalebone covered with silk, a sphere +fully a yard in diameter, all gleaming with the sheen of silk, and white +with an unsurpassable whiteness. His robe, or tunic or whatever it was, +was of the same or a similar glossy white silk. Round his neck was a +golden collar, and gold anklets of a similar pattern clanked on his +ankles. From the links or bosses of the collar to the links or bosses of +the anklets streamed silken ribbons of the same intense light yellow we +had seen in the robes of the panther-keepers. Two of the eunuch priests +fanned him with peacock feather fans, so that the ribbons fluttered and +shimmered in the torchlight. He wore soft shoes or slippers of the same +vivid yellow. Clashing his cymbals he shrieked and capered with the eunuch +priests. + +I was more than shocked to see the Prince of the Republic so degrade +himself, to see him exhibit the acme of the craze for devising +unimaginably fantastic costumes for this Festival. + +Besides being shocked, I was terrified, even numb with terror. I knew that +Maternus would never believe me if I indicated this gaping zany and +asserted that it was our Emperor: yet Maternus had such an uncanny power +of interpreting the expression of face of any interlocutor that I dreaded +to tell him anything save the exact truth. I was in a dilemma, equally +afraid to tell the truth, for fear the improbability of it would infuriate +Maternus and convince him of my treachery; or to take the obvious course, +for fear some subtle shade of my tone or look might similarly impel him to +stab me. + +As the convoy passed Maternus whispered, softly and unhurriedly: + +"Which is he?" + +In my panic I chose the less dangerous alternative. Pulto was by far the +most Imperial figure in the throng; his great height, the fine poise of +his head, his royal bearing, his regal expression, his stately port, all +contributed to make him dominate the assemblage. I felt that Maternus +might believe him Commodus and could never believe Commodus an Emperor or +even a noble. + +I indicated Pulto, haughty, dignified, handsome and magnificently habited. + +Maternus, apparently, believed me implicitly. + +He whispered again. + +"I am sure to get him when they come round again. Watch for my blow. If I +land or if I am seized, fend for yourself. Good luck and Mercury be good +to both of us. Farewell." + +As the procession came round again I could hear my heart thump; but, to my +gaze, Maternus, handsome in his imitation Praetorian uniform, appeared the +personification of calmness. + +When again the Imperial zany and his fan-bearers and posturing eunuchs had +passed us and the High Priest and his Acolytes were opposite us, Maternus +slipped forward between two of the Praetorians of the escort. + +At that instant I felt a grip on my arm and Agathemer's voice whispered: + +"Come!" + +Together we slunk back into the crowd, and when the yell arose behind us, +presumably at sight of Pulto slaughtered by Maternus, we were well clear +of the press and in the act of darting into the shrubbery. In fact we got +clear away unpursued, unmolested, unhindered. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +GALLOPING + + +As the Gardens of Verus are north of the Tiber we had no difficulty +whatever in casting a wide circuit to the left and coming out on the +Aurelian Highway. All the way to it we had met no one; on it we met no +one. After striking the highway we walked along it as fast as we dared. We +should have liked to run a mile or two, but we were careful to comport +ourselves as wayfarers and not act so as to appear fugitives. The night +was overcast and pitch dark. We must have walked fully four miles, which +is about one third of the way to Loria. + +Then, being tired and with no reason whatever for going anywhere in +particular, we sat down to rest on the projecting base-course of a +pretentious tomb of great size but much neglected. It was so dilapidated, +in fact, that Agathemer, feeling about by where he sat, found an aperture +big enough for us to crawl into. It began to rain and we investigated the +opening. Apparently this huge tomb had been hastily built by dishonest +contractors, for here, low down, where the substructure should have been +as durable and solid as possible, they had cheapened the wall by inserting +some of those big earthenware jars which are universally built into the +upper parts of high walls to lighten the construction. A slab of the +external shell of gaudy marbles had fallen out, leaving an aperture nearly +as big as the neck of the great jar. + +As the rain increased to a downpour we wriggled and squirmed through the +hole, barely squeezing ourselves in, and found the jar a bit dusty but dry +and comfortable. We wrapped ourselves in our cloaks, rejoicing to be out +of the torrent of water which now descended from the sky. Also we composed +ourselves to sleep, if we could. + +We discussed our situation. We had our tunics, cloaks, umbrella hats and +road shoes, but no staffs, wallets or extras. Agathemer mourned for his +flageolet. Between us we had seven silver denarii and a handful of +coppers; Maternus had given Agathemer four denarii, as he had me, but +early in the day, and he had broken one to buy two meals. + +He said that Caburus had either feared to make an attempt on Commodus, or +judged that no opportunity presented itself. Of Cossedo he knew no more +than I. Caburus had turned him over to two ruffians to watch and he had +eluded them in the crowds and made his way to the Gardens of Verus +expressly to find me, if possible, and help me to escape. + +He said that our coins could not be made to last any length of time. Nor +could we well beg our way so near the city. Our store of gems in our +amulet-bags was of no use, because, as he said, he was personally known to +every gem-expert in Rome. Perusia was the nearest town to northward where +he might hope to find prompt secret buyers for gems of dubious ownership; +Perusia was far beyond the reach of two footfarers, without wallets and +with only seven denarii. + +We argued that, whatever happened, the wisest course was to get some +sleep. Agathemer declared that we could fast over next day and night, if +necessary, and that we had best keep in our hole till next night, anyhow. +I acceded and we went to sleep. + +We were waked by loud voices in altercation. The sky had cleared, the late +moon was half way up, and we conjectured that the time was about midway +between midnight and dawn, the time when all roads are most deserted. + +Close to us, plain in the brilliant moonlight, were two stocky men on roan +or bay horses. The moonlight was bright enough to make it certain that +they were wearing the garb of Imperial couriers. The trappings of their +horses, frontlets, saddle cloths, saddle bags and all suited their attire. + +But their actions, words, accents and everything about them was most +discordant with their horses and equipment. + +Both were so drunk that they could just stick on their stationary and +impassive mounts, so drunk that they talked thickly. And they were +disputing and arguing and wrangling with their voices raised almost to a +shout. Thickly as they talked, we had listened to them but a few moments +when we were sure that they were low-class highwaymen who had robbed two +Imperial couriers, tied and gagged them, changed clothes with them and +ridden off on their horses, but had stopped to drink, raw and unmixed, the +couriers' overgenerous supply of heady wine; two kid-skins, by their +utterances. Now they were reviling each other, each claiming a larger +proportion of the coins than he had. + +Here was a present from Mercury, indeed. It was a matter of no difficulty +to crawl out of our hole, to approach Carex and Junco, as they called each +other, to pluck their daggers from their sheaths and to render the +highwaymen harmless, to pull them from their saddles, tie their hands with +the lashings of their saddle-bags and to gag them with strips torn from +their tunics; for they were too drunk to know that they were being +attacked; so drunk that each, as we dragged him from his horse, fancied +that the other was assaulting him and expostulated at such unfair behavior +on the part of a pal. So drunk were they that both were snoring before we +tied their feet with more strips torn from their tunics. + +Like sacks we hauled them out of the moonlight, into the shadow of the +tomb and then stripped them except of their tunics, fitted on ourselves +the accoutrements they had stolen, and thrust them, trussed, gagged, +snoring and helpless, into the hole where we had taken shelter. + +On horseback we rode like couriers, full gallop, passed Loria before the +first hint of dawn showed through the moonlight and, about half way +between Fregena and Alsium turned aside into a lovely little grove about +an old shrine of Ops Consiva, a grove whose beauty and the openness of +whose tree-embowered, grass-carpeted spaces was plain even by the +moonlight. + +As soon as it was light enough to see we took stock of our windfall. The +horses were both bays and of the finest; their trappings new and in +perfect condition. Our attire was made up of the best horsemen's boots, a +trifle too large for us, but not enough to be so noticeable as to betray +us, or even enough to make us uncomfortable; of horsemen's long rain- +cloaks and of excellent umbrella hats, all of the regulation material, +design and color. In the saddle-bags were excellent blankets, our +despatches, legibly endorsed with the name, Munatius Plancus, of the +official at Marseilles to whom we were to deliver them; and our +credentials, entitling us to all possible assistance from all men and to +fresh horses at all change-houses. From these diplomas we learned that our +names were Sabinus Felix and Bruttius Asper. + +This crowned our luck. We crowed with glee over the unimaginably helpful +coincidence that these diplomas should be made out for couriers with the +very names which we had chosen at haphazard at the commencement of our +flight and had been using to each other ever since. + +The provision of cash was ample: besides plenty of silver there was more +than enough gold to have carried us all the way to Marseilles, on the most +lavish scale of expenditure, without resorting to our credentials to get +us fresh horses. + +We ate liberally of the couriers' generous provision of bread, cheese, +sausage, olives and figs; well content to quench our thirst at the spring +by the shrine. Then we muffled ourselves in our cloaks, tightened the +straps of our umbrella hats, jammed them down on our heads, pulled the +brims over our faces, mounted and set off, elated, sure of ourselves, well +fed, well clad, well horsed, opulent, accredited, gay. + +As couriers vary in their theories of horse-husbanding and in their +practice of riding, we had a wide choice, and elected to get every mile we +could out of these fine horses and not change until as far as possible +from Rome. We found their most natural lope and, pausing to drink and to +water them sparingly at the loneliest springs we descried, we pressed on +through or past the Towers, Pyrgos, and Castrum Novum to Centumcellae. +That was all of forty-one miles from the shrine of Ops Consiva and full +fifty from Rome, but, partly because we had to spare ourselves, as we had +not been astride of a horse since we crawled through the drain at Villa +Andivia, we so humored our horses that we arrived in a condition which the +ostler took as a matter of course, and it was then not quite noon, which +we both considered a feat of horsemanship. + +At Centumcellae we ate liberally and enjoyed the inn's excellent wine. +Also we set off on strong horses. From there only the danger of getting +saddle-sick after our long disuse of horses and the certainty of getting +saddle-sore, as we did, restrained us. We tore on through Martha, Forum +Aurelii, and a nameless change-house, spurring and lashing as much as we +dared, for we dared not disable ourselves with blisters, changing at each +halt and getting splendid horses, our diplomas unquestioned. Thus at dusk +we reached Cosa, forty-nine miles from Centumcellae and a hundred and nine +miles from Rome. + +We dreaded that we should wake too sore to ride, perhaps too sore to +mount, perhaps even too sore to get out of bed. But, while stiff and in +great pain, we managed to breakfast and get away. + +That day we, perforce, rode with less abandon, though we both felt less +discomfort after we warmed to the saddle. We nooned at Rosellae, thirty- +three miles on, and slept at Vada, the port of Volaterrae, fifty-six miles +further, a day of eighty miles. Next day we were, if anything, yet sorer +and stiffer, certainly we were less frightened. So we took it easier, +nooning at Pisa, thirty miles on, and sleeping at Luna, thirty-five +further, a day of only sixty-five miles, rather too little for Imperial +couriers. Our third morning we woke feeling hardened and fit: we made +thirty-nine miles before noon and ate at Bodetia; from there we pushed on +forty-five miles to Genoa, an eighty-four mile day, more in character. + +At Genoa we were for taking the coast road. We were all for haste. We had +ridden amazingly well for men who had not been astride of a horse for +nearly a year; we had ridden fairly well for Imperial couriers; but we had +not ridden fast enough to suit ourselves. From Cosa onward we had been +haunted by the same dread. We had imagined the real Bruttius Asper and +Sabinus Felix reporting their loss of everything save their tunics, we +imagined the hue and cry after us, the most capable men in the secret +service, riding fit to kill their horses on our trail. At Cosa, at Vada, +at Luna we had waked dreading to find the avengers up with us and +ourselves prisoners; at Rosellae, at Pisa, at Bodetia, we had eaten with +one eye on the door, expecting every instant to see our pursuers enter; so +at every change-station, while our trappings were taken from our weary +cattle and girthed on fresh mounts. So we were for the coast road as +shortest. + +But the innkeeper, who was also manager of the change-stables, told us +that between Genoa and Vada Sabatia the road was blocked by landslides, +washouts and the destruction of at least three bridges by freshets. He +advised us to take the carriage-road by Dertona, the Mineral Springs, +Crixia and Canalicum. But we thought of the pursuers thundering after us +and anyhow we wanted none of Dertona, recalling our encounter with +Gratillus at Placentia. We took the coast road, and, though we had to ford +two streams and swam our horses over one, although we had to slide down +slopes and toil up others afoot, leading our horses after us, although a +full third of the road was mere rough track, like a wild mountain trail, +though the distance was all of forty-five miles, yet we slept at Vada +Sabatia, very thankful to have done in one day what would have taken us at +least three by the hundred and fifty-one mile mountain-detour through +Dertona, and still more thankful for the lonely safety of the coast road. + +From Vada Sabatia the coast road was better, but still far from easy. We +were well content to noon at a tiny change-house between Albingaunum and +Albintimilium and to sleep at Lumo, seventy-seven miles on. Next morning +early, only six miles from Lumo, but six miles of hard climbing up a +twisty, rock-cut road, we came out at its crest, where there is a +wonderful view up and down the coast and out southwards to sea, and there +passed the boundary of Italy and entered Gaul. That night we slept at +Matavonium, eighty-four miles forward and but seventy-four miles from +Marseilles. + +So far we had had no adventures, had been accepted without question +everywhere, had seen no look of suspicion from anyone, had encountered no +other couriers, except those whom we met and passed on the road, we and +they lashing, spurring and hallooing, each party barely visible to the +other through the cloud of dust both raised. + +On that day, our eighth out from Rome, at noon at Tegulata, we had +adventure enough. + +The common room of the inn was low-ceiled, I could have jumped and touched +the carved beams with my hand. But it was very large indeed, something +like thirty yards long and fully twenty yards wide, with two Tuscan +columns about ten yards apart in the middle of it, supporting the seven +great beams, smoke-blackened till their carving was blurred, on which the +ceiling-joists were laid. The floor was of some dark, smooth-grained +stone, polished by the feet which had trod it for generations; there were +six wide-latticed windows, and, opposite the door, a great fire-place, +with an ample chimney above and four bronze cranes for pots or roasts. +Each arm had several chains and actually, when we entered, four pots were +boiling, and a kid was roasting over the cunningly bedded fire of clear +red coals, the fresh caught wood at the back, where the smoke would not +disflavor the roasting meat. It was the most civilized inn we had entered +on our post-ride and spoke of the nearness of Marseilles, though every +detail of its construction, furnishings and methods was Gallic, not Greek. + +Unlike our inns, where the drink and food is set on low, round-topped, +one-legged, three-footed tables, about which are placed the backless +stools or low-backed, wooden-seated chairs on which the customers sit, it +had, Gallic fashion, big, heavy-topped, high-set, rectangular, six-legged +tables with benches along their long sides, others with chairs, like those +at the ends of every table; solid, high-backed chairs, comfortable for the +guests, whose knees were well under the high-topped, solid-legged tables. + +Agathemer and I took seats at the table in the far corner to the right of +the door; only two of the five were occupied, and they by but two at each; +plainly local customers. We told the host that we were in haste and asked +for whatever fare he had ready. He brought us an excellent stew of fowl, +with bread and wine and recommended that we wait till he had broiled some +sea-fish, saying they were small but toothsome, fresh-caught and would be +ready in a few moments. The fish tempted us, and, so near Marseilles, we +felt no hurry at all, for we meant to loiter on the road and pass the gate +about an hour before sunset, calculating that the later in the day we +arrived the better chance we had of delivering our despatches, as we must, +without being exposed as not the men we passed for, and of somehow +disembarrassing ourselves of our accoutrements and donning ordinary attire +bought at some cheap shop. + +As we sat, tasting the eggs, shrimps, and such like relishes before +attacking the stew, which was too hot as yet, there entered two men in the +attire of Imperial couriers. Agathemer kept his face, but I am sure I +turned pale. I expected, of course, that they would walk over to our +table, greet us, ask our names, and like as not turn out intimates of +Bruttius Asper and Sabinus Felix, so that we would be exposed then and +there. + +But they merely saluted, perfunctorily, and took seats at the table +nearest the door on their left, diagonally the whole space of the room +from us. Agathemer and I returned their salute as precisely as we could +imitate it, thankful that they had saluted, so as to let us see what the +couriers' salute was, for we had felt much anxiety all along the road, +since neither of us, often as we had seen it, could recall it well enough +to be sure of giving it properly, if we met genuine couriers, or, terrible +thought, encountered an inspector making sure that the service was all it +should be and on the outlook for irregularities. + +The moment they were at the table they bawled for instant service, urged +the host, reviled the slaves, fell on their food like wolves, eating +greedily and hurriedly and guzzling their wine. We could catch most of +their orders, but of their almost equally loud conversation, since they +talked with their mouths full, we caught only the words "Dertona" and +"Crixia"; these comforted us; either they had left Rome before us and we +had overtaken them, or they came from Ancona or somewhere on the road from +Ancona to Dertona or more likely from Aquileia, or somewhere on the road +from it, or perhaps even from beyond it. + +They disposed of relishes, boiling stew, a mountain of bread, and a lake +of wine, besides olives and fruit, in an incredibly short time, and then, +again perfunctorily saluting us, rushed out. + +Our fish had just been served and were as good as prophesied. A moment +after the exit of the couriers there entered a plump, pompous individual, +every line of whose person and attire advertised him a local dandy, while +every lineament and expression of his face, his every attitude and +movement, equally proclaimed him a busybody. + +He walked straight to our table, bowed to us and nodded to one of the +slave-waiters, who instantly and obsequiously vanished. Our new table- +companion at once entered into conversation with us, speaking civilly, but +with an irritating self-sufficiency. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I am acquainted with many of your calling who pass +through here, but I do not recall having ever seen you before. My estates +are near Tegulata and I am chiefly concerned with wine-growing. My wines, +indeed, are reckoned the best between Baeterrae and Verona. My name is +Valerius Donnotaurus; may I know yours?" + +I kept my eyes on his face as I introduced Agathemer as Bruttius Asper and +he me as Sabinus Felix. It seemed to me that his expression was not +altogether free from a momentary gleam of suspicion; but my anxiety might +have seen what was not there, I could not be sure. At any rate he bowed +politely, asked me whence we came, when we had left Rome, and the latest +news. He commended our speed and our having overcome the difficulties of +the coast road between Genoa and Vada Sabatia. + +The waiter, according to some subtle characteristic of his nod, brought +wine for three, which he assured us was wine from his estates, though not +his best, yet worth trying, and he invited us to drink with him. We could +not well refuse and we were glad to be able to praise the wine, which, for +Gallic wine, was really not so bad. Before we had finished our fish he +excused himself and went out. + +We dallied with our food, counting on giving the two couriers time to get +away before we came out into the courtyard. But we learned afterwards +that, as we had shown our credentials and ordered fresh horses before we +entered the inn, the change-master would not give them the two best horses +which he was holding ready for us and had in the yard no other horses. +They had demanded our fresh horses, cursed him and blustered, but could +not move him and so were still berating him when Donnotaurus came out to +them. He, after introducing himself, asking their names and route and, +commiserating them on the poor supply of horses, had casually inquired +whether they were acquainted with two couriers named Bruttius Asper and +Sabinus Felix. On their answering that they knew both of them he had +chatted a while longer and then asked them to reenter with him the inn's +common-room, alleging that they could assist him on an important matter +touching the service of the Emperor. According to the change-master, who +told us all this later, they had complied in a hesitating and unwilling +manner, as if numb and bewildered. + +We, dallying over some excellent fruit and the not unpalatable wine, +knowing nothing of all this, saw the three reenter together and approach +us, the couriers looking not only reluctant, but dazed: up to us +Donnotaurus led them. + +"Do you know these gentlemen?" he demanded. + +"Never set eyes on them in my life," one of them disclaimed. The other +nodded. + +"I thought so!" Donnotaurus cried. "These men claim to be Bruttius Asper +and Sabinus Felix. You say you know Bruttius Asper and Sabinus Felix. You +do not know these men. Therefore they are passing under false names. They +are not Imperial couriers, but some of the scoundrels who have been posing +as Imperial couriers and using the post-roads for their own private ends. +I thank you for assisting me to expose them. It now remains to arrest +them!" + +I had thought when the two entered first and saluted us that their +expression of face was queer; now it was queerer: they looked like some of +the deer we had seen in the net-pocket at Spinella, frantic to escape and +seeing no way out. + +One mumbled something about having barely seen Bruttius Asper and Sabinus +Felix and not being sure that we were not they. But Donnotaurus neither +heard nor heeded. + +"Here, Tectosax!" he called to the host, "come help us arrest these men! +They are bogus! They are shams! They are not couriers!" + +"One man arrest two!" the host demurred. + +"I only want your help," Donnotaurus bawled. "Call Arecomus and the +ostlers. They can make short work of it." + +At this point Agathemer found his voice, and he spoke steadily, coolly and +firmly, even with a bit of a drawl. + +"Don't do anything you will have to be sorry for," he said. "Better not +make any mistake." + +At his utterance the two couriers were manifestly even more uncomfortable +than before. But Donnotaurus only bawled louder to the host. + +"I don't arrest travellers," the host protested, "I feed 'em. Arecomus +don't arrest travellers, he horses 'em. Anyhow, there's no magistrate +here; talking of arresting is folly. + +"And I wish you'd quit your foolishness, Donnotaurus. This is the third +row you've started here within six months. You're giving my inn a bad name +and ruining my trade. You're my best customer, yourself, but you are more +nuisance than all the rest of my customers put together. I'd rather you'd +move out of the neighborhood or keep away from my inn than go on with such +nonsense. I don't want anybody arrested on my premises or threatened with +arrest. And you've nothing to go on in this case, anyhow." + +Donnotaurus appeared at a loss, but obstinate and about to insist, when +the doors opened and there entered a bevy of staff officers, all green and +gold and blue and silver, clustered about a huge man in the full regalia +of a general, his crimson plumes nodding above his golden helmet, his +crimson cloak dangling about his golden cuirass, his gilt kilt-straps +gleaming over his crimson tunic-skirt. There was no mistaking that +incredible expanse of face, seemingly as big as the body of an ordinary +man, those bleary gray eyes under the shaggy eyebrows, their great baggy +lower lids, the heavy cheeks and the vast sweep of russet beard. + +It was Pescennius Niger himself! + +As he was later proclaimed Emperor and narrowly missed overcoming his +competitors and emerging master of the world, the mere encounter has a +certain interest. Its details, I think, even more. + +Up to us he strode. + +"What's all this?" he demanded in his big, authoritative voice. Agathemer +and I stood up and saluted. + +I expected Agathemer, who knew the value of speaking first, to anticipate +Donnotaurus, but he let Donnotaurus give his version of the affair. + +"I'm competent to decide this," said Pescennius, "and I shall." + +And he eyed us, asking: "What have you two to say?" + +"In the first place," said Agathemer, "I ask you to examine our papers." + +He took from the seat of his chair, where he had placed it as he stood up, +our despatch bag, opened it, and displayed its contents; the package of +despatches, our credentials, and the diploma entitling us to change of +horses, with the endorsement of each change-master from Centumcellae +onwards. + +Pescennius examined these meditatively. + +"These papers," he said, "are in perfect order. But they do not prove that +you are the men named in them though they incline me to believe it. I +should believe it, but these men deny that you are Bruttius Asper and +Sabinus Felix." + +"And why do they deny it?" Agathemer queried triumphantly. "Why, because +they were caught by this busybody and asked whether they knew Bruttius +Asper and Sabinus Felix and they said they did; then haled in here by him +and confronted with us and asked whether they knew us and of course said +they did not, as they did not. And why do they not know us? Because they +are not couriers at all, but men passing themselves off as couriers. Our +papers are in perfect order, as you say. Ask them for their papers. They +haven't any!" + +By the faces of the two I saw that Agathemer had guessed right. They, in +fact, were impostors. They had no despatches, no credentials, no papers at +all, except a diploma with entries from Bononia, through Parma, Placentia +and Clastidium to Dertona and so onwards; a diploma so manifestly a clumsy +forgery that, at sight of it, I wondered how it had fooled the stupidest +change-master. + +Pescennius barely glanced at it. To his apparitors, he said: + +"Arrest these three!" + +In a trice Donnotaurus and the two impostors were seized. + +To us he said: + +"Gentlemen, I apologize for having doubted you, even for a moment. And I +thank you for having so cleverly and quietly exposed these precious +gentry. I shall keep an eye on them and on this local meddler; I'll +investigate them in Marseilles. + +"Meantime I must eat. So I'll remain here. You are in haste and you have +eaten. Your horses are ready. I need not detain you. I'll see you at +Marseilles tomorrow. I congratulate you on your horsemanship. To have +overtaken me, even when I am travelling by carriage, is no mean exploit. I +am pleased to have made your acquaintance." + +And he bade us farewell, allowed us to pass out, and seated himself at our +table. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MARSEILLES AND TIBER WHARF + + +We rode the first mile at full gallop and then slowed to an easy canter +which permitted of conversation. All the way to Calcaria we discussed our +situation, prospects and plans. We revised our previous view and agreed +that we had best not be too late entering Marseilles, as we might not have +time to buy cloaks, hats and footgear, change and get rid of our equipment +and find lodgings. + +Then again, of course, we fell into a panic at the idea of riding into +Couriers' Headquarters and perhaps facing a dozen men who knew Sabinus +Felix and Bruttius Asper as well as we knew each other. We went over, for +the tenth time, a series of absurd suggestions and tried to conceive some +way by which we might sneak in at some other gate than that to which our +road led, might avoid delivering our despatches and might find ourselves +safe in ordinary clothes in some obscure lodging. + +But we came to the conclusion that, it would be highly suspicious to act +otherwise than as genuine couriers would act. There was nothing for it but +to ask our way to Couriers' Headquarters, which would not arouse +suspicion, since couriers unacquainted with Marseilles must be constantly +arriving there, as green or shifted couriers did at all cities; to ride +boldly in; to take what came if we were exposed, to deliver our despatches +and stroll out for an airing if we had luck. + +Even if we had luck so far I could not forecast our being able to buy +ordinary clothing and change into it without causing suspicion, +investigation, and our arrest and ruin. Agathemer argued that, if Maternus +could find, in Rome, a bath where we could bathe without anyone so much as +noticing our brand-marks and scourge-scars, he ought to be able to find in +wicked, easy-going Marseilles a shop whose proprietor would ask no +question except had we the cash. I was palpitating with panic and could +foresee in a shopkeeper only an informer, greedy for a reward for our +apprehension. + +Agathemer asked: + +"Didn't I get us out of our troubles at Tegulata?" + +"You certainly did!" I replied. "To a marvel." + +"Well," he pursued, "I have full confidence in my intuition and my +resourcefulness. I feel that I can get us out of our troubles at +Marseilles, if you will let me alone and not interfere." + +"I certainly won't interfere," I said, "to spoil any chance you think you +see. If you see one, signal me and I'll let you use all your dexterity." + +After that we rode evenly to Calcaria and even gaily from there to +Marseilles, which we entered about two hours before sunset of a mild, +fair, delightful afternoon. + +The gate-guard took our questions as a matter of course and directed us to +Couriers' Headquarters. There we found only one very stupid Gallic +provincial in charge, with a few slaves. + +"I," said he, "am Gaius Valerius Procillus." + +And he fingered the package of despatches, eyeing us meditatively. I +quaked, but kept my countenance. + +He eyed us yet longer, but made no comment, wrote out a formal receipt for +the despatches, handed it to Agathemer and said: + +"Munatius will not be back here at Headquarters till tomorrow. So I cannot +tell you whether you will have a day or more of rest, which you have +earned, or must set off again at once. Nor can I tell you whether, when +you do set off, it will be back to Rome, or onward with some of these same +despatches to Spain or Britain or Germany. + +"Make the most of your time for rest and refreshment. You are free till +tomorrow at sunrise. Dromo will show you your quarters." + +And he beckoned one of the slaves. + +Headquarters was a low rectangle of two stories only, built of some stone +like lime-stone, roofed with red tiles and set about a spacious courtyard. +The ground floor seemed mostly stables; but, besides the office in which +we had found Procillus, it had other office rooms, a common-room, and we +glimpsed a bath and a kitchen. Dromo led us up the stone stair and along +the colonnaded portico of the second floor to clean rooms, provided with +comfortable cots, chests, stools, and not much else. + +We threw our wallets on our cots and sat on stools. As soon as Dromo was +gone we opened our wallets, made ourselves comfortable, disposed all our +money about us in the body-belts we had bought at Genoa and went out, +unopposed and apparently unremarked. + +Through the lively streets of Marseilles, in the mellow glow of the +evening sunshine, we made for the harborside, Agathemer nosing the air +like a dog on the scent. Presently he remarked: + +"We are not far from what I am looking for." + +And he turned up a side street to our right. As we took turn after turn +each street was less savory and more disreputable than the last till we +were in a sort of alley populated it seemed by slatternly trulls and +trollops. + +"This," said Agathemer, "is the quarter of the town I am after, but not +quite the part of it I want." + +At the end of the alley he questioned a boy, a typical Marseilles street +gamin. The lad nodded and led us still to our right, doubling back. After +two or three turns Agathemer was for dismissing him. But the lad insisted +on convoying us to some definite destination he had in mind. + +Agathemer displayed a coin. + +"Take that and get out and you are welcome to it," he said. "If you do not +agree to get out and to take it, you get nothing." + +The boy eyed his face, took the coin, and vanished. + +Unescorted we strolled along a clean street, all whitewashed blank lower +walls and latticed overhanging balconies; in the walls every door was +fast; through the lattices I thought I discerned eyes watching us. + +Ahead of us a lattice opened and two faces looked out. In fact two girls +leaned out. Their type was manifest: well-housed, well clad, well fed, +luxurious, loose-living, light-hearted minxes. + +One was plump, full-breasted, merry-faced, with intensely black and glossy +hair, a brunette complexion and in her cheeks a great deal of brilliant +color, which I afterwards found was all her own, but which at first I took +for paint. She wore a gown of a yellow almost as intense as the garb of +the priests of Cybele in the Gardens of Verus. Its insistent yellow was +intensified and set off by a girdle of black silk cords, braided into a +complicated pattern, and by shoulder-knots of black silk, with dangling +fringes, and by black silk lacings along her smocked sleeves. + +Her companion was tall and slender and melancholy faced, her hair a dull +reddish-gold or golden-red, her face without color and a bit freckled, her +gown of pale blue. + +The black-haired girl called: + +"You've had a long ride and you deserve recreation and refreshment. Come +in. We don't know you two, but we have entertained couriers before this. +This is the place for you." + +"Ah, my dear," Agathemer replied, "we not only have had a long ride but we +may have to set out on a longer tomorrow, and you know the proverb: + +"'Light lovers are seldom long lopers.'" + +"If you were too much disinclined to being light lovers," the girl +retorted, "you'd never be strolling down this street. Come in!" + +"My dear," said Agathemer, "we'd love to come in. But remember the +proverb: + +"'Gay girls are not good for great gallopers.'" + +"Oh, hang your proverbs," the girl laughed down at us. "I don't know what +you are up to, but I like you. You don't look as austere as you talk. And +I don't mind your asceticism. If you don't appreciate the entertainment +offered you, you can have any sort of entertainment you prefer. A goblet +of wine and an hour's chat won't enervate you or make you less fit. Come +in." + +A horrible old Lydian woman, one-eyed, obese, clean enough of body and +clothing, but a foul old beast for all that, let us in. + +Agathemer introduced me as Felix and himself as Asper. The merry dark- +haired girl was named Doris and her languorous comrade Nebris. A more +garish and gaudy creature than Doris I have never beheld. I was struck +with her profusion of jewels, mostly topazes, but also many carbuncles and +garnets; rings, bracelets, a necklace, a hair-comb and many big-headed +hair pins. Nebris was equally bejewelled with turquoises and opals, but, +somehow, they did not glitter like the jewelry on Doris, but partook of +their wearer's subdued coloring. As Doris remarked next day: + +"Nebris is very graceful and almost pretty; but she was born faded, and +nothing can brighten her." + +We found the girls housed in as neat, cosy and charming a little nest as +heart could wish for. The atrium was tiny, the courtyard was tiny, +everything was tiny. But it all had an air which put us at our ease and +made us feel at home. Doris, the dark-haired, red-cheeked, full-contoured +lass, was plainly much taken with Agathemer and he with her; I always had +a weakness for red-headed girls and felt genuinely pleased that Nebris, +her long-limbed, long-fingered, pale-skinned, blurred, bleached comrade +seemed equally taken with me. The sofas of the tiny _triclinium_ were soft +and comfortable and, after eight days in the saddle, without a bath, we +were glad to loll on them. The wine was good and, without any effort, the +four of us fell into cheerful chatter about nothing in particular. I +complimented Doris on her dwelling and its furnishings and she at once +insisted on showing us all over it: the kitchen, bath and latrine beyond +the tiny courtyard and upstairs a second _triclinium_, as tiny as that +below, and four tiny bed-rooms, with handsomely carved beds, piled with +deep, soft feather beds and feather-pillows. Doris and Nebris each had her +bed-room furnished to harmonize with her own coloring. I complimented both +on their taste. + +In Nebris's room Agathemer spied a flageolet. + +"Do you play on this?" he asked. + +"Sometimes," she said, "but Doris declares that my music makes her +melancholy, it's so dismal." + +"I'll play you any number of lively tunes," Agathemer promised, possessing +himself of the flageolet. + +We all went down into the lower _triclinium_, where we had left the wine, +and Agathemer charmed the girls with his music and, indeed, enlivened me +as much as them. + +After a score of tunes, while our first goblets of wine were not yet +emptied, Agathemer said: + +"Felix, I believe I see a way out of our troubles." + +"Asper," I replied, "I leave it all to you." + +"Doris, my dear," said Agathemer, "we are not Imperial Couriers at all." + +Doris stared. + +"You mean it?" she asked. + +"So help me Hercules," said Agathemer solemnly. + +"Well," she meditated, with a sharp intake of her breath. "You fooled me. +I thought you were genuine. How did you come in this rig?" + +"We belong in Rome, both of us," Agathemer began. "How we came in +Placentia is no part of the story. But we were in Placentia and we got +into trouble. It wasn't serious trouble; we hadn't killed anybody, or +stolen anything, or cheated anybody; but it was trouble enough and aplenty +and we decided to get out of Placentia. Roads, road-houses, the towns +wouldn't have been healthy for us just then, so we took to the mountains. +Not as brigands, you understand, but we hadn't much cash and coin will go +farther in the mountains than anywhere else; and the weather was fine and +we meant to camp out all we could and stay out all summer and let things +blow over. It was hot, burning hot and we blundered on a cave, a nice, +big, airy dry cave. We went in to cool off and sleep. And we slept sound." + +Then he told our entire story, just as it happened, from our capture by +Maternus and his band, all down to Rome, into the Gardens of Verus, out +along the Aurelian Highway among the tombs, all about the two drunken +robbers, in the moonlight, all about our gallop along the coast, all about +our encounter with Pescennius Niger. + +Nebris kept looking from Agathemer to me, her pale gray eyes wide; but +Doris kept her snapping brown eyes on Agathemer's face from his first word +to his last. + +"My!" she cried, "you have had adventures! Or you are the biggest liar and +the cleverest story-teller I ever met. If you invented that story you +deserve help as a paragon among improvisators; if you had all those +adventures you deserve help ten times over and you certainly need it. +Somehow I believe you. I'll help you all I can. You are in the right +place." + +And she called: + +"Mother, tell Parmenio to find Alopex and bring him to me at once. Tell +him to be quick." + +One of the slaves went out, slamming the door after him. + +"Doris," said Nebris, "can you really save these lads?" + +"I can!" Doris asserted. + +"With Pescennius Niger after them?" Nebris quavered. + +"Even with Pescennius Niger after them," Doris declared. + +"You must remember," she went on, "that Pescennius told these lads he +would not expect to see them till tomorrow morning. That gives me till +dark to set things going and till about two hours after sunrise to finish +the job. Unless, indeed, messengers announcing the robbery of the real +Sabinus Felix and Bruttius Asper happen to overtake Pescennius at Tegulata +or between there and Marseilles. Even then he can hardly get on these +lads' trail before dark. I think we shall be able to get these lads away +safe, no matter what happens. Anyhow let's be cheerful and make the best +of things." + +And she filled our goblets. + +Alopex could not have been far away. Very shortly we heard the door open +and shut and a youth came in, whom Doris introduced as Alopex. A more +repulsive being I have never seen. He was of medium height, slender, +habited in the embroidered, be-fringed garb fashionable among Marseilles +dandies, his hair curled and perfumed, his face much like a weasel's, his +complexion like cold porridge. I then had my first glimpse of a Marseilles +pimp, and I never want to see another. To me he looked capable of any +meanness, of any treachery, of any dishonor, of any crime. + +"Alopex," Doris commanded, "look these gentlemen, over and take their +measure, then go out and buy hats, cloaks, boots and wallets for them, +suitable for a sea-voyage, as inconspicuous as possible, durable and +water-proof. Get a porter and bring them back with you, in a bag, so no +one on the streets will know what the porter is carrying. Be quick." + +"Six gold pieces," said Alopex. + +"If you spend six gold pieces on that outfit," said Doris, "you are an +ass; you shall have six gold pieces, but bring back a reasonable sum in +change, after paying the porter." + +I gave Alopex six gold pieces and he went out. + +"When he comes back," Agathemer asked, "can he pilot us to a bath, where +we shall be as safe as Felix was in Rome in the bath which Maternus knew +of?" + +"He can and he shall," Doris replied. "You two certainly need a bath: and +however you are marked by scourges and brands, the marks won't be noticed +at the bath to which he will lead you." + +"How about a dinner?" Agathemer queried. + +"Asper, my dear," said Doris, "you said you had plenty of cash." + +"We have," said Agathemer. + +"Then," said she, "just give me one of those gold pieces you got from the +two drunken robbers and while you are bathing I'll order as fine a dinner +as Marseilles affords and have it here ready to serve when you two get +back from your bath." + +Alopex soon appeared with a complete outfit for us and the prices which he +announced appeared reasonable to me and were agreed to by Doris. He handed +Agathemer a gold piece and three silver pieces. + +"Change," Doris commanded, and we took off our boots and put on those +Alopex had brought us. Doris had Parmenio bundle up our couriers' attire, +boots and hats and said: + +"I hate to see anything wasted. These outfits are going to be found at +Couriers' Headquarters and no one will ever suspect how they got there. +You can arrange that, Alopex, can't you?" + +"Easy as that," said Alopex, snapping his fingers. + +"Then you do it," she ordered, "and now take these gentlemen to Sosia's +bathhouse and give him the tip that they are all right." + +Alopex acceded sulkily but obediently. That bath refreshed me amazingly +and Agathemer seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. It was after sunset +when we were back with Doris and Nebris, but still far from dark; in fact, +light enough to see well. + +"Now Alopex," said Doris, briskly, "make your best speed to the harborside +and see if you can find a sure ship sailing at dawn, with a captain we can +trust, to get these lads out of Marseilles at once. I doubt if you can +find one, but do your best." + +"We want a ship for Antioch," Agathemer put in. + +"Alopex," said Doris, "find a ship to get these lads out of Marseilles at +dawn, never mind where it is bound for. Now go. And come back and report, +tonight, sure, and as soon as you can." + +When he was gone she rounded on Agathemer: + +"Asper," said she, "I am ashamed of you. You are a fool. With Pescennius +Niger likely after you, foaming at the mouth, raging because he let you +slip through his fingers, you talk of picking and choosing a destination? +Why lad, it makes no difference where the ship is bound so it is +seaworthy, has a captain I can trust and is headed away from Marseilles. +The point for you two is to get away from Marseilles quick. Whether you +land at Carthage, or even Cadiz, makes no difference. You can reship from +anywhere to anywhere, once you are clear of Marseilles. You might linger +in Marseilles, under my protection, but for your encounter with Pescennius +Niger. But after that there is nothing for you to do but get away quick." + +She paused for breath, shaking her finger at us, like a nurse at naughty +children. + +"And now," said she, "let's get at that dinner. I'm hungry and I'm sure +you ought to be." + +We were. And the dinner was excellent, much of it unfamiliar. The +Marseilles oysters had a flavor novel, odd, not agreeable at first, but +very likable after a bit of experience with it. Everything out of the sea +was tasty. The main dish was a wonderful stew of fish, for which, Nebris +told us, Marseilles was famous. It was flavored with any number of +vegetables and relishes, and had bits of meat in it, but fish was the +chief ingredient and the blended flavors made it a most appetizing viand. + +We ate slowly, had just finished our fruit and Agathemer was playing the +flageolet to the accompaniment of enthusiastic applause from both girls +when Alopex returned. He reported that no ship could possibly be gotten +for us the next morning and vowed that it would likely take him all day to +find one for the morning after. + +"Then run off, like a good boy," said Doris, "and get a good long sleep so +as to be fresh tomorrow. Start before daylight and report to me before +noon. Run along." + +"How about lodging for us?" Agathemer queried. + +Doris half chuckled, half snorted. + +"Run along, Alopex," she commanded. + +When he was gone she faced Agathemer, arms akimbo. + +"Asper," she said, "I'm going to save you two lads, no matter how +idiotically you act or talk. I like you, in spite of your ridiculous +ascetic airs and your nonsensical assumption of austerity. You can't make +me angry nor lose my protection, no matter how rude and chilly you are. If +you two don't appreciate the kind of entertainment we are offering you and +haven't sense enough and manners enough to accept it and be thankful, you +can sleep here anyhow, where and how you prefer. But you don't go out of +this house tonight, nor yet tomorrow, not if I know it. I'm going to save +you two, in spite of your folly." + +Naturally, after that, we stayed where we were. + +Next morning, not much more than an hour after sunrise, as we were again +enjoying flageolet music from Agathemer, Alopex returned and reported that +he had found a clean, roomy, seaworthy ship, captained by a man well and +favorably known to him and Doris, which would sail for Rome at dawn next +day. + +"That's your ship," said Doris to us. + +"After what I told you," Agathemer protested, "do you seriously advise us +to set sail for Rome?" + +"I do," Doris declared. "Any place on earth is healthier for you two than +Marseilles. Were you in trouble in Rome before you got into trouble in +Placentia?" + +"We were," said Agathemer, "and trouble of the deepest dye." + +"Asper, my dear," said Doris, "no matter what sort of trouble you were in +at Rome, Rome can't be as dangerous for you as Marseilles. And by all I +hear, Tiber Wharf is a fine locality in which to hide and Ostia nearly as +good. Take my advice and sail. From Rome or Ostia you ought to find it +easy to ship for Antioch." + +"I believe you," said Agathemer, "but I'd like to have more cash with me +than I have and I'd like to give you two girls enough gold pieces to serve +as a sort of indication of our gratitude. No gold either Felix or I shall +ever possess would be enough to repay you for what you have done for us. + +"Now I have an emerald of fair size and of the best water and flawless at +that, sewn into the hem of my tunic. Since you are so capable at finding +safe shops and baths and ships, perhaps Alopex could guide me to a gem- +expert who would like to buy a fine emerald and who would pay a fair price +for it and keep his mouth shut." + +"I had not meant you so much as to poke your nose out of doors till +tomorrow before sunrise," said Doris, meditatively, "but Pescennius won't +be suspicious yet unless a post with news of the robbery you profited by +has already reached here. I fancy it will be a safe risk for Alopex to +escort you to our gem-expert. He'll pay you an honest three-quarters of +the full value of your emerald. Alopex and I get a rake-off on his +profits, as we do on the fare of the men we ship out of Marseilles. Gems +and fugitives are part of my regular line of trade, with efficient help +from Alopex." + +Actually Agathemer was gone about two hours and came back with a portly +bag of gold pieces. He found us in the _triclinium_, Nebris lying on the +sofa with me, and playing a dismal tune on her flageolet, Doris on the +other sofa laughing at us. He lay down by Doris, spilled the gold on the +inlaid dining table, divided it into four equal portions, pouched one, +made me pouch another, and piled one in Doris's lap, while I similarly +piled the other in Nebris's lap. + +"Share and share alike," said Agathemer, "and you are welcome to whatever +part of his rake-off Alopex turns over to you." + +"Asper," said Doris, "you are a dear. Play us a decent tune. Nebris's +music makes me doleful." + +We spent the day eating, drinking, chatting, napping and listening to +Agathemer's very lively music. + +For dinner we had another Marseilles fish-stew, entirely different from +the former, and entirely different from anything I had ever eaten +elsewhere. + +Next morning Doris had us all up, bathed as well as we could in her tiny +bath, fed and ready to set out long before the first streak of dawn +appeared in the east. Agathemer, on his gem-selling expedition, had bought +all we needed to line our wallets except food, and that Doris supplied in +abundance and variety and of a sort calculated to be palatable two or +three days out at sea. + +Doris was a creature no man could forget. She was buxom and buoyant and +completely content with her home, her way of life, her friends and her +prospects; and as capable and competent a human being as I ever met. When +Alopex gave his cautious tap on the door and slipped inside she bade us +farewell unaffectedly, kissed me like a mother, and gave Agathemer one +sisterly hug and one smacking kiss. If there were tears in her eyes none +ran down either cheek. + +Nebris, on the other hand, wept over me and clung to me, with many kisses. + +"There are not many like you," she sobbed. "You are gentle and courteous. +Our friends are generous enough, but they drink too much and are +boisterous and rough and coarse. I wish you weren't going. But I'm glad +I've had you even for so short a time." + +And she gave Agathemer her flageolet, holding it out to him with her left +hand, her right arm round my neck. + +"Come, come!" Doris bustled, "act sensible, child!" + +We tore ourselves away and followed our unsavory guide through the dim, +foggy streets. I distrusted Alopex and should not have been astonished had +he turned us over to a batch of guards, waiting for us at any corner. But +he led us to a fine stone quay by which was moored as trig a merchantman +as I ever saw, new and fresh painted. Her captain was a bluff, hearty, +wind-tanned Maltese, Maganno by name, swarthy, hook-nosed and with a shock +of black curls. He counted the gold pieces Alopex gave him and said, in +Latin with a strong Punic accent: + +"My ship is yours from here to Tiber wharf." + +We shook hands on it, went on board and she cast off at once and was out +of the harbor before the sun had dispersed the fog. To our surprise we set +a course not about southeast as we had expected, but along the coast until +we passed Ulbia, and then almost due east. Maganno explained: + +"Give me the open sea. You Italians are always for hugging the shore: we +Maltese, like our Phoenician ancestors, are all for clear water. I've +sailed between Corsica and Sardinia, and once was enough for me. I've made +this cruise many times and I always prefer to weather the Holy Cape." + +North of Corsica, in fact, we sped, with a fair following wind and we had +an unsurpassably fortunate voyage; skies clear, wind always favorable, +steady and neither too gentle nor too strong. Our time we spent on deck +from before sunrise till long after sunset, dozing through the heat of the +day; Agathemer, when awake, playing on his flageolet, more often than he +was silent, to the delight of all on board. The crew were mostly Maltese, +like their master, using indifferently their own dialect, Greek of a sort +and very poor Latin. Maganno's Latin was better than theirs, but all racy +with his accent. + +When we were already in sight of the month of the Tiber he sat down by us +and said: + +"I was told that you lads were in trouble. But, certainly, you are lucky +voyagers. I have sailed from Ostia to Marseilles and from Marseilles to +Ostia forty-one times, and this forty-second is the easiest and quickest +passage ever I made. I like you lads. Anybody Doris recommends I always +help, for her sake. I'll also help you for your own. Tell me your plans +and I'll do my best for you." + +He agreed with us that both the Northern Harbor and Ostia were certain to +be swarming with spies and secret-service agents and informers: so, for +that matter, was the harbor-side of Rome along the Tiber: but Rome, being +many times as large as Ostia, was likely to be proportionately easier to +hide in. + +"That's where a small merchantman like mine," said he, "beats any big one. +That's why I sail always a small ship, never a big ship. A big merchantman +must berth at Ostia or at the Northern Harbor. My ship can sail on up the +Tiber to Rome. And I shall. You come on up with me." + +His advice seemed good. We decided to stay on the ship all the way up to +Rome, and we did, lolling on deck to Agathemer's piping in the mellow +sunshine. + +So idling we spoke more than once of the Aemilian Sibyl and of this second +fulfillment of her acrid prophecy. + +Maganno promised to find us a ship loading for Antioch; seaworthy, roomy +and with a trustworthy captain. + +This could not be done quickly and, he found us, meantime, lodgings with a +friend of his, a fat, bald, one-eyed cook-shopkeeper named Colgius, who +rented us a tiny room over his eating-room, which was not far from the +Ostian Gate, between the public warehouses and the slope of the Aventine. + +At his table we fared pretty well, for his prices were low, his wine +drinkable, and most of his food eatable, though we did not try a second +time the viands for which he had the briskest demand: a very greasy pork +stew of which he was inordinately proud, amazingly rank ham, and +incredibly strong Campanian cheese; all three of which seemed to delight +his customers, who were an astonishing medley of slaves and freemen: +porters, stevedores, inspectors' assistants, coopers, mariners, jar- +markers, gig-drivers, teamsters, drivers of all sorts of hired vehicles, +drovers who herded cattle from Ostia to the cattle-market, vendors of +sulphur-dipped kindling-splints, collectors of street filth and others +equally low in class, equally novel to me. + +Colgius took a fancy to us and undertook to show us Rome. It struck me +oddly that, whereas Nona, in every fiber an Umbrian Gaul, and Maternus, +who had spent all his life beyond the Alps, had both, at first glance, +recognized us for what we were, Roman master and Greek servant, this Roman +of the Romans, keen for personal profit, habituated to the sight of men +from all ports, accepted us for Gallic provincials, and never suspected +that we were anything else. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +CHARIOTEERING + + +Sight-seeing in Rome, in the guise of Gallic wastrels, under the tutelage +of a harborside slum host, was truly an experience for me after my former +station as a nobleman of the Republic, and my ruin and disguise and +flight. I positively enjoyed it. + +First of all Colgius was for showing us over the stables of the Reds, for +he was mad about racing and boasted that he had bet on the Reds since he +was six years old and his father gave him his first copper. But I demurred +and pointed out that none of the racing-stables were fit places for us, +since a steady stream of Spanish horses trickled through Marseilles and on +through Vada Sabatia and Genoa to Rome, and there was too great a +probability that we might come face to face with some groom, hostler or +hanger-on from Marseilles who would know us at sight. Colgius yielded to +this argument and agreed that we must avoid all the racing stables. This +greatly relieved us, since, while neither I nor Agathemer had been +devotees of the sport, both of us had been through all six establishments +often enough to be likely to be recognized in any one of them. + +Baffled in his first choice and, apparently, in his only choice, Colgius +asked us what we wanted to see. I said I wanted most to see a day of +racing in the circus, blurting out this rather foolish utterance without +reflection, merely because I thought it would seem natural to him. He +replied that that would be easy, but that the next racing day was day +after tomorrow: what would we like to do today? + +I said I wanted first of all to be shown the Temple of Mercury, for I +wanted to make an offering to the god. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "Mercury is your chief god in Gaul, isn't he, and you +put him ahead of Jupiter. What is it you call him?" + +"You are thinking of the Belgians," I said, "and of the Gauls in the +Valley of the Liger. They call Mercury Tiv or Tir and regard him as their +chief god. But we provincials never had any such ideas: we worship the +same gods as you, in the same way. But I, personally, while revering +Jupiter as king of the gods, have always particularly sought the favor of +Mercury." + +Off we went to the meat market and I bought there two white hens, as on +the day of my flight, more than a year before. With one under each arm I +then followed Colgius to the Temple of Mercury and there made my prayers +and offering. + +When we came out he, of course, began to display the outside of the Great +Circus and to tell me of its glories, which, he said, he would show me +from the inside the day after tomorrow. The life there was much as +Maternus and I had seen it twenty-three days before. + +We could not avoid following Colgius about Rome, round the Palatine, the +Colosseum and the Baths of Titus and through the Forums of Vespasian, +Nerva, Augustus and Trajan. At Trajan's Temple he reiterated his regrets +that we dare not go on to the stables of the Reds, and turned back through +Trajan's Forum, the Forum of the Divine Julius and the Great Forum. Of +course, I was quaking with dread for fear some lifelong acquaintance would +recognize me, even in my coarse attire. But none did: in fact I set eyes +on no one I knew, except Faltonius Bambilio, who was pompously lecturing +ten victims in the Ulpian Basilica. I was certain that his eyes were only +on his auditors; the sight of him did not alarm me, he never paid any +attention to those he considered his inferiors. + +All along Agathemer and I were bursting with suppressed giggles: Colgius +paid very little attention to the Palace, the Great Amphitheater, the +magnificent public baths, the temples or to any of the glories about us; +he was all for cook-shops and hauled us into cook-shops without number, +sometimes presenting his Gallic friends, Asper and Felix, to his good +friend, the proprietor, sometimes bursting into invectives against the bad +cookery, infinitesimal portions or absurd prices of his enemies' +establishments. In cook-shops Agathemer and I felt safe, near a cook-shop +we felt almost safe, between cook-shops, companioned by Colgius and any +cook-shop frequenters we met, we felt more than a little safe. To our +thinking no spy, informer or secret service agent would feel suspicious +towards Colgius and his friends, nor towards us in their company, and he +presented us to idlers, loafers, louts, betting agents, sellers of tips on +the races, friends of jockeys, cousins of hostlers and such like to an +amazing number. + +We found all Rome, as we saw it in the company of Colgius, humming with +two names and we made sure that, if they buzzed in such company as we were +in they also formed the chief topics of conversation in all parts of the +city and at every level of society from the senators down. + +One name we had heard when in Rome with Maternus, but had barely heard it; +now we heard it everywhere; the name of Palus, the charioteer; Palus, the +incomparable jockey; Palus, the king of horsemasters; Palus the chum of +Commodus. Both of him, and about him, not only from the men who talked to +us, but also from bystanders, diners and idlers, who never noticed us or +knew that we overheard them, we heard the most amazing stories: + +He could guide six horses galloping abreast between the test-pillars for +tyros driving four-abreast and never jostle a pillar or throw a horse; he +had done it time after time; he had won three races, driving seven horses +abreast, his competitors driving four abreast; he had won a race, with a +team of four Cappodocian stallions, guiding them without reins, by his +voice only; he was the most graceful charioteer, bar no one, ever seen in +Rome. + +As to his origin and personality the stories were not only fantastic, but +divergent, contradictory or incompatible. + +If we might believe what we heard he had been presented to Commodus by the +same nobleman who had presented Murmex Lucro, and on the very next day; he +was from Apulia; he was a Roman all his days; he was a Sabine; he was a +nobleman in disguise, he had been a foundling brought up in the Subura; he +was a half brother of Commodus, offspring of an amour between Faustina and +a gladiator, reared in Samnium on a farm, lately recognized and accepted +by the Emperor; he was Commodus himself in disguise. + +All this, you may be sure, made us prick up our ears. Still more did we at +the sound of the other much-bandied name. Here again the tales were +varied, inconsistent, antagonistic. + +But the name! + +That name was: + +Marcia! + +Marcia was in control of Commodus, of the Emperor, of the Republic, of the +Empire. She was domiciled in the Palace, she was treated as Empress, she +had all the honors ever accorded an Empress except that she never +participated in public sacrifices or other ceremonial rituals. Crispina +had been divorced and was no longer Empress, but had been relegated, under +guard, to a distant island; Crispina was still Empress, but had withdrawn +in disdain from the Palatine, occupied the Vectilian Palace on the Caelian +Hill, still received Commodus when he visited her, but would not set foot +on the Palatine nor take part in any ritual or ceremonial; Crispina had +been murdered by Marcia's orders, in her presence, with the Emperor's +consent; Marcia got on well with the Empress, there was no jealousy +between them, Crispina was glad to have someone who could soothe Commodus +in his periodic rages and humor him when he sulked; every possible variety +of story about Crispina was told, but every tale represented Marcia as +undisputed and indisputable mistress of the Palace and of everybody in it. + +Of her origin we heard mostly versions of the true story; often we heard +named Hyacinthus and Ummidius Quadratus, never my uncle nor Marcus +Martius. We dared not seem to know anything about Marcia and so could not +name Marcus Martius or ask after him. From all the talk we heard, +addressed to us or about us, his name was as absent as if he had never +existed. + +How Marcia came to the Emperor's attention, won his notice, acquired her +mastery of him, as to all this we heard not one word: of her complete +control of him and of all Rome everyone talked openly. + +The next day we escaped the unwelcome attention of Colgius because Maganno +came after us to introduce us to the captain who was to take us to +Antioch, to show us his ship, and to make sure we knew the wharf at which +she lay and how to reach her. The ship was to sail two days later. The +captain's name was Orontides, which struck both me and Agathemer as being +the same as that of the most fashionable jeweler in Rome, whose +grandfather had come from Antioch, where, I suppose, the name would be as +natural and frequent as Tiberius with us. + +He was a Syrian Greek, with curly brown hair and brown eyes, by no means +so wind-tanned and weather-beaten as Maganno, but manifestly a seaman. He +was bow-legged and had very large flat feet. + +Orontides looked us over, approved us, required a deposit of twenty gold +pieces, counted them, said we might pay the rest of his charges at +Antioch, and we shook hands on the bargain. + +Yet, as the cost of the voyage would land us in Syria with but a few +coins, it was well for us that, later in the day, Agathemer found a dealer +in gems lately come to Rome and sold him another jewel. This filled our +pouches and left us certain of having gold to spare until he could manage +to find a purchaser for yet another gem in Antioch or elsewhere. + +Colgius, when we returned to our lodgings, talked of nothing but the Games +which were to be celebrated next day. He first exhibited the togas which +he had hired for us to wear; we, as fugitives, having, of course, no togas +of our own. We found them clean and tried them on. Colgius approved and +went on with his enthusiasm. + +There were to be twenty-four faces, all of four-horse chariots only, +twelve in the morning, of six chariots, one for each of the racing +companies; twelve in the afternoon, of twelve chariots, two for each of +the racing companies. Colgius discoursed at length as to his opinions +concerning the six companies, inveighing against the Golds and the +Crimsons, declaring that they were rich men's companies, in which only +senators and nobles took any interest and the existence of which spoiled +racing. + +"You never heard of a plain man like me betting on the Crimson or the +Gold," he ranted, "all folks of moderate means, all the plain people, all +the populace, bet on the Reds, Whites, Greens or Blues. I agree that the +Greens are the most popular company, most popular with all classes from +the senators and nobles to the poorest, but I will never admit, as many +claim, that the Blues have the second place in the affections of the +people; the Blues, I maintain, come third and the Reds have second place +with all classes. The Whites are a strong fourth. But, as to the Golds and +the Crimsons, no one ever lays a wager on them except the enormously rich +nobles and senators whose ancestors organized them under Domitian a +hundred years ago. But they, being so enormously rich, can buy the best +horses and have the best jockeys. Now they have Palus. The Reds have +Scopas and the Greens Diocles, and both have been wonderful, but Palus can +beat anybody. + +"They say he has wagered an enormous sum that he will win all of the +twelve races in which he is to run, the first six odd numbers and the last +six even numbers, and that he will do so in a previously specified way; +that he will take and keep first place in the first race; that, in the +others he will, at the start, take second place, third place and so on +progressively further back in each, till he lets the whole of five get +ahead of him in the eleventh race and the whole field of eleven have the +start of him in the last race." + +Colgius was afraid Palus would succeed in doing precisely what he +purposed. The Reds, if they won any races, must win in those in which +Palus did not start. He judged they could not hope to win more than eight +of those twelve. He was gloomy. + +Next day dawned fair, mild, and with a gentle breeze, perfect weather for +spending a day in the Circus. To this Agathemer and I looked forward with +some trepidation, for service men, spies and informers were always in all +parts of the Circus and one might recognize me. But we comforted ourselves +with the hope that they were no longer on the lookout for me. If I knew +the ways of secret-service men I conjectured that they would never have +been willing to report the truth: that they could find no trace of me, +that I had vanished utterly and completely. I would have been willing to +wager that, within a month of my disappearance, some corpse somewhere was +identified as mine and my suicide reported as verified; which report had +probably been accepted at the Palace; whereafter I would be off the minds +of all secret-service men everywhere. Therefore I felt reasonably sure +that no agent would be on the lookout for me. Of course there was a chance +that one might recognize me by accident. But this was so unlikely that we +did not worry over it much. + +I was more concerned for fear of arousing suspicion in Colgius by not +behaving as he would expect a Gallic Provincial to behave at his first +sight of the great games in the Circus Maximus. I could not be sure at +what he would expect me to exclaim, what I ought to wonder at and remark +on to seem natural in my assumed role of Marseilles scapegrace. + +We were a party of eight, Colgius, his wife Posilla, and two teamsters or +drovers named Ramnius and Uttius, who conveyed goods or convoyed cattle +between Ostia and the markets of Rome. They had their wives with them, but +I forget their names. The three women were arrayed in wonderful costumes +of cheap fabrics dyed in gaudy hues and adorned with jewelry of gilt or +silvered bronze set with bits of colored glass. I had seen such at a +distance, but never so close. + +Both Agathemer and I liked Ramnius and Uttius; we felt at ease with them +at first sight. And they were evidently intimates of Colgius and high in +his favor. He and they wore their togas with all the awkwardness to be +expected from men who donned togas only for Circus games and Amphitheatre +shows. To my amazement I found myself really delighted at again wearing a +toga. Like all gentlemen I had always loathed the hot, heavy things. But I +found myself positively thrill at being again garbed as befits a Roman on +a holiday or at a ceremonial. Besides I found that a toga, over a poor +man's tunic, was not nearly so uncomfortable as it was over the more +complicated garb of a fashionable person of means and position. + +The interior of the Circus, from my novel location, appeared sufficiently +strange to lull my dread that I might seem too familiar with it. Of course +we were very far back, only five rows in front of the arcade, whereas as +long as I was a nobleman of Rome in good standing, I had always sat in the +second tier, far forward. + +But what made much more difference than sitting far back and high up +instead of well forward and low down was that we were on the other side of +the Circus from my old seat and almost directly opposite it. I had always +sat in section E, about the middle of the east side of the Circus and not +far from the Imperial Pavilion in section C. We were in section P, +directly facing E, and not far from the judges' stand in section O. + +Now from where I had been used to sitting, facing a little south of west, +I had viewed only the tiers of seats and of spectators, the upper arcade, +and, above that the roofs of the not very lofty, large or magnificent +temples on the Aventine Hill. From where we sat with Colgius we faced the +Palatine and I was overwhelmed by the vastness, beauty and grandeur of the +great mass of buildings which make up the Imperial Palace. On a festival +day, of course, they were exceptionally gorgeous, for every window was +garlanded at the top and most displayed tapestries or rugs hung over the +sill, every balcony was decorated similarly and with greater care than the +windows, and every window, balcony and portico was a mass of eager faces. +Especially my eye was caught by the crowd of Palace officials and servants +on the bulging loggia built by Hadrian in order to be able to catch +glimpses of games when he was too busy to occupy the Imperial Pavilion in +the Circus itself. That Pavilion, as yet occupied only by a few guards, I +gazed at with mixed feelings. + +Colgius put Agathemer next him, then me; beyond me sat Ramnius and his +wife and then Uttius and his. But across Posilla we were introduced to two +cattle inspectors named Clitellus and Summanus of whom we felt +uncomfortably suspicious from the instant we laid eyes on them. They +looked to me like secret-service agents and Agathemer nodded towards them, +when they were not looking, raised his eyebrows and touched his lips. + +I for some time satiated myself with gazing at the Palace, with admiring +the wonderful charm of the outlook from this side of the Circus, with +revelling in the sense of delight at being again in it, with feasting my +eyes on its gorgeousness, on the magnificence of its vastness, of its +colonnade, of its costly marbles, of its tiers of seats, of the obelisks, +shrines, monuments and other decorations of the _spina_. + +Then, after the upper seats were well packed with commonality, the gentry +and nobility began to dribble into the lower tiers and even a few +senatorial parties entered their boxes in the front row. I began to peer +at party after party, outwardly trying to keep my face blank, inwardly +excited at the probability of recognizing many former friends and +acquaintances. + +The first man I recognized was Faltonius Bambilio, unmistakably pompous +and self-satisfied. Although a senator he came early. Later I saw Vedius +Vedianus and, far from him, Satronius Satro. Didius Julianus, always the +most ostentatious of the senators, was unmistakable even in section B, +further from me than any part of the Circus except the left hand starting +stalls and their neighborhood. + +I looked for Tanno in section D, and early made him out. + +But, even after the equestrian seats and senatorial boxes had all filled, +nowhere could I descry any feminine shape at all suggestive of Vedia. I +was still peering and sweeping the senatorial seats with my eyes, hoping +to espy her, when the bugles announced the Emperor's approach and the +audience stood up. My eyes were on the Imperial Dais watching for the +appearance of the Emperor. But when he came into sight, and I joined in +the cheers, I viewed without emotion this man, who had honored me with his +favor, yet who had credited to the utmost, without investigation, my +inclusion among the number of his dangerous enemies. I reflected that no +man accused of participating in a conspiracy against any Prince of the +Republic had ever been given any sort of hearing or his friends allowed to +try to clear him. + +I used all my powers of eyesight to con the Emperor, distinctive in his +official robes but too far off to be seen well. He appeared to me to have +lost something of his elegance of carriage and grace of movement. He +seemed less elastic in bearing, less springy of gait. There was, even at +that distance, something familiar in his attitude and stride, but it did +not seem precisely the presence of Commodus as I had known him. I stared +puzzled and groping in my mind. But I felt no emotion as I stared and +peered at him. + +Oddly enough, from the moment when I received Vedia's letter of warning +until I caught sight of the head of the procession about to enter the +Circus through the Procession gate, I had had not one instant of +despondency or of self-pity. But, at sight of the head of that magnificent +procession, a sort of wave of misery surged through me and inundated me +with a sudden sense of wistful regret for all that I had lost and also +with an acute realization of the precarious hold I had on life, of the +peril I was in from hour to hour. This unexpected and unwelcome dejection +possessed me until the whole line of floats displaying the images of the +gods had passed and the racing chariots came along. + +The very first of these drawn by a splendid team of four dapple grays, was +driven by a charioteer wearing the colors of the Crimsons' Company. I did +not need to hear the exclamation of Colgius: + +"There is Palus! That is Palus!" to recognize this Prince of Charioteers. +The descriptions I had heard were enough to have told me who he was. For +at even a distant sight of him I did not wonder at the tales which gave +out that he was a half brother of Commodus, or Commodus in disguise. He +was more like Commodus than any half brother would have been likely to +have been; like as a twin brother, like enough to be actually Commodus +himself. He had all Commodus' comeliness of port and refinement of poise. +Every attitude, every movement, was a joy to behold. I stared back and +forth from this paragon in a charioteer's tunic to the stolid lump on the +Imperial throne, perplexed at the enigma, feeling just on the verge of +comprehension, but baffled. I kept gazing from one to the other till Palus +rounded the further goal and was largely hidden by the posts, the stand +for the bronze tally-eggs, the obelisk and the other ornaments of the +_spina_. [Footnote: See Note G.] + +There were about two hundred chariots, for very few teams were entered to +race twice. More than a third were driven by charioteers, the rest by +grooms, or others, quite competent to control them at a walk, though some +of the more fiery had also men on foot holding their bits. + +"Felix," Agathemer queried, "did you notice anything peculiar about the +first chariot?" + +"Yes, Asper," I replied, "I did. I never saw a chariot with its wheels so +close together, nor with such long spokes. Its axle is higher from the +ground than any I ever set eyes on." + +"I recall," said Agathemer, "hearing you recount a lecture on chariot- +design you once heard from a man of lofty station." + +"The design of that chariot," I replied, "certainly tallies with the +design advocated in that lecture. It would seem to indicate that Palus has +accepted the views of that very distinguished lecturer." + +"Perhaps," said Agathemer drily. "Perhaps it indicates something more +notable." + +"Perhaps," I admitted. + +Most of the teams were white or dapple gray, those being the favorite +colors of all the racing companies except the Whites themselves, among +whom it was a tradition that teams of their racing-colors were unlucky for +them. Next most frequent were bays, then sorrels, while roans and +piebalds, as usual, were distinctly scarce. In fact there were but three +teams of roans, all with the white colors, and two of piebalds, one +belonging to the Greens and one to the Blues. The Blue team caught my eye, +even at so great a distance. When it came opposite us I nudged Agathemer +and queried: + +"Asper, did you ever see any of these horses before?" + +"Yea, Felix," he replied. "You are quite right in your judgment; the left- +hand yoke-mate is the very stallion you are thinking of, which you and I +have seen and handled before to-day. You and I know where you rode him and +how he passed out of your ken." + +It was, in fact, the trick stallion I had ridden at Reate fair and won as +a prize of my riding him, which had been spirited away from my stables not +many nights after he came into my possession. At once I foresaw some +attempt at altogether unusual trickery in the course of this racing-day. +The team of four splendid piebald stallions, about five years old, was one +of the few entered for two races. I could not conjecture how a horse which +had spent his youth as trick-horse in possession of an itinerant fakir, +had acquired, since I knew him, reputation enough to be yoke-mate in a +team highly enough thought of to be entered for two races the same day in +the Circus Maximus. This was a puzzle almost as absorbing as the likeness +and contrast between the Emperor and Palus. + +The racing had many remarkable features, but I am concerned to relate only +those in which Palus took part. + +At once after the procession he drove in the first race, always a perilous +honor. When we saw the chariots dart out of the starting-stalls, the +Crimson emerged from the stall furthest to the left, just that which is +the worst possible position from which to start. Although thus handicapped +the Crimson seemed a horse-length ahead before the other chariots had +cleared the sills of their stalls and a full chariot-length ahead before +it reached the near end of the _spina_ wall. We saw Palus take the wall +easily and hold it throughout the race, after the first turn never less +than two full chariot-lengths ahead of the Green, which came second. The +Red was third, which comforted Colgius a little. As Palus passed the +judges' stand he threw up an arm, with a gesture so boyish, so debonair, +so graceful, so altogether characteristic of Commodus, that I felt a qualm +all over me. And a second gesture of exultation as he vanished through the +Gate of Triumph was equally individual. + +The Red won the second race, which put Colgius, Uttius and Ramnius in high +good humor and seemed to make their fat, smiling wives even more smiling. + +Agathemer and I agreed that the rumors retailed by Colgius concerning the +wager said to have been made by Palus were probably correct; for he did +just what that rumor specified and so singular and spectacular a series of +feats could hardly have been fortuitous. It was quite plain that he pulled +in his team in the third race, and let a Gold team get the lead of him and +keep it till five eggs and five dolphins had been taken down by the tally- +keepers' menials and there were but two full laps to run. Then he took the +lead easily in the middle of the straight and won by four full lengths. + +So of the other races in which he drove. He pulled in his team at the +start and each time allowed to get ahead of him one more team than in his +last race. Then he joyously and without apparent effort passed first one, +in one straight, then another in another, varying his methods from race to +race, watching for and seizing his opportunities, biding his time, dashing +into top speed as he chose, all smoothly and in perfect form. + +The Blue team of piebalds with my trick-stallion among them won the fourth +race in which Palus did not compete. + +The eleventh race, in which Palus let the whole field of five precede him, +was most exciting, especially because of the length of lead he gave even +to the fifth team, and the impression of inevitableness about his victory +afterwards. The thirteenth, in which he did not drive, was notable for an +appalling smash-up of five chariots, in which three jockeys were killed +and eight horses killed outright or so badly injured that the clearing- +crew had to put them out of their agonies. + +The fourteenth race would have been spoiled by an even worse massacre had +it not been for the superlative skill of Palus and his amazing luck. He +had passed five of the seven chariots which had the lead of him at the +start and was a close third to the two Blue teams, with the entire field +well up behind, three abreast, mostly, bunched up in a fashion which +seldom happens. The whole dozen had gathered way after the tenth turn, as +they came up the straight past the judges and us on the first lap, while +two eggs and two dolphins still remained on the tally stands. Two thirds +up the straight, just when all twelve teams were at their top speed, the +Blue chariot furthest out from the _spina_ wall swerved to the right as if +the jockey had lost control of his team. Palus lashed his four and they +increased their speed as if they had been held in before and darted +between the two Blues. As the twelve horses were nose to nose the outer +Blue pulled sharply inward in a way which appeared certain to pocket Palus +and wreck his team and chariot, but even more certain to wreck the +swerving Blue. What Palus did I was too far off to see, but the roar of +delight from the front rows, which spread north, south and west till it +sounded like surf in a tempest, advertised that he had done something +superlatively adequate. Certainly he slipped between the two Blue teams +and won his race handily, as he did every other in succession, though +eight, nine, ten and eleven chariots led him at the start of each in +succession. + +"What do you think of that, Asper?" I asked Agathemer. + +"Felix," he replied, "there has never been but one man on earth who could +manage horses like that. I've seen him do it. I've been smuggled in to +watch him, like many another servant supposed to be waiting for his master +outside. I recognize the inimitable witchery of him." + +"No need to name him," I said. "But if you are right, who is wearing his +robes and occupying his usual seat to-day?" + +"Don't ask me!" Agathemer replied. "But you yourself, Felix, who have seen +him drive so much oftener than I have must agree with me about Palus." + +I was mute. + +I never saw a better managed racing-day. The first twelve races of six +chariots each were over and done with more than an hour before noon and we +had plenty of time to eat the abundant lunch Posilla and her two friends +had put up for us, to drink all we wanted of the wine served in the tavern +in the vault to the left of the entrance stair, underneath the seats of +our section, and to return to our seats, refreshed like the rest of that +fraction of the spectators which went out and came back, most of them +sitting tight in their seats, unwilling to miss any of the tight-rope- +walking, jugglers' tricks, fancy riding and rest of the diversions which +filled up the noon interval. Also the twelve afternoon races of twelve +chariots each were so promptly started, with so little interval between, +that the last race was run a full two hours before sunset, while the light +was still strong; stronger, in fact, than earlier in the day, for a sort +of film of cloud had mitigated the glare of noon, while by the start of +the last race the sky was the deepest, clearest blue and the sun's +radiance undimmed by any hindrance. + +That last race! Palus passed nine competitors in ten half laps, and, in +the first half of the sixth lap, was again third to two Blue teams one of +which was the piebald team with the Reate trick-stallion as left-hand +yoke-mate. Again, as in the fourteenth race, the field was close up, +widespread, bunched, and thundering at top speed. Palus was driving the +dapple grays with which he had won the first race. + +Now, what happened, happened much quicker than it can be told, happened in +the twinkling of an eye. The inner leading Blue team apparently hugged the +_spina_ wall too close and jammed its left-hand hub-end against the +marble, stopping the chariot, so that the axle and pole slewed and so that +the horses, since the pole and the traces did not snap, were brought nose +on against the wall and piled up horridly, just at the goal-line, opposite +the judges stand, and falling so that as they fell they straightened out +the pole and brought the chariot to a standstill with its axle neatly +across the course. + +The other Blue, with the piebalds, was not close in to the leaders, but +fairly well out and about a length behind. As the wall-team piled up +something happened among the free-running piebalds. Of course, I +conjecture that the trick-stallion threw himself sideways at a signal. But +it seems incredible that a creature as timid as a horse, so compellingly +controlled by the instinct to keep on its feet, should, in the frenzy of +the crisis of a race, while in the mad rush of a full-speed gallop, obey a +signal so out of variance with his natural impulse. Agathemer vows he saw +the trick-stallion throw himself against the chief horse while he and the +other two were running strong and true. I did not see that; I only saw the +four piebalds go down in a heap in front of their chariot, saw the chariot +stop dead, saw, even at that distance, that its axle was perfectly in line +with the axle of the other wrecked chariot, both chariots right side up +and too close together for any chariot to pass between them. + +Palus, skimming the sand not three horse lengths behind the piebalds, was +trapped and certain to be piled up against the wrecked Blues, under three +or four more of the field thundering behind him. + +Actually, at that distance, I saw his pose, the very outline of his neck +and shoulders, express not alarm but exultation. Although his right ear +and part of the back of his head was towards me, I could almost see him +yell. I could descry how the lash of his whip flew over his team, how +craftily he managed his reins. + +Right at the narrow gap he drove. In it his horses did not jam or fall or +stumble or jostle. The yoke-mates held on like skimming swallows, the +trace-mates seemed to rise into the air. I seemed to see the two wheels of +his chariot interlock with the two wheels of the upright, stationary +wrecked chariots, his left-hand wheel between the chariot-body and right- +hand wheel of the chariot on his left, his right-hand wheel between the +chariot-body and left-hand wheel of the chariot on his right. + +Certainly I saw his chariot, with him erect in it, rise in the air, saw it +bump on the ground beyond the two stationary chariots, saw it leap up +again from its wheels' impact upon the sand, all four of his dapple grays +on their feet and running smoothly, saw him speed on and round the upper +goal-posts. + +As Palus came round the next lap, well ahead of the diminished field, he +craftily avoided the heap of wreckage. As he won he dropped his reins +altogether, threw up both, arms, and yelled like a lad. As he vanished +through the Triumphal Gateway, he again dropped his reins, left his team +to guide themselves, and turned half round to wave an exultant farewell to +the spectators. + +"What do you think, Asper?" I asked Agathemer. + +"Felix," said he, "I wouldn't bet a copper that the occupant of the throne +is not Commodus. But I'll wager my amulet-bag and all it contains that +Palus is not Ducconius Furfur." + +He said it under his breath, that I alone might hear. + +"My idea, precisely, Asper," I replied. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MISADVENTURES + + +As we left the Circus I heard in the crowd near us, along with fierce +denunciations of the Crimsons and Golds, execrated by all the commonality +as merely rich men's companies, the most enthusiastic laudations of Palus +and expressions of hopes that the Blues, Greens, Reds or Whites, according +to the preference of the speaker, might yet win him over and benefit by +his prowess. + +Colgius, although the Reds had won but five races, was in a high good +humor and insisted on the whole party coming in to a family dinner. The +three wives occupied the middle sofa, while Agathemer and I had the upper +all to ourselves. The fare was abundant and good, with plenty of the +cheaper relishes to begin with; roast sucking-pig, cold sliced roast pork, +baked ham, and veal stew for the principal dishes, with cabbage, beans and +lentils; the wine was passable, and there was plenty of olives, figs, +apples, honey and quince marmalade. + +The women talked among themselves and the men, with us putting in a word +now and then, of Palus. They argued a long time as to just what he did in +the fourteenth race and how he had saved himself at the critical moment. +As to his victory in the last race, all three of them were loud in their +praises. Colgius said: + +"Nothing like that has ever happened before. The chariot which Palus drove +had the shortest axle I ever saw or anybody else. No other chariot but +that could have passed between the two wrecked chariots; any other would +have crashed its two wheels against the wrecked chariot-bodies and would +have smashed to bits. His chariot was so narrow that its wheels passed +between the two chariot-bodies, clear. + +"Even so any other chariot would have stopped dead when its wheels hit the +axles of the stalled chariots, for it was plain that his wheels +interlocked with the wheels of the stalled chariots and hit the axles. But +his chariot had the longest spokes ever seen in Rome, or, I believe, +anywhere else, and so had the tallest wheels ever seen and had its axle +higher above the sand than any other chariot; so its wheels engaged the +stalled axles well below their hub-level and so the team pulled them right +over the axles and on." + +"Yes," said Uttius, "but that never would have happened but for Palus' +instantaneous grasp of the situation and lightning decision. Any other +charioteer would have reined in or tried to swing round to the right; he +lashed his team and guided them so perfectly that, with not a hand's- +breadth to spare anywhere, the two wheels passed precisely where there was +the only chance of their passing, and he guided his horses so perfectly +that the yoke-mates shot between the stalled wheels without jostling them +or each other. No man has ever displayed such skill as Palus." + +"Nor had such luck," Ramnius cut in. "No man could have guided the yoke- +mates as he did and, at the same time, exerted any influence whatever on +the trace-mates. They showed their breed. Each saw the stalled wheel in +front of him, neither tried to dodge. Each went straight at that wheel, +reared at it, and leapt it clean. As they leapt they were not helping to +pull the chariot, the yoke-mates pulled it over the stalled axles. But the +momentary check as the chariot hit the axles and leapt up gave the leaping +trace-mates just the instant of time they needed to find their feet and +regain their stride. The whole thing was a miracle; of training, of skill +and of luck." + +"But don't forget," said Colgius, "that the skill and judgment Palus +displayed counted for more than the breed of his team and his luck. Do not +forget the perfect form he showed: not an awkward pose, not a sign of +effort, not a hint of anxiety; self-possession, courage, self-confidence +all through and the most perfect grace of movement, ease, and suggestion +of reserve strength. He is a prodigy." + +After Agathemer and I were alone in the dark on our cots we whispered to +each other a long time. + +"Do you really believe," I said, "that Commodus is so insane about horse- +racing as to be willing to put Furfur on his throne in his robes so that +he can degrade himself under the name of Palus?" + +"I do," said Agathemer. "No other conjecture fits what we saw. The man on +the throne was certainly the image of Commodus, but had not his elegance +of port and grace of movement. Palus has all the inimitable gracefulness +which Commodus displayed when driving teams in the Palace Stadium." + +"He is incredibly stupid in undervaluing and failing to prize his +privileges as Emperor," I said, "and amazingly reckless in allowing anyone +else to occupy his throne, wearing his robes." + +"He is yet more reckless to race as he does," Agathemer commented, "and I +should not be astonished if we have seen his last public appearance as a +charioteer." + +"Why?" I queried startled. + +"Because," said Agathemer, "he must be incredibly stupid not to perceive, +now, what opportunities the Circus offers for getting rid of an Emperor +posing as a charioteer. + +"A stupider man than Commodus can possibly be should be able to comprehend +that there must have been a very carefully planned plot in the Blue +Company, a plot which must have cost a mountain of gold to carry so far +towards success, a plot which never would have been laid for a mere +jockey, however much his rivalry threatened the Company's winnings and +prestige. Only a coterie of very wealthy men could have devised and pushed +it. It cost money to induce charioteers to come so close to almost certain +death in order to compass the destruction of another charioteer. It cost +money to sacrifice a company's teams in that fashion. Such a plot was +never laid to get rid of Palus the jockey; it was aimed at ridding the +nobility of an Emperor they fear and hate, however popular he may be with +the commonality. + +"I miss my guess if there is not a violent upheaval in the Blue Company, +and if there is not an investigation scrutinizing the behavior and loyalty +of every man affiliated with them, from their board of managers down to +the stall-cleaners. I prophesy that the informers, spies and secret- +service men will have fat pickings off the Blues for many a day to come. +I'll bet the guilty men are putting their affairs in order now and hunting +safe hiding-places. Commodus may be insane about horse-racing and fool +enough to put a dummy Emperor in his place, so he can be free to enjoy +jockeying, but he is no fool when it comes to attempts at assassination. +He'll run down the guilty or exterminate them among a shoal of innocents." + +I agreed. + +But I added: + +"What is the world coming to when the Prince of the Republic prizes his +privileges so little that he neglects state business for horse-jockeying, +when he is so crazy over charioteering that he lets another man wear his +robes and occupy his throne? It is a mad world." + +Next morning we were early on Orontides' ship and once more Agathemer +charmed a crew with his flageolet. + +At Ostia Orontides found he must lay over for some valuable packages +consigned to a jeweler at Antioch for the conveyance of which he was +highly paid. He suggested that, as the day was hot for so late in the +year, we go ashore and see the sights which, indeed, we found well worth +seeing, for Ostia has some buildings outmatching anything to be found +outside of Rome. We took his hint, but he warned us: + +"I have some sailors I don't trust. Don't leave anything aboard. Take your +wallets with you." + +We passed a pleasant, idle day, lunching and taking our siesta at an inn +outside the Rome Gate. We had planned to dine at an inn near the harbor- +front, on the west side of the town, not far from the Sea Gate: there we +had barely sat down and begun tasting the relishes, when in came Clitellus +and Summanus. They seemed surprised and pleased to recognize us, greeted +us as if we had been old friends and close intimates, appeared to assume +that we were as glad to see them as they were to see us, and, as a matter +of course, joined us at dinner, telling the waiter-boy to bring them +whatever we had ordered, only doubling the quantity of every order. + +They talked of the races we had seen, of Palus, of his driving; of the +smash-ups, of Posilla, of Colgius and of everything and anything. They +announced that they would accompany us to our ship and see us safe aboard. +Both Agathemer and I more than suspected that they had associates in +waiting to follow them and, at a signal, fall on us and seize us. I felt +all that and Agathemer whispered to me a word or two in Greek which +advised me of his suspicions. + +We prolonged our meal all we could, but there was no shaking them off. +Agathemer ordered more wine, Falernian, and had it mixed with only one +measure of water. Watching his opportunity he threw at me, in a whisper, +two Greek words which advised me, since they were the first in a well- +known quotation from Menander, that our only hope was to drink our +tormentors dead drunk. + +It turned out to be a question whether we would drink them drunk or they +us. Certainly they showed no hesitation about pouring down the wine as +fast as it was mixed and served, nor did either of them appear to notice +that we drank less than they; they seemed able to hold any amount and stay +sober and keep on drinking. As dusk deepened and the waiter-boys lit the +inn lamps, I found myself perilously near sliding off my chair to the +floor and very doubtful whether, if I did, I should be able to get up +again or to resist my tendency to go to sleep then and there. + +I was, in fact, just about to give up any attempt to resist my impulse to +collapse when Summanus collapsed, slid to the floor, rolled over, spread +out and snored. + +Clitellus thickly objurgated his comrade and all weak-heads, worthless +fellows who could not drink a few goblets without getting drunk. To prove +his vast superiority and his prowess, he poured more wine down his throat, +spilling some down into his tunic. + +Agathemer winked at me and fingered the strap of his wallet. I groped for +mine and fumbled at it. + +Clitellus, with a hiccough, slid to the floor beside Summanus. + +I was for trying to rise. + +"Let us be sure," said Agathemer in Greek, "perhaps they are pretending to +be drunk, just to catch us." + +But, after a brief contemplation of the precious pair, we concluded that +no acting could be as perfect as this reality. They were drunk at last and +safely asleep. + +Agathemer paid the whole amount, for all four of us, adjured the waiter- +boy to be good to Clitellus and Summanus, gave him an extra coin, and +signalled me to rise. I lurched to my feet, swaying, almost as drunk as +our victims and beholding Agathemer swaying before me, not only because of +my blurred eyesight, but also because of his unsteadiness on his feet. + +We almost fell, but not quite. Somehow we staggered to the door, where, +once outside, the cool night air made us feel almost sobered, though still +too nearly drunk to be sure of our location or direction. + +More by luck than anything else we took the right turn and found the +harbor front before the night was entirely black. In the half gloom we +tried to find the pier from which we had come that morning. As we explored +we heard a cheerful hail. + +"Is that you, Orontides?" + +Agathemer called. + +"Aye, Aye!" came back the cheery answer. "Come aboard!" + +And we were met and assisted up the gang-plank and down over the bulwarks. + +"I was afraid you boys were lost," the shipmaster said, "and I am to sail +at dawn, after all; everything is aboard. I'm glad to see you. You've +dined pretty liberally. Come over here and get to sleep." + +And he led us to where we found something soft to sleep on. + +I was asleep almost as soon as I lay down. + +I awoke with a terrific headache and an annoying buzzing in my ears, awoke +only partially, not knowing where I was or why and without any distinct +recollections of recent events. My first sensation was discomfort, not +only from the pain of my headache, but also from the heat of the sunrays +beating on me, and that despite the fact that I could feel a strong cool +breeze ruffling my hair and beard. + +I sat up and looked about me. Agathemer was snoring. The sun was not low; +in fact, at that time of the year, it was near its highest. I had slept +till noon! + +Then, all of a sudden I realized that the ship was wholly strange to me +and that it was headed not southeast, but northwest. That realization +shocked me broad awake. At the same instant I saw the shipmaster +approaching. He was not Orontides, nor was he at all like him. He had +small feet, was knock-kneed, tall, lean, had a hatchet-face and red hair. + +"Awake at last!" he commented. "You lads must have dined gloriously last +night. You don't look half yourselves, yet." + +He stared at me, and at Agathemer, who had waked, into much the same sort +of daze in which I had been at first. + +"Neptune's trident!" the shipmaster exclaimed. "You two aren't the two +lads I was to convoy! Who are you and how did you get here?" + +"We were hunting for our ship after dark," Agathemer said, "and somebody +hailed us. We asked whether it was Orontides and the answer that came back +was: 'Aye, Aye!' We were pretty thoroughly drunk and were glad to be +helped aboard and shown our beds. That's all I know." + +"Kingdom of Pluto!" the shipmaster cried, "my name's Gerontides, not +Orontides. I heard your question, but you were so drunk I never knew the +difference: probably I shouldn't have known the difference if you had been +sober. I was on the lookout for two lads much like you two who had part +paid me to carry them to Genoa. They'll be in a fix." + +"'Bout ship," said Agathemer, "and put back to Ostia. You can't be far on +your way yet. We'll pay you what you ask to set us ashore at Ostia." + +"I wouldn't 'bout ship," said Gerontides, "for twenty gold pieces." + +"We'll pay you thirty," said Agathemer. + +"Don't bid any higher, son," Gerontides laughed. "If you were made of +gold, to Genoa you go. I've a bigger stake in a quick landing at Genoa +than any sum you could name would overbalance. Best be content!" + +And content we had to be, no arguments, no entreaties, nothing would move +him. + +"I'll be fair with you," he said. "The lads I took you for had paid me all +I had asked them except one gold piece each on landing at Genoa. That's +all you'll have to pay me." + +Nothing would budge him from his resolution. Agathemer in despair drowned +his misery in flageolet playing. It seemed to comfort him and certainly +comforted me. The crew were delighted. After a voyage as easy and pleasant +as our cruise with Maganno, we landed on the eighth day before the Ides of +September, at Genoa, paid our two gold pieces and set about getting out of +that city as quickly as might be. We avoided, of course, the posting- +station where we had changed horses while in couriers' trappings. But +there was a posting-station at each gate of Genoa and we, having talked +over all possibilities in the intervals of flageolet playing, were for +Dertona. We had little trouble in buying a used travelling-carriage. +Horses we did not have to wait long for, as hiring teams were luckily +plentiful that day and Imperial agents scarce. Off we set for Milan. + +We were in haste but there was no hurrying postillions on those mountain +roads. We nooned at some nameless change-house and were glad to make the +thirty-six miles to Libarium by dusk. The next day was consumed in +covering the thirty-five miles to Dertona. From there on we travelled, in +general down hill, and so quicker, but not much quicker, so that a third +day entire was needed for making the fifty-one miles to Placentia. + +Placentia, a second time, was unlucky for us. It might have been worse, +for we did not again encounter Gratillus, or anyone else who might have +recognized me. But I made a fool of myself. I am not going to tell what +happened; Agathemer never reproached me for my folly, not even in our +bitterest misery; but I reproached myself daily for nearly three years; I +am still ashamed of myself and I do not want to set down my idiotic +behavior. + +Let it suffice, that, through no fault of Agathemer's, but wholly through +my fault, we were suspected, interrogated, arrested, stripped, our brand- +marks and scourge-scars observed and ourselves haled before a magistrate. +To him Agathemer told the same tale he had told to Tarrutenus Spinellus. +It might have served had we been dealing with a man of like temper, for +travellers from Aneona for Aquileia regularly passed through Placentia +turning there from northwest along the road from Aneona to northeast along +the road to Aquileia. + +But Stabilius Norbanus was a very different kind of man. + +"Your story may be true," he said, "but it impresses me as an ingenious +lie. If I believed it I'd not send men like you, with their records +written in welts on their backs, with any convoy, no matter how strict, on +the long journey to Aquileia, on which you'd have countless opportunities +of escape. I do not believe your tale. Yet I'll pay this much attention to +it: I'll write to Vedius Aquileiensis and ask him if he owned two slaves +answering your descriptions and lost them through unexplained +disappearance or known crimping by Dalmatian pirates at about the time you +indicate. + +"Meantime I'll commit you to an _ergastulum_ [Footnote: See Note H.] where +you'll be herded with your kind, all safely chained, so that no escape is +possible, and all doing some good to the state by some sort of productive +labor. A winter at the flour-mills will do you two good." + +Our winter at the mills may have benefited us, but it was certainly, with +its successor at similar mills, one of the two most wretched winters of my +life. And Agathemer, I think, suffered every bit as acutely as I. We were +not chained, except for a few days and about twice as many more nights; as +soon as the manager of the _ergastulum_ felt that he knew us he let us go +unchained like the rest of his charges. + +This was because of the structure of the _ergastulum_. It was located in +the cellars of one of the six or more granaries of Placentia, which has, +near each city gate, an extensive public store-house. The granary under +which we were immured was that near the Cremona gate. Above ground it was +a series of rectangles about courtyards each just big enough to +accommodate four carts, all unloading or loading at once. It was +everywhere of four stories of bin-rooms, all built of coarse hard-faced +rubble concrete. The cellars were very extensive, and not all on one +level, being cunningly planned to be everywhere about the same depth +underground. Where their floor-levels altered the two were joined by short +flights of three, four or five stone steps, under a vaulted doorway, in +the thick partition walls. + +Each cellar-floor was about four yards below the ground level so that a +tall man, standing on a tall man's shoulders, could barely reach with his +outstretched fingers the tip of the sill of one of the low windows. These +windows, each about a yard high and two yards broad, were heavily barred +with gratings of round iron bars as thick as a man's wrist, set too close +together for a boy's head to pass between them, and each two bars hot- +welded at each intersection, so that each grating was practically one +piece of wrought iron, made before the granary was built and with the ends +of each bar set deep in the flinty old rubble concrete. The inmates need +not be chained, as no escape was possible through the windows, though raw +night air, rain, snow at times and the icy winter blasts came in on us +through them. + +Similarly no escape was possible up the one entrance to the cellars, which +was through an inner courtyard, from which led down a stone stair with +four sets of heavy doors; one at the bottom, one at each end of a landing +lighted by a heavily barred window, and one at the top. Between the inner +and outer courtyard were two sets of heavier doors and two equally heavy +were at the street entrance of the outer courtyard. On the stair-landing +was the chained-up porter-accountant seated under the window on a backless +stool by a small, heavy accountant's table on which stood a tall +_clepsydra_ by his big account-book. Checking the hours by the +_clepsydra_, he entered the name of every human being passing, up or down +that stair, even the name of the manager every time he came in or went +out. By him always stood a wild Scythian, armed with a spear, girt with a +sabre, and with a short bow and a quiver of short arrows hanging over his +back. Similar Scythians guarded the doorways, a pair of them to each door. +The slide by which the grain was lowered into the _ergastulum_, the other +slide by which the flour, coarse siftings and bran were hauled up, were +similarly guarded. Escape was made so difficult by these precautions that, +while I was there, no one escaped out of the three hundred wretches +confined in the _ergastulum_. + +There we suffered sleepless nights in our hard bunks, under worn and +tattered quilts, tormented by every sort of vermin. Swarming with vermin +we toiled through the days, from the first hint of light to its last +glimmer, shivering in our ragged tunics, our bare feet numb on the chilly +pavements. We were cold, hungry, underfed on horribly revolting food, +reviled, abused, beaten and always smarting from old welts or new weals of +the whip-lashes. + +It was all a nightmare: the toil, the lashings, if our monotonous walk +around our mill, eight men to a mill, two to each bar, did not suit the +notions of the room-overseer; the dampness, the cold, the vermin, the pain +of our unhealed bruises, the scanty food and its disgusting uneatableness. + +The food seemed the worst feature of our misery. So, in fact, it appears +to have seemed to our despicable companions. Certainly, of the food they +complained more than of the toil, the cold, the vermin, the malignity of +the overseers or even of the barbarity of the Scythian guards. Anyhow +their fury at the quality of their food brought to me and Agathemer an +alleviation of our misery. For some hotheaded wretches, goaded beyond +endurance, jerked the bars of their mill from their sockets and with them +felled, beat to death and even brained the cook and his two assistants. + +After their corpses had been removed, the floor swabbed up and the +murderers turned over to the gloating Scythians to be done to death by +impalement, Scythian fashion, with all the tortures Scythian ferocity +could devise, the manager went from cellar to cellar, all through the +_ergastulum_, enquiring if any prisoner could cook. No one volunteered, +and, when he questioned more than a few, everyone denied any knowledge of +cookery. + +A second time he made the tour of his domain, promising any cook a warm +tunic, a bunk with a thick mattress and two heavy quilts, all the food he +could eat and two helpers; the helpers to have similar indulgences. On +this second round, in our cellar, a Lydian, nearer to being fat than any +prisoner in the _ergastulum_, admitted that he could make and bake bread, +but vowed that he could not do anything else connected with cooking. +Spurred on by his confession and tempted by the offers of better clothing +and bedding and more food, also by the memories of Agathemer's cookery the +winter before, I blurted out that Agathemer could not make bread, but +could do everything else needed in cookery. Agathemer, after one +reproachful glance at me, admitted that he was a cook of a sort, but +declared that he was almost as bad a cook as the wretch just murdered. The +overseer bade him go to the kitchen and told him he might select a helper; +the baker would have been the other helper. As helper Agathemer, +naturally, selected me. + +After that we suffered less. The slaves acclaimed Agathemer's cooking; +for, if their rations were still scanty by order of the watchful manager, +at least their food was edible. Far from being ultimately killed, like our +predecessors, and continually threatened and reviled, we were blessed by +our fellow-slaves. We slept better, in spite of the vermin, on our grass- +stuffed mattresses, under our foul quilts, we shivered less in our thicker +tunics. We were not too tired to discuss, at times, the oddities of our +vicissitudes, to congratulate each other on being, at least, alive, on my +not being suspected of being what I actually was, and, above all, on the +safety of our old, blackened, greasy, worthless-looking, amulet-bags, with +their precious contents. To be reduced to carrying food to three hundred +of the vilest rascals alive was a horrible fate for a man who had, two +years before, been a wealthy nobleman, but it was far better than death as +a suspected conspirator. And Agathemer was hopeful of our future, of +survival, of escape, of comfort somewhere after he had sold another +emerald, ruby, or opal. Nothing could, for any length of time, dim or +cloud the light of Agathemer's buoyancy of disposition. + + + + +BOOK III + +DIVERSITIES + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE MUTINEERS + + +Our promotion from the mills to the kitchen took place early in March of +the year when Manius Acilius Glabrio, after an interval of thirty-four +years since his first consulship, was consul for the second time and had +as nominal associate Commodus, preening himself, for the fifth time, on +the highest office in the Republic, which he had done little to deserve, +and while he held it, did less to justify himself in possessing, since he +left most of the duties of the consulship to Glabrio, as he left most of +the Principate to Perennis, his Prefect of the Praetorium. All of this, of +course, we learnt later in the year; for, inside our prison, we knew +nothing of what went on in Placentia, let alone of what went on in Italy +and in Rome itself. + +We had been cooking for more than three months, when, about the middle of +June, our attention in the cellars was distracted from doling out food, as +that of the wretches we served was distracted from eating their scanty +rations, by an unusual uproar in the street outside of our windows. We +could descry, in the morning sunlight, military trappings, tattered +cloaks, ragged tunics, dingy kilt-straps, sheenless helmets, unkempt +beards, and brawny arms in the crowds which packed the narrow streets. The +mob seemed made up of rough frontier soldiery, and we marvelled at the +presence of such men in Italy. + +The uproar increased and we heard it not only from the streets but from +the courtyards; we could not make out any words, but the tone of the +tumultuous growls was menacing and imperative. After no long interval the +doors at the foot of the one stair burst open and there entered to us +three centurions, indubitably from distant frontier garrisons, accompanied +by six or seven _optiones_ [Footnote: See Note F.] and a dozen or more +legionaries. The privates and corporals stood silent while one of the +three sergeants addressed us: + +"No one shall be compelled to join us. Every man of you shall have his +unforced choice. All who join us shall be free. Such as prefer to remain +where they are sit down! All who select to join us stand up!" + +If any man sat down I did not see him. Through the door we flowed without +jostling or crowding, for at the first appearance of a tendency to push +forward the sergeant's big voice bellowed a warning and order reigned. Up +the stair we poured, passing on the landing the mute, motionless porter- +accountant and his Scythian guard, cowed immobile between two burly +frontier centurions; out into the courtyard we streamed, more and more +following till the courtyard was packed. The whole movement was made in +silence, without a cheer or yell, for, like the porter and the Scythians, +the most unconscionable villains in our _ergastulum_ quailed before the +truculence of the frontier sergeants. + +In the outer court, at the suggestion of one of those same centurions, +every man of us drank his fill at the well-curb, pairs of the legionaries +taking turns at hauling up the buckets and watering us, much as if we had +been thirsty workhorses. After they had made sure that none had missed a +chance to quench his thirst, they roughly marshalled us into some +semblance of order and out into the street we trooped, where we found +ourselves between two detachments of frontier soldiers, one filling the +street ahead of us from house-wall to house-wall, the other similarly +blocking the street behind us. Between them we were marched to the market- +square, where we had plenty of room, for we had it all to ourselves, the +soldiery having cleared it and a squad of them blocking the entrance of +each street leading into it, so that the townsfolk were kept out and we +herded among the frontier soldiery. + +Their centurions, to the number of eighteen, stood together on the stone +platform from which orators were accustomed to address or harangue such +crowds as might assemble in the market-square. Before it we packed +ourselves as closely as we could, eager to hear. About us idled the +soldiery not occupied in guarding the approach to the square. + +One of the sergeants made a speech to us, explaining our liberation and +their presence in Placentia. He called us "comrades" and began his +harangue with a long and virulent denunciation of Perennis, the Prefect of +the Palace. Perennis, he declared, had been a slave of the vilest origin +and had won his freedom and the favor of the Palace authorities and of the +Emperor not by merit but by rank favoritism. He maintained that Perennis, +as Prefect of the Palace, had gained such an ascendancy over Commodus that +besides his proper duties as guardian of the Emperor's personal safety, +surely a charge sufficiently heavy to burden any one man and sufficiently +honorable to satisfy any reasonable man, his master had been enticed into +entrusting to Perennis the management of the entire Empire, so that he +alone controlled promotions in and appointments to the navy, army and +treasury services. In this capacity, as sole minister and representative +of the sovereign, Perennis had enriched himself by taking bribes from all +from whom he could extort bribes. By his venality he had gone far towards +ruining the navy and army, which were by now more than half officered by +hopeless incompetents who had bought their appointments. As a result the +legionaries garrisoning the lines along the Euphrates, the Carpathians, +the Danube, the Rhine and the Wall, since they were badly led, had +suffered undeserved mishandling from the barbarians attacking them; and +even the garrisons of mountain districts like Armenia, Pisidia, and +Lusitania had been mauled by the bands of outlaws. He instanced the +rebellion of Maternus as a result of the incompetence and venality of +Perennis. + +Worse than this, he said, Perennis was plotting the Emperor's +assassination and the elevation to the Principate of one of his two sons. +This project of his, which he was furthering by astute secret +machinations, had come to the knowledge of a loyal member of the Emperor's +retinue. He had written of it to a brother of his, Centurion [Footnote: +See Note D.] of the Thirteenth Legion, entitled "Victorious" and quartered +on the Wall, along the northern frontier of Britain, towards the +Caledonian Highlands. This letter had reached the quarters of the +Thirteenth Legion late in September. Its recipient had at once +communicated to his fellow-sergeants the horrible intimation which it +contained. They had resolved to do all in their power to save their Prince +by forestalling and foiling the treacherous Perennis. They had called a +meeting of their garrison and disclosed their information to their men. +The legionaries acclaimed their decision. Deputations set out east and +west along the Wall and roused the other cohorts of the Thirteenth Legion +and those of the Twenty-Seventh. From the Wall messengers galloped south +to the garrisons throughout Britain. In an incredibly short time, despite +the approach and onset of winter, they apprised every garrison in the +island. Messengers from every garrison reached every garrison. So rapidly +was mutual comprehension and unanimity established, so secretly did they +operate, that on the Nones of January all the garrisons in Britain +simultaneously mutinied, overpowered their unsuspecting officers, +disclosed to them the reasons for their sedition, and invited them to join +them. Of all the officers on the island only two hesitated to agree with +their men. These, after some expostulation, were killed. The rest resumed +their duties, if competent, or were relegated to civilian life, if +adjudged incompetent. + +The three most prominent legions in Britain, the Sixth, Thirteenth and +Twentieth, each entitled, because of prowess displayed in past campaigns, +to the appellation of "Victorious," selected the equivalent of a cohort +apiece to unite into a deputation representing the soldiery of Britain +collectively, to proceed to Rome, reveal to the Emperor his danger, save +him, foil Perennis, and see to it that he was put to death. In pursuance +of this plan the six centuries chosen by the Thirteenth Legion, about five +hundred men, had set out southward from the Wall on the day before the +Ides of January. Accomplishing the march of a hundred and thirty-five +miles to Eburacum, in spite of deep snow and heavy snow-storms, in +fourteen days, there they foregathered with the main body of the Sixth +Legion and were joined by their six selected centuries. The twelve, some +thousand picked men, accomplished the march of eighty-five miles to Deva +in nine days, though hampered by terrible weather. There they were joined +by the delegates of the Twentieth Legion. Together the fifteen hundred +deputies made the march of two hundred and eighty miles to Ritupis by way +of Londinium, in twenty-eight days. At Ritupis they took part in the +festival of Isis, by which navigation was declared open for the year and +navigation blessed. Next day, on the day before the Nones of March, they +had sailed for Gaul and made the crossing in ten hours, without any +hindrance from headwinds or bad weather. + +From Gessoriacum they had tramped across Gaul, inducing to join them such +kindred spirits as they encountered among the squads of recent levies +being drilled at each large town preparatory to being forwarded to +reinforce the frontier garrisons. These inexperienced recruits they had +organized into centuries under sergeants elected by the recruits +themselves from among themselves, which elective centurions had handily +learnt their novel duties from instructions given by one or two veterans +detailed to aid in drilling each new century. Before they reached Vapincum +they had associated with them fresh comrades equalling themselves in +number, equipped from town arsenals. With these they had crossed into +Italy through the Cottian Alps. + +At Segusio they had been told that, under the misrule of Perennis, the +_ergastula_ of Italy were filled, not half with runaway slaves, petty +thieves, rascals, ruffians and outlaws, but mainly with honest fellows who +had committed no crime, but had been secretly arrested and consigned to +their prisons merely because they had incurred the displeasure of Perennis +or of one of his henchmen, or had been suspected, however vaguely, of +actions, words or even of unspoken opinions distasteful to him or to +anyone powerful through him. Acting on that information they had been +setting free the inmates of _ergastula_ in cities through which they had +passed, such as Turin and Milan, and had formed from these victims two +fresh centuries. They proposed that we join them and march with them to +Rome to inform and rescue our Emperor and foil and kill Perennis. + +Of course the liberated riffraff accepted this suggestion with enthusiasm +and without a dissenting voice. We were divided into squads of convenient +size and marched off to the near-by bathing establishments. In that to +which Agathemer and I were led, we, with the rest of our squad, were told +by the sergeant superintending us to strip. Our worn, tattered and lousy +garments were turned over to the bath-attendants to be steamed and then +disposed of as they might. We were thoroughly steamed and scrubbed, so +that every man of us was freed from every sort of vermin. During our bath +the centurion, in charge of us unobtrusively inspected us individually and +collectively. In the dressing-room of the bathing establishments, after we +had been steamed, scrubbed, baked, and dried, we were clad in military +tunics fetched from the town arsenal or its store-houses. Also we were +provided with military boots of the coarsest and cheapest materials, made +after the pattern usual for frontier regiments. + +Outside the bath the watchful sergeant divided us into two squads, a +larger and a smaller, the smaller made up of those who, like Agathemer and +me, bore brands, and scourge-marks. In the market-square we were again +herded together, surrounded by the British legionaries and now ourselves +divided into those like me and Agathemer, who were marked as runaway +slaves and the larger number who showed no marks of scourge or brand. From +among the unmarked the frontier centurions picked out thirty whom they +judged likely material for sergeants like themselves. These thirty they +bade select from among themselves three. Then they set the three, an +Umbrian and a Ligurian outlaw, and a Dalmatian pirate, along the front of +the stone platform and asked us whether we would accept those three as our +centurions. Two speakers, one a Venetian and the other an Insubrian Gaul, +objected to the pirate. In his place we were bidden to choose some other +from the twenty-seven already selected by the sergeants. A second Umbrian +outlaw was selected. + +Then the centurions bade the newly-elected three to choose each one man in +rotation, until they had made up for each the nucleus of a century from +the unmarked men. + +After the three new centuries were thus constituted, they asked them to +decide whether they would accept as comrades and associates the residue of +the inmates of our _ergastulum_ who were marked plainly as runaway slaves. +They voted overwhelmingly to accept us. Then the three new sergeants +proceeded to choose us also into their centuries. The choosing was +interrupted by a Ravenna Gaul, who called the attention of the assembly to +the fact that Agathemer had been cook to the _ergastulum_ and I his +helper; similarly to the baker and his assistant. After some discussion it +was unanimously voted that the baker and his helper be treated as any +others of the liberated rascals, that the three new centurions draw lots +which should have Agathemer for cook to his century and me for his helper, +and that the other two centuries appoint cooks by lot unless cooks and +helpers volunteered. Four of the brand-marked rabble at once volunteered. + +After the last man had been selected and the British centurions had +marshalled, inspected and approved the three new centuries thus +constituted, we were marched off to the town arsenal and there equipped +with corselets, strap-kilts, greaves; cloaks, helmets, shields, swords and +spears; only Agathemer, I, and the four other cooks and helpers, were +given no spears, shields, helmets or body-armour, only swords, jackets and +caps. + +Then, full-fledged tumultary legionaries, we were marshalled as well as +greenhorns could be ranked and we marched from the market-place the length +of the street leading to the Fidentia Gate. Outside it we found the +semblance of a camping-ground and tents ready for us to set up. Up we set +them, we new recruits, clumsily, under the jeers of the old-timers, to the +tune of taunts and curses from the disgusted veteran centurions. + +When the camp was set up a fire was made for each century and we cooks and +helpers fell to our duties, with a squad of privates to cut wood, feed the +fires, fetch water and do any other rough preparatory work, such as +butchering a sheep or a goat, killing, picking and cleaning fowls, and +what not. For this welcome, if clumsy, assistance we had to thank one of +the British centurions, who admonished our newly-elected Umbrian sergeant +that camp-cookery called for any needed number of assistant helpers to the +chief cook if the men were to be fed properly and promptly. + +The town officials had sent out to the camp a generous provision of wheat, +barley, lentils, pulse, sheep, goats, fowls, cheese, oil, salt and wine. I +did not learn how the volunteer cooks fared, but the barley-stew, seasoned +with minced fowls, which Agathemer concocted, was acclaimed by our +century. + +That night, in our tent, Agathemer and I, talking Greek and whispering, +discussed our situation. After two fulfillments, the prophesy of the +Aemilian Sibyl seemed in a fair way to be fulfilled a third time; we were +headed for Rome. + +To Rome we went. We had, in that first consultation, in many similar +consultations later, planned to escape and hoped to escape. But we were +too carefully watched. Whether we were suspected because of our scourge- +marks and brand-marks, or were prized as cooks, or whether there was some +other reason, we could not conjecture. Certainly we were sedulously +guarded on all marches, and kept strictly within, each camp, though we +were free to wander about each camp as we pleased. + +We had planned to escape in or near Parma, Mutina, Bononia, or Faventia, +any of which towns Agathemer judged a favorable locality for marketing a +gem from our amulet-bags. But in these, as everywhere else, our guards +gave us no chance of escape. + +When not busy cooking I found myself greatly interested in the amazing +company among which I was cast. In my rambles about our camp, when all +were full-fed and groups sat or lay chatting about the slackening camp- +fires, I became acquainted with most of the eighteen centurions from +the legions quartered in Britain, and had talks, sometimes even long +talks, with more than half of them. These bluff, burly frontier sergeants, +like their corporals and men, treated all their volunteer associates as +welcome comrades, even welted and branded runaway slaves acting as cooks. +From them I heard again and again the story of discontent, conspiracy, +mutiny, insurrection and attempt at protest about rectification of the +evils they believed to exist, which tale we had all heard outlined by the +sergeant-orator in the Forum of Placentia. + +Among the eighteen centurions there was no sergeant-major nor any +centurion of the upper rank. The highest in army rank was Sextius Baculus +of Isca, a native of Britain and lineally descended, through an original +colonist of Isca, from the celebrated sergeant-major of the Divine Julius. +He had been twelfth in rank in the Sixth Legion, being second centurion of +its second cohort. Not one of his seventeen associates had ranked so high: +the next highest being Publius Cordatus, of Lindum, who had been second +sergeant of the fourth cohort in the Twentieth Legion. + +The totality of my mental impressions of what I heard from these two and +other members of this incredible deputation of insurgent mutineers and of +what I saw of the doings of the whole deputation, was vague and confused. +From the confusion emerged a predominating sense of their many +inconsistencies and of the haphazard irresponsibility and inconsequence of +their states of mind and actions. They were, indeed, entirely consistent +in one respect. Unlike Maternus and his men, not one of them blamed +Commodus for anything, not even for having appointed Perennis to his high +office and then having permitted him to arrogate to himself all the +functions of the government of the Republic and Empire. One and all they +excused the Emperor and expressed for him enthusiastic loyalty: one and +all they blamed not only the Prefect's mismanagement but also his own +appointment on Perennis. Consistent as they were in holding these opinions +or in having such feelings, the notions were inconsistent in themselves. + +So likewise was their often expressed and manifestly sincere intention to +forestall the consummation of the alleged conspiracy and save the Emperor +inconsistent with their slow progress from Britain towards Rome. Never +having been in Britain and knowing little of it from such reports as I had +heard, I could not controvert their assertion that the state of the roads +and weather there had made impossible greater speed than they had achieved +from their quarters to their port, yet I suspected that men really +systematically in earnest might have accomplished in twenty days marches +which had occupied them for fifty-one days. I was certain that it was +nothing short of ridiculous for legionaries in hard fighting condition and +well fed to consume one hundred and one days in marching from their +landing-port on the coast of Gaul to Placentia: ten miles a day was +despicable marching even for lazy and soft-muscled recruits; any +legionaries should make fifteen, miles at day under any conditions, +earnest men keyed up to hurry should have made twenty and might often +march twenty-five miles between camps. These blatherskites were on fire +with high resolve, by their talk, yet had loafed along for a thousand +miles, camping early, sleeping long after sunrise, resting at midday and +gorging themselves at leisurely meals. All this was amazing. + +Equally astonishing was the condition of supineness, of all governmental +officials in Gaul, local and Imperial, as their tale revealed it. Neither +the Prefect of the Rhine, nor any one of the Procurators of Gaul, had, as +far as their story indicated, made any effort to arrest them, turn them +back, stop them, check them, hinder them or even have them expostulated +with. As far as I could infer from all I heard neither had the governing +body of any city or town. For all they were interfered with by any +official they might have been full-time veterans, honorably discharged, +marching homeward under accredited officers provided with diplomas +properly made out, signed, sealed and stamped. Everywhere they had been +fed at public expense, lodged free or provided with camping-grounds and +tents; their pack-animals had been replaced if worn out, and everything +they needed had been provided on their asking for it or even before they +made any request. I could only infer that they had inspired fear by their +numbers and truculence and that each town or district had striven to keep +them in a good humor and to get rid of them as soon as possible by +entertaining them lavishly and speeding them along their chosen way. + +As they told of their own behavior there had been no consistency or system +or method in their additions to their company. By their own account they +had enticed men to join them or had ignored likely recruits in the most +haphazard fashion, purely as the humor struck them. The like was true of +their emptyings of _ergastula_ in Italy. At Turin, as well as I could +gather from my chats with this or that centurion or soldier or liberated +slave, they had set free the inmates of the _ergastulum_ by the Segusio +Gate and had then turned aside to that by the Vercellae Gate, but had +ignored the larger _ergastulum_ by the Milan Gate; though they had marched +out of Turin, necessarily, by that gate. Similarly at Milan, they had +emptied two _ergastula_ and ignored the rest; as at Placentia, where they +had expended all their time and energy on the first _ergastulum_ they +happened on inside the Milan Gate and on ours, and then had ignored or +forgotten the four or five others, equally large and equally well filled. + +On our progress to Rome I saw similar inconsistencies in their behavior. +They never so much as entered Fidentia, but marched round it, acquiescent +to the gentle suggestion of a trembling and incoherent alderman, quaking +with fear and barely able to enunciate some disjointed sentences. At Parma +they emptied two _ergastula_ and never so much as approached the others, +repeating this inconsistency at Mutina and Bononia. Outside of Faventia +something, I never learned what, enraged a knot of the veterans, so that +their fury communicated itself to all the soldiery from Britain and +inflamed their associates, Gallic and Italian. Whereupon we burst the +Bononia Gate of Faventia, flocked into the town, sacked some of the shops, +left a score of corpses in the market-place and some in the streets near +it, set fire to a block of buildings, and burst out of the Ariminum Gate, +tumultuous and excited, but without so much as trying the outer doors of +any _ergastulum_. + +Yet, after this riotous performance, we did no damage at Ariminum, not +even entering the town, not even enquiring if it had an _ergastulum_, as +it must have had. + +Similarly at Pisaurum, at Fanum Fortunae, at Forum Sempronii, though these +were small towns and could not have resisted us, we camped outside, +accepted gracefully the tents and food provided for us and made no move to +maltreat anyone or do any looting. But at Nuceria, at Spolitum and at +Narnia we entered the towns and liberated the inmates of two of the +_ergastula_, in each, though we never so much as threatened Interamnia. + +Looking back over these proceedings I explain them to myself approximately +as follows: the eighteen centurions from Britain treated each other as if +they all felt on terms of complete mutual equality, none ever assumed any +rights of superiority, seniority, precedence, or authority, none was ever +invested with any right of permanent or temporary leadership. If some whim +prompted any one of the eighteen to take the lead in emptying an +_ergastulum_ or breaking in a town gate, or sacking a shop, not one of his +fellow-sergeants demurred or expostulated or opposed him; they all +concurred in any suggestion of any one of them. And the soldiers followed +their centurions with, apparently, implicit confidence in them, or a blind +instinct of deference. So of submission to the request of any town +decurion, that they stay outside: mostly, they were acquiescent. But if +something irritated a sergeant, or even a soldier, the entire deputation +flamed into fury and burst gates, sacked shops and even fired buildings +until their rage spent itself, after which they were civil and kindly to +all townsmen, whether officials, citizens, slaves or women and children. I +never could detect any reason for any action or inaction of theirs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE EMPEROR + + +The liberations of public slaves from _ergastula_ in Turin, Milan, +Placentia, Parma, Mutina, Bononia, Nuceria, Spolitum and Narnia resulted +in the formation of eighteen tumultuary centuries, which, between Narnia +and Ocriculum, during a long noon-halt, were formed into the semblance of +three cohorts, thus we approached Rome as nine cohorts: three of the +deputies from Britain; three more of the recruits from Gaul, presumably +like the British legionaries, loyal patriots, bent on foiling Perennis, +and saving their beloved Emperor; and three more composed of the contents +of a dozen or more _ergastula_, opened as the whim took the veteran +sergeants, and assumed to contain not pilferers, runaways or evil-doers, +but innocent victims of the malignity of the understrappers of that +unspeakable Perennis. + +As we drew near Rome Agathemer and I discussed our situation and prospects +with increasing alarm. After we left Narnia the watch on us was not so +close and we might have escaped. But we had seen a score of attempts at +escape, by various rascals, foiled and ending in the butchery of the +would-be fugitives. While escape was possible the risk was very great. +Also, Agathemer argued, we were too near to Rome to be safe if we got +clear away. Between dread of death if caught and fear of we knew not what +if we escaped, we stuck to our cookery. Mixed with our projects for +bettering our prospects we talked much of our amazement at the treatment +which the deputation and its associates had met in Italy. Manifestly the +townsfolk and their officials were not only overawed, but helpless. If +there had been no Rome, no Republic, no Praetorians, no Prefect of the +Palace, no central authority whatever we could not have been more +completely free from hindrance, coercion or question, Yet Agathemer and I +could not but conjecture that the Senate, Perennis and Commodus had been +promptly and minutely informed of all our doings, of our progress, of our +approach; and had taken measures to deal with us and our instigators. We +felt panicky. + +Spouting long tirades about their loyalty to the Emperor, their hatred of +Perennis and their eagerness to foil one and save the other, our +irresponsible frontier centurions let their men and us loiter southward +through Cisalpine Gaul and Umbria as they had loitered on the other side +of the Alps, seldom marching more than ten miles a day. So that we left +Ocriculum on the tenth day before the Kalends of August and stopped +overnight at each change-station. + +We had had fair weather all the way from Placentia, except a heavy rain at +Ariminum and showers in the mountains between Forum Sempronii and Nuceria. +When day dawned on us at Rostrata Villa, on the eighth day before the +Kalends of August, it dawned cloudy, but not threatening. After the usual +camp breakfast of porridge and wine, we fell in, by now fairly decent +marchers, and set off for Rubrae. But before we had marched a mile, the +low clouds soaked us with such a downpour as I had seldom seen of a July +morning near Rome. So heavy and so unrelenting was the rain that we were +glad to halt at the change-house at the twentieth mile-stone, where the +road from Capena to Veii crosses the Flaminian Highway and where there is +a prosperous village as large as many a small town. There we found +quarters and food ready for us and were well entertained. Ad Vicesimum, as +the place is called, is only four miles nearer Rome than Villa Rostrata. + +It was about midway of that four-mile march in the pouring rain that I saw +by the roadside three immobile horsemen, their forms swathed in horsemen's +rain-cloaks, their faces hidden under broad-brimmed rain-hats, lined up +with their horses' noses barely a horse-length from the roadway, watching +from a little knoll our column as it passed. The middle horseman of the +three looked familiar. I glanced back at him and met his eyes, intensely +watching me from under his dripping hat brim, as I trudged on the edge of +the trudging rabble. A hot qualm surged through me. It was, it certainly +was, the very same man I had seen in the very same guise on the road +below Villa Andivia as Tanno and I passed by on our way to our fatal brawl +at Vediamnum; the very man who had peered in at me and Capito during his +fatal conference with me in Nemestronia's water-garden, the man whom Tanno +had asserted that he knew for an Imperial spy. I felt recognition in his +gaze; felt that he knew me for my very self. And his nose was hooked. + +At our halting place, when Agathemer and I were alone, I asked him in +Greek if he had noticed the three stationary horsemen. He at once, without +my mentioning my suspicions, declared that he also had recognized the +middle horseman precisely as I had. What his presence there might forbode, +what his apparent recognition of me might portend, we could not +conjecture. We agreed that, although both of us had been on the lookout +for Imperial emissaries all the way from Placentia, and alertly watching +from Ariminum southwards, this was the first time we had set eyes on any +man whom we could take for a secret-service man. That so much time had +elapsed since the authorities must have been warned of our approach, that +we should have advanced so near Rome and yet that this should be the first +visible indication of espionage upon us, amazed both me and Agathemer. + +Next day, a cloudy but rainless day, we marched only to Rubrae, the +change-station nearest Rome. There, as at every previous halt, we found +the authorities apprised of our approach and prepared to lodge and feed +us. And, as always since we left Nuceria, we were comfortably sheltered in +a camp all ready for our occupancy and lavishly provided with varied food +and passable wine. + +Next day, the sixth day before the Kalends of August, dawned exquisitely +fair and bright, with a soft steady breeze; a perfect July day, mild but +not too warm. Our elected sergeants, now quite habituated to their duties +and authority as centurions, routed us up early and, after a leisurely +camp-breakfast, we fell in and set off on the last stage of this amazing +unopposed march of fifteen hundred insurgent mutineers for nineteen +hundred miles, in making which they had so loitered that they had consumed +on the road more than half a year and along which they had added to their +company casual associates twice as numerous as themselves. We left Rubrae +an excited horde, for the veterans were keyed up to a tense pitch of +expectancy by their anticipation of they knew not what culmination to +their insane adventure and their accidental recruits were aquiver with +uneasiness and apprehension. + +The Mulvian Bridge over the Tiber is not more than four miles from Rubrae +along the winding Flaminian Highway and we were crossing it before the +third hour of the day was past. Marching with the first of the three +centuries formed at Placentia I had about five-sixths of our column ahead +of me. So I did not see, did not even glimpse, did not, from far towards +the rear, so much as guess what was happening. I knew only that, as I was +more than half way across the Mulvian Bridge, a wave of cheers started far +forward in our column and ran back to my century and all the way to the +rearmost men. What had occurred we did not know, but we broke ranks and +flowed out of the road to left and right, as did the men ahead of us, +becoming almost a mob, despite the remonstrances and orders of our +disgusted sergeants. They restrained us to some extent, but we were kept +back more by the fact that the foremost men blocked the highway, the men +who had been marching next them blocked the fields to right and left of +the highway and the rest of us were checked behind them, like water above +a dam. + +As we stood there, packed together, with hardly a semblance of ranks kept +anywhere, craning to see over the heads of the men in front of us and to +try to see past and between the many big and tall tombs and mausoleums +which flanked the road on either side, a period of tense silence or +blurred murmurings was ended by a second great surge of cheers from front +to rear. We all cheered till we were hoarse. Again we peered and listened +and questioned each other, again came a roar of cheering like a sea +billow. Again and again alternated the half silence and the uproar. Before +we learned what was happening or had happened word came from mouth to +mouth that we were going on. The press in front of us gradually melted +away, we were able to sidle into the roadway, reform ranks and tramp on +Romewards. + +After a very brief march we turned aside to our right into a meadow on the +west of the road and its flanking rows of tombs, between the Highway and +the Tiber, about half way from Mulvian Bridge to the Flaminian Gate of +Rome; that is, about half a mile from each. There we found a meticulously +laid-out and perfectly appointed camp, precisely suited to the forty-five +hundred of us and our requisitioned mules, wagons and what not. It +contained some four hundred and fifty tents, set on clipped grass along +rolled and gravelled streets as straight as bricklayers' guide-boards; all +about a paved square of ample size, on the rear of which was set up a +gorgeous commander's tent of the whitest canvas, striped with red almost +as deep, rich and glowing as the Imperial crimson, and manifestly meant to +imitate it as closely as such a dyestuff could. On either side of this +Praetorium were a dozen tents, smaller indeed than the Praetorium, but +much larger than tents set up for us, presumably for the commanders' +aides. In front of the Praetorium, between it and the square, was a wide, +broad and high platform of new brickwork, paved on top, railed with solid, +low, carved railings set in short carved oak posts. The corner posts, and +two others dividing the front and back of the platform equally, were tall +and supported an awning of striped canvas like that of the commander's +tent. + +Goggling with curiosity we, as we deployed to our quarters, stared hard at +the magnificent tent and sumptuous platform with its gorgeous awning. Once +at our quarters, I and Agathemer, of course, must cook and serve food to +our century. Only after all were fed did we, in common with all the middle +and rear of our road-column, learn what had occurred. + +While we ate, our sergeants, while they also ate somehow, held a +centurions' council, at which those of the fifty-four who had not been far +enough forward on the Highway to see and hear were informed, by those who +had, of what had happened. When our sergeant returned from this council he +told us, in a jumbled and mumbled attempt at an address. + +From what he told me and from what I heard later I gather that, as the +column debouched from the bridge, its head was met and checked by a body +of mounted Praetorian Guards. Their tribune, in the name of the Emperor, +ordered the column to halt and bade its centurions deploy their men right +and left and mass them in a largish space free of big tombs. As they +deployed the Praetorians also deployed to left and right of the Highway +and the foremost mutineers descried on the roadway the splendid horses and +gorgeous trappings of the Emperor's personal staff, among whom, from the +statues, busts and painted panel-portraits of him which they had seen +daily in their own quarters and countless times on their road to Rome, the +more alert of them recognized their liege. + +Then rose that unexpected wave of cheering which had first apprized us in +the rear that something unusual was toward. Commodus, as I heard from +Publius Cordatus himself, after our nap and before the Emperor's return, +was mounted on a tall sorrel such as his father had always preferred on +his frontier campaigns. Also he was garbed not only as his father had +habitually been when on frontier expeditions, but seemingly, in one of his +old outfits. For not only Cordatus, but a dozen more, declared that his +helmet, corselet and the plates of his kilt-straps, were of ungilded, +unchased, plain steel, not even bright with polishing, but tarnished, all +but rusty, with exposure to rain, mist and sun; his plume and cloak rain- +faded and sun-faded till their crimson showed almost brown; his scabbard +plain, dingy leather; his saddle of similar cheap, durable leather, his +saddle-cloth of a crimson faded as brown as his cloak and plume. This was +precisely the Spartan simplicity which Aurelius, as more than half a +Stoic, had always affected, partly from an innate tendency towards self- +restraint and modesty, partly that his example might, at first, offset the +sumptuosity of Verus and, after his death, might inculcate, by example, +economy in his lavish and self-indulgent retinue. + +Whatever the motive, by this semi-histrionic effort at self-effacement the +Emperor made himself tenfold conspicuous among his staff-officers, whose +plumes, cloaks, kilts, and saddle-cloths blazed with crimson, green and +gold, blue and silver and even crimson and gold. + +Commodus, in any gear, was not only a tall, well-knit, impressive figure +of a man, but, in his most negligent moods, he had something about him +dominating, masterful, princely and Imperial. The sight of him cowed all +who could then see him. Steadily he eyed them as they finished their +tumultuary deployment and pressed forward to see and hear. When they were +packed as closely as possible till no more could get within earshot he +spoke: + +"Fellow soldiers, what does this mean?" + +All were too awed at the sight of their venerated Caesar for any man to +speak up at once and the Emperor repeated: + +"Fellow-soldiers, what does this mean? Tell me, I am your fellow-soldier." + +Then Sextius Baculus himself replied, choking and hesitating, quailing +before his lord: + +"We are your loyal soldiers from Britain; a deputation come afoot and +afloat almost two thousand miles to warn you of what no man in Rome, for +fear of you more than of your treacherous Prefect, dares to warn you. +Perennis is no fit guardian of your safety; in fact he is of all men most +unfit. For more than two years now he has been laying his plans to have +you assassinated, and to make Emperor in your place his eldest son, the +darling of the Illyrian legionaries. We have come to save you, foil him +and see him and his dead." + +"Fellow-soldiers," the Emperor spoke at once, loudly and clearly, "I +acclaim your purpose and welcome your good intentions. But I mean to prove +to you that I am in fact as well as in title Tribune and Prince of the +Republic, Emperor of its armies, Augustus and Caesar. Your solicitude I +applaud, but I feel better able to take care of myself than can any other +man save myself. I fear no man and appoint no man I distrust. I distrust +few men after appointment. You lodge a grave charge against a man I have +trusted, appointed and then trusted. I condemn few men unheard. As your +Imperator I command you to camp where my legates indicate, to eat a hearty +noon meal, to sleep, or at least rest in your tents, two full hours. About +the tenth hour of the day I shall return, my trusty guards about me and +Perennis himself in my retinue. From the platform of your camp, as a chief +commander should, I will harangue you, and from that platform, after he +has heard from me your accusation, my Prefect of the Praetorium shall make +to you his defense. After he has spoken you shall hear me deliver just and +impartial judgment, a judgment no man of you can but accept as fair and +righteous. + +"And now farewell, until the tenth hour." + +At which word he had reined up, wheeled and spurred his mettlesome mount +and thereupon vanished with his staff in a cloud of dust, at full gallop. + +According to the Emperor's behest we rested in our tents after the +centurions had each harangued his men. But if any slept, it was a marvel. +All were too excited to sleep and every tent, as far as I could learn, +talked without cessation. By the tenth hour, when the sun was visibly +declining and the warmth of the midday abating, we were all assembled in +the camp-square, the men helmeted and with their swords at their sides, +but without shields or spears. + +It was perfectly in keeping with the inconsistency of the mutineers that +the crowd of men in the camp-square, instead of being marshalled by +centuries under their sergeants, was allowed to assemble mob-fashion as +each man came and pushed. Thus Agathemer and I, who should have been +preparing to cook our company's evening meal, were not only in the throng, +but well forward among the men and, in fact, pressed legs and chests +against the legs and backs of two veterans not far from the rearmost +centurions of the gathering of sergeants, not sixty feet from the +platform, and nearly opposite its middle, though a little to the left. Few +veteran privates heard and saw better than we. + +When the Imperial cortege arrived and the platform began to fill, we two, +like the men around us and like, I feel sure, the entire gathering, were +amazed to see among the men four women, and Agathemer and I were doubly +amazed to recognize one as Marcia. Agathemer, who knew the former slaves +and present freedwomen of the Palace far better than I, whispered that the +others were the sister and wife of Perennis and the wife of Cleander, like +him a former slave and pampered freedman, and for long his rival. + +The platform, of course, was lined and partly filled with aides, lictors, +equerries, pages, and other Imperial satellites before the Emperor rode +up, dismounted and appeared among his retinue. He strode springily to the +front and seated himself on the crimson cushion of the ivory curule seat +which a lictor placed for him. Marcia, to my tenfold amazement, then +seated herself on a not dissimilar maple folding-seat, spread for her by a +page. She was placed at the very front of the platform, next him on his +right. Next her was Cleander's wife, also, to my still greater amazement, +similarly seated, as were the two almost as ornately clad ladies with +Perennis, who sat on his left, he standing to the left of the Emperor, who +was set only a short yard in advance of the row of officials and intimates +who lined the front of the platform. + +Until all who had a right to places on the platform had mounted it and +each had stationed himself in his proper position, the Emperor sat quietly +regarding the mob of men facing him, eyeing us keenly and steadily. An +equerry leaned over and whispered to him and he stood up. I could feel the +men thrill, even more positively than they had thrilled when he appeared +from among his retinue. I conjectured, instantly, that he had felt, if not +an actual dread of the mutineers, at least a doubt as to his ability to +quell them and a need for all possible adventitious aids. Thus I explained +to myself his having donned, that morning, trappings such as his father +had worn on frontier campaigns, apparently with the purpose of eliciting +the sympathies of the men. + +He now wore a gilded helmet, elaborately chased, and its crest a carved +Chimaera spouting golden flames, which golden spout of flames, with the +Chimaera's wings, formed the support from which waved his crimson plume, +all of brilliantly dyed ostrich feathers. His corselet was similarly +gilded or, perhaps, like the helmet, even of pure gold hammered and +chased, adorned with depictions of the battles of the gods and giants +above, and below with Trajan's victories over the Parthians. His kilt- +straps were of crimson leather, plated with gilt or gold overlapping +scales. His cloak was of the newest and most brilliant Imperial crimson. +The platform was so high that I could clearly see his shapely calves and +the gold eagles embroidered on the sky-blue soft leather of his half- +boots. In his hand, he held a short baton or truncheon, such as all field- +commanders carry as an emblem of independent command, such as I had seen +at Tegulata in the hand of Pescennius Niger. It was gilded or gold-plated +and its ends were chased pine-cones. Manifestly every detail of his +habiting had been meticulously considered and the total effect carefully +calculated. Certainly he was not only handsome and winsome, but dignified +and imposing, truly a princely and Imperial figure. Evidently he had +calculatingly arrayed himself so as to appear at one and the same time as +Emperor and as a field-commander. The effect on the men, if I could judge, +was all he had wished, all he could have hoped for. He dominated the mob +of men as he dominated the platform. + +There was no need of his wave of the arm enjoining silence. The silence, +from his first movement as he rose, was as complete as possible. + +"Fellow-soldiers," he said, and he spoke as well as the most practiced +orator, audibly to all, smoothly and charmingly, "you have come from +Britain across the sea, across Gaul, across the Alps, and half the length +of Italy, with the best intentions, with the sincerest hearts, to apprize +me of danger to me in my own Palace, danger unsuspected by me, as you +believe. Your loyalty, your good intentions, your sincerity I realize and +rejoice over. But I find it hard to believe that any soldiers in distant +frontier garrisons can be better informed than the Prince himself of what +goes on in Italy, in Rome, in the very Palace. You have lodged the gravest +accusations against one of my most important and most trusted officials. I +shall now state your charges, that the accused man may hear them now for +the first time from my own lips and may here and now make his defence to +you and to me." + +He paused. My eyes had been on Commodus and now shifted to Perennis. +Perennis was a handsome man, but in spite of, rather than because of, his +build and features. Even through the splendid trappings of Prefect of the +Praetorium he appeared too tall and too thin, his neck was too long, his +face too long, his ears too big, his long nose overhung his upper lip. He +was impressive and capable looking but appeared too crafty, too foxy. I +felt sure that he had not the least suspicion of what was coming. He +looked all vanity, self-satisfaction and vainglorious self-sufficiency. + +"Fellow-soldiers," the Emperor went on, "you charge that my Prefect of the +Praetorium is not loyal, but is most treacherous; that he has been, for +more than two years, plotting my death and the elevation to the +Principiate of his eldest son, now Procurator of Illyricum. As he has now +heard the charge, so you shall now hear the defense of my Prefect of the +Praetorium." + +I must say that Perennis, though manifestly thunderstruck, kept his +senses, kept his self-command and, after a brief instant in which he +paled, swayed and seemed utterly dazed, rose to the occasion. For that +brief instant he appeared as overcome as his horrified wife and sister, +who all but fainted on their seats; as his horrified sons, who stood, +agape, dead-pale, one by his white-faced mother, and the other by his +incredulous aunt. + +Perennis, certainly, gathered himself together promptly, got himself under +full control, had all his wits about him and made a perfectly conceived, +finely delivered, coherent, logical, telling speech in his own defence. It +was long, but nowhere diffuse, and it held the attention manifestly, not +only of the mutineers, but of the Emperor himself, and of all his retinue, +even the most vacuous of the mere courtiers. As he ended it, it was plain +that Perennis believed he had cleared himself completely and had not only +vindicated himself before his master, but had convinced the mutineers of +his guiltlessness and loyalty. His expression of face, as he wound up his +eloquent peroration, was that of a man who, unexpectedly to himself, +transmounts insuperable difficulties and triumphs. + +Confidently he turned to Commodus; smiling and at ease, he awaited his +decision. The Emperor stood up, more dominating, if possible, than before. + +"Fellow-soldiers," he said, "watch me closely and listen carefully. What I +do shall be as significant as what I say. I have pondered your charges +since you made them this morning. In my mind I have run over all that I +knew of this man's doings and sayings since I made him the guardian of my +personal safety. I have let him hear your charges from my own lips and, +like you, I have listened patiently to his brilliant and able speech in +his own defence. I am Prince of the Republic and Emperor of its armies, to +favor no man, to do and speak impartial justice to all men alike. + +"You know what happens to the shirker who sleeps on his post when on +sentry-duty about a camp at night in the face of the enemy. If guilty of +what you charge any Prefect of the Praetorium deserves not otherwise than +such a traitor. I have heard all this man has to say. I did not believe +you this morning. I do not disbelieve you now. I do not believe this man, +I believe he has been treacherous and that in his dexterous defence just +now he lied. Watch me! I turn him over to you." + +And, with a really magnificent gesture, he stepped half a pace away from +Perennis, stretched out his left arm, the golden baton in his hand, and, +with that fatal truncheon, touched him on the shoulder. + +The roar that rose was the roar of wild beasts ravening for their prey. +The men, packed as they were, somehow surged forward. On the shoulders of +their fellow-centurions, a sort of billow of the foremost sergeants rose +like surf against a rock; like surf breaking against a rock a sort of foam +of them overflowed the front of the platform. For the twinkling of an eye +I beheld above this rising tide of executioners the imperious dignity of +the Emperor, master of the scene, self-confident and certain that all men +would approve of his decision, magnificent in his military trappings; the +incredulous amazement of Perennis, his pale, watery blue eyes bleared in +his lead-colored, bloodless face, as he stood dazed and numb; the horror +of his bedizened wife and sister, both fleshy women, dark-skinned and +normally red-cheeked, now gray with despair, like the two wretched lads +beside them; the cruelly feminine relish, as upon the successful fruition +of long and tortuous intrigues, blazoned on the faces of Marcia and of +Cleander's wife, a very showy woman with golden hair, violet eyes and a +delicately pink and white complexion: a similar expression of relished +triumph on the broad, fat, ruddy face of her big husband, who looked just +what he had been; a man who had started life as a slave; whose master had +thought him likely to be most profitably employed as a street porter, in +which capacity he had for years carried packs, crates, bales, chests, +rafters and such like immensely heavy loads long distances and had thriven +on his exertions; who, whatever brains he had since displayed, however +much character and merit had contributed to his dazzling rise in life, had +retained and still possessed a hearty appetite, a perfect digestion, +mighty muscles, hard and solid, all over his hulking frame, and the vast +strength of his early prime; all these chief actors framed against a +background of gaudily caparisoned officers and courtiers. + +In scarcely more than the twinkling of an eye Perennis. was seized by four +brawny frontier sergeants and hurled down among the men, among whom he +vanished like a lynx under a pack of dogs. I caught no afterglimpse of him +nor of his frayed corpse; I descried only a sort of whirlpool of active +men about the spot where he had, as it were, sunk into their vortex. + +When the flailing arms ceased flailing and the panting executioners stood +quiet, the Emperor stretched out his right hand for silence; the rumbling +snarls and growls of the mob abated till silence reigned. Into it he +spoke: + +"You know the custom of our fathers since Numa. The family of a traitor is +abolished with him." + +There came a second roar of the ravening, ferocious men, a second surge of +the foremost up the face of the platform, and, instantly, the sons, wife +and sister of Perennis were pushed from it, cast down among the mob, and +never reappeared. After the mob quieted a second time Commodus again +raised his hand for silence. Quicker than before the men were still. He +spoke loud and clear: "You have saved me from a treacherous Prefect of +the Praetorium. I have meditated whom to appoint to his vacant post. I +have considered well. I now present him to you; my faithful henchman, +Cleander of Mazaca, who, by his own deserts, has won citizenship in the +Republic, equestrian rank and my favor and gratitude." + +The mob cheered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE MASSACRE + + +Retrospectively, Cleander is talked of, if at all, chiefly as having been +brutish, dull, stupid, venal, avaricious and cruel. Cruel and avaricious +he certainly became; venal and brutish he certainly seemed; but dull or +stupid I cannot admit that he ever was. Indubitably, at the time of his +appointment to be Prefect of the Praetorium, he possessed some qualities +fitting him, as he later was, to be entrusted by his self-indulgent master +with the administration of the whole Empire. Certainly he was quick- +thinking, prompt, ingenious, incredibly persuasive, resolute and ruthless, +which qualities go far towards equipping a ruler. Without these +characteristics he could not have conceived or adopted the plan which he +successfully executed. + +Commodus caught Cleander's eye, nodded to him and sat down. Confident and +smiling, Oleander stepped forward to the platform's railing and addressed +us. + +"As Prefect of the Praetorium, I am charged with the care of the personal +safety of our Prince in his Palace, in the City and wherever he may be. +Among measures for his personal safety I rate high the maintenance of +discipline and loyalty among his frontier garrisons or their +reestablishment if impaired. By his command you are to return speedily +whence you came and tell your fellows of the complete success of your +mission. I must be sure that your report will satisfy them, that you set +out on your return fully satisfied yourselves. Are you satisfied? I ask +your senior sergeant to act as spokesman. After he has spoken I shall give +all who desire it the opportunity to speak." + +Sextius Baculus at once replied that they were not satisfied while the +post of Procurator of Illyricum was held by the eldest son of Perennis, or +while he held any office, or, in fact, while he was alive. + +Cleander, in a loud, far-carrying voice, apprized the entire assemblage of +what Baculus had said, and replied to him: + +"From now on I am in charge of all matters pertaining to the personal +safety of Caesar, including the apprehension and execution of all traitors +and potential traitors. You may rely implicitly on me without suggestions +from anyone to take all measures which may be necessary in all such cases. +In this case you may feel assured that I have already initiated measures +which will infallibly lead to the traitor's return to Italy, without any +unsettlement of the loyalty of the Illyrian garrisons, to his being +quietly arrested and as quietly executed. Are you satisfied?" + +The answer was a roar of cheers, roar after roar. When the cheering +subsided Cleander, three separate times, urged anyone who wished to speak +up. No man spoke. Then he said: + +"I am commissioned by Caesar to repeat to you explicitly what he has +himself partly expressed to you twice today: his appreciation of your +fealty and good intentions, his thanks for your good order on your march +from Britain and for your having saved him from unsuspected peril, and his +gratitude. But please take note and remember that Caesar specially +commissions me to say to you that no similar deputation from Britain or +from anywhere else will ever be permitted to reach Rome, to enter Italy or +even to set out from the posts assigned to its members. Any attempt at +such a deputation will be treated, not as well-meant effort to help our +Sovereign, but as sacrilegious rebellion against him. + +"Also please note that, whereas he has accepted your advice and acted upon +it, any further expression of advice from any of you or any future attempt +of any legionaries to advise the Emperor will be regarded as an unbearable +act of insolence and presumption and dealt with as such. Caesar commands +you to be silent and obey. + +"Through me he notifies you that your stay at Rome is to be short, that +you are, within a few days, under officers appointed by him, to set out on +your return march to your Gallic port, there to reembark for Britain, +there to guard the frontier or keep order in the provinces. As a +preparation, for your return march he bids you rest and feast; and, that +all may feast, he has lavishly provided food and wine, which you will find +ready at your quarters, and with that provision an ample force of cooks +and servitors to prepare and distribute your banquet. Caesar now goes to +dine and bids you disperse to dine. I have spoken for Caesar. Obey!" + +Less heartily, perhaps, but universally, this haughty speech was responded +to by loud, tumultuous and long-lasting cheers. More cheers saluted the +Emperor when he stood up and followed him till he had vanished with his +retinue, at full gallop. The men even continued to cheer until Cleander's +wife and Marcia had entered their gilded carriages and been driven off in +the wake of the Imperial cortege. + +Our evening meal was truly, as Cleander had called it, a feast and a +banquet. When we reached our quarters the food was ready and just ready +and our repast began at once. It was calculated, in every particular, to +induce gluttonous gorging and guzzling. Before our hunger was really +satisfied, before we had more than barely begun to drink the temptingly +excellent wine, Agathemer whispered in Greek: + +"This banquet is an attempt to make all of us sleep far too soundly. Every +man of us will be surfeited with food and fuddled with wine. You and I +must be exceptions. Be sure to eat less than you want and to make a mere +show of drinking. We must keep awake." + +We did, and, in our tent, discussed in whispers our situation. + +"North of Nuceria," Agathemer said, "I judged that we should be safer by +ourselves than with these fools and rabble, but they kept such close watch +on us that the risks of escape were too great. South of Narnia I have +judged us better off where we were than if wandering alone. Now whatever +the risks of an attempt to escape, whatever the perils we may encounter if +we escape, try to escape we must. I have an intuition that this camp is, +tonight, the most dangerous spot in all Italy." + +We peered out of the tent at intervals; without hindrance or danger, for +our tent-mates were utterly asleep. The night was windless and warm. A +moon, more than half full, rose about midnight and, as it climbed the sky, +shed a pearly light through a veil of mist which deepened and thickened. +Near the ground the mist was so thick that it made escape easy, though +blundering likely. + +We tried to judge our time so as to start a full hour before the first +streak of dawn. We traversed unhindered a camp sunk in sleep, where we +heard no sound but crapulous snorings. Northward, towards the Mulvian +Bridge, we sneaked out into the tomb-lined meadows. Through or above the +dense fog we could spy the pinnacles of several vast and ambitious +mausoleums glittering in the moon-rays. + +We were not a hundred yards from the camp when I dimly perceived ahead of +us through the fog something like a wall or stockade about two yards high. +A step or two further, at the same moment at which I made out that it was +a serried rank of helmetted men, a challenge rang out, sharp and +peremptory. + +Instantaneously we dropped on our hands and knees and crawled back to +camp. + +"I told you I had a suspicion that this was a dangerous locality," +Agathemer whispered when we had stood up and gotten our breath. "Those +were regular infantry of some sort. We can only hope that they are on that +side only. Let's try towards Rome." + +There, at about the same distance we were similarly challenged. + +In camp again Agathemer said: + +"Those were Praetorian infantrymen, and they were standing shoulder to +shoulder. This looks bad. But I believe in taking every possible chance. +Let's try towards the road." + +Eastwards also we encountered the like obstacle. + +Back we crawled unpursued. As we skurried through the snoring camp, +unperceived by the sodden sleepers, Agathemer said, aloud: + +"This looks increasingly bad. The Praetorians are standing with +interlocked elbows; they look unpleasantly like samples of a complete +cordon round the camp. The mounted Praetorians are behind them not two +horse-lengths and less than that apart. I divined some sort of troops +massed behind the cavalrymen. I feel frightened." + +Out we raced towards the broad Tiber, towards it we crept through fog +across the meadow. Again we were challenged. The cordon was, apparently, +complete. + +As we regained the camp Agathemer said: + +"If we are to escape alive we need all our craft, and we must be quick." + +We sprinted, not to our quarters, but to those of the British veterans. +Into each tent we peered. + +Every tent was empty! + +Agathemer, plainly, felt in a desperate hurry, yet he took time to glance +into the most of the hundred and fifty tents, tearing along past the lines +of them. He also took time, after our brief inspection was finished, to +pause, get his breath and say: + +"This looks worse than bad. I miss my guess if many of these slumberers +wake alive. Strip!" + +We stripped of everything except our amulet bags. + +Then, at full run, stark naked, our unsheathed sheath-knives in our hands, +we raced through the fog, now glimmering with the first forehint of coming +dawn, along the inner edge of the veterans' tents, till we were opposite +the quarters of the tumultuary century formed from the outpourings of the +_ergastulum_, at Nuceria. + +Into one of the veterans' tents we went. + +"Knife in teeth!" said Agathemer. + +The tents were lavishly provided with unsoldierly comforts, a double +allowance of blankets and mattresses stuffed with dried reeds or sedge. +Motioning me to help, Agathemer doubled a mattress and pressed on it till +it lay so. Then he doubled another and set it so that the two were about a +yard apart, with their folds towards each other. Another pair he set +similarly so that the interval between the folds was over two yards long. +Then we roofed the interval, so to speak, with two mattresses laid flat, +and laid two more on each of these. Not yet satisfied Agathemer led me out +four times to drag in, from the near-by tents, mattresses, two of which we +laid lengthwise over the triple mattress-roof, the others we heaped over +the end of the roofed tunnel furthest from the opening of the tent. + +Then we went outside yet again and cut the ropes of the two adjacent tents +and of the one above the pile of mattresses. We threw our knives far away +and bunched up the collapsed canvas of that tent so that it formed a sort +of continuation of the mattress-roofed tunnel. Then we crawled, feet +first, into the tunnel, taking with us two full water-bottles which +Agathemer had found in one of the tents and a quarter loaf of bread, left +over from the banquet. It smelt appetizing. + +We wriggled into the tunnel side by side, until our heads were well under +the mattress-roof. We could see out under the huddled, crumpled canvas. +Full in our limited view lay, in the middle of the camp street, a fat +Nucerian, the outline of his big chest and prominent paunch dimly visible +in the increasing light. His gurgling snores were plainly audible. + +Agathemer broke off two fragments of the bread and we munched +ruminatively. + +We had hardly swallowed three mouthfuls when Agathemer exclaimed: + +"Just in time! I can hear the arrows already! Listen!" + +We listened. I could hear a sound as of hail on roofs. And, just above us, +I could hear the arrows plunge into our protecting mound with a swishing, +rending thud. + +"We ought to be safe," Agathemer whispered. "But we may get skewered even +as we are. Volleyed arrows drive deep." + +I heard many a volley and, after the first, since I was listening for it, +I heard faintly before each volley the deep boom of thousands of powerful +bows, twanging all at the same instant. + +As the light increased I could see the drunken Nucerian with his hummocky +outline emphasized by five feathered arrows planted in his body. He must +have been killed by any of the five. + +When we saw living men pass across our outlook, their legs looked like +those of some sort of foreign auxiliaries. I made the conjecture, from +their movements, that they were killing the merely wounded. Certainly, one +of them drove his long sword through the prostrate, arrow-skewered +Nucerian; and, sometime later, another, with quite a different type of +leg-coverings, did the like. + +After daylight we saw pass by the legs of many Praetorian infantrymen and +of some cavalrymen. From the second hour we saw only legs of some novel +sort of regular soldiery whose trappings neither of us could recognize. + +It grew hot in our hiding place. We talked in whispers; while talking we +seemed more indifferent to the heat. + +Agathemer said: + +"All this must have been planned beforehand and carefully and very +skillfully carried out. It took ingenuity, minutely detailed arrangements +and great skill to arrange that banquet so as to get all the tumultuary +additions to the deputation surfeited and dead drunk and yet keep the +veteran legionaries near enough to being sober to be waked up, marshalled +and marched out. And it took amazing eloquence to wheedle their centurions +into abandoning their invited associates. The whole thing is a miracle. I +can't see through it." + +I may interpolate here, what I learned more than four years later, after +Cleander's downfall and death and after my return from Africa, that +Agathemer's conjectures, as we talked the matter over in our nook, were +correct. Perennis had formulated the plan and had prepared for it and +given the preliminary orders. His was the policy of allowing the mutineers +to march all the way to Rome unhindered. He, without consulting the +Emperor and with every care to prevent him from suspecting what was afoot, +imported a thousand archers from Crete, and as many mounted bowmen from +Numidia, from Mauretania and from Gaetulia. He planned the banquet-feast, +he made arrangements for the cordon of Praetorians. The massacre was his +idea. + +Cleander must have known of all this; he could not, like Commodus, be kept +in ignorance. Either before he came to our camp, or, perhaps, in his +elation at his rival's ruin and his own success, he adopted the ready +plan. Most likely the separation from their fellows of the veteran +mutineers was all his own idea; Perennis was not the man to carry out so +bold a stroke nor so much as to conceive of it. Indubitably, after dark, +the eighteen veteran sergeants were secretly called to a meeting with +Cleander. The fellow must have possessed superhuman powers of persuasion. +Certainly he made a long speech in which he convinced the leaders of the +mutineers that their having associated with themselves tumultuary recruits +in Gaul and the liberated inmates of _ergastula_ in Italy was inconsistent +with their expressed loyalty to Caesar and the Commonwealth; that by such +action, they had gravely imperilled the very existence of the Republic and +the safety of their Emperor. He won them over so completely that they +acceded, without hesitation, to his dictum that they ought to do all in +their power to repair the ill effects of their error of judgment; that the +only way was to abandon their associates, to leave them for him to deal +with and to march with all speed back to Britain to reassure their fellow- +insurgents and reclaim Britain to effective loyalty. + +So completely were they under his spell that they returned to their camp, +roused their men without waking any of their tumultuary associates, and +marched the whole body of veterans, in the night, across the Mulvian +Bridge and on all day to a prepared camp near Careiae, where they spent +the night. From there they marched in two days the forty-six miles to +Cosa; whence they followed the Aurelian road to Marseilles, as we had +ridden it, and from there marched across Gaul to Gessoriacum and shipped +for Britain, all in half the time in which they had come. + +Agathemer and I spent the whole day in our hiding place, suffering +terribly from the heat, for the day was hot, muggy and breezeless, so that +the still sultry air was stifling. We spared our water-bottles and made +their contents last. Our bread we munched relishingly after noon. + +Before sunset we were discovered and unearthed by some of the infantry +whose trappings were unknown to us. We found out later that they belonged +to the newly-enlisted Viarii, cohorts created from picked young men judged +agile, alert, intelligent and loyal, to act as a special road-constabulary +to deal with robbers and especially with the bands obeying the King of the +Highwaymen and with him. + +Our captors did not treat us roughly, though they bound our hands behind +us effectually. They laughed over our device for escaping the arrows and +commented on our cleverness. Our amulet-bags they ignored, being more +interested in our brand-marks and scourge-scars. Their sergeant asked us +where we were from. + +"Do you think it likely," Agathemer laughed, "that we would tell you; +can't you read on our backs that, wherever we came from it is the last +place on earth we want to go back to?" + +The sergeant laughed genially. + +"Mark 'em 'unidentified'," he ordered. + +They clothed us in tunics innocent of any blood-stains, but which, we felt +sure, had been taken from the corpses of our late associates. + +"Put 'em with the rest," the sergeant ordered. + +With the rest, some three hundred survivors out of more than three +thousand tumultuaries, we were herded inside a convoy of constabulary and +marched in the dusk and dark to our former camp at Rubrae. There we were +liberally fed on what was, apparently, the leavings from the entertainment +afforded the mutineers there on their down-march. + +Next morning we were lined up and inspected by a superior officer with two +orderlies and two secretaries. As he passed down the rank in which +Agathemer and I stood he eyed us keenly. After a time he returned and +said: + +"These two rascals are trying to keep together. Separate them!" + +Thereafter I saw no more of Agathemer for over four years. + +I do not wish to dwell on my wretchedness, after we were parted. Alone +among riffraff, I was very miserable. I mourned for the faithful fellow +and knew he mourned for me. I longed for him as keenly as if he had been +my twin-brother. + +I and my fellows were marched on under close convoy, up the Flaminian +Highway and the batch among which I was, was cast into the _ergastulum_ at +Nuceria. + +There I passed a miserable winter. Our prison was not unlike the +_ergastulum_ at Placentia; ill-designed, damp, cold, filthy, swarming with +vermin and crowded with wretches like myself. I was despondent in my +loneliness and found harder to bear my shiverings, my fitful half-sleep in +my foul infested bunk, the horrible food, the grinding labor, the stripes +and blows and insults of the guards and overseers and the jeers of my +inhuman fellow-sufferers. This time I had no chance of becoming cook's- +helper or of easing my circumstances in any other manner. I spent the +entire winter haggard for sleep, underclad, underfed, overworked, +shivering, beaten and abused. + +Conditions in that _ergastulum_ were more than amazing. It was so utterly +mismanaged that, in fact, very little effective work was done, though the +inmates were roused early, set to their tasks before they could really +see, lashed all day, given but a very brief rest at noon and released only +after dusk. Half the prisoners judiciously directed could have ground +twice as much grain. As it was, the superintendent and overseers had far +less real authority than a sort of dictator elected or selected or +tolerated by the rabble. He had a sort of senate of the six most ruffianly +of the prisoners. These seven ruled the _ergastulum_ and their power was +effective for overworking and underfeeding, even more than the generality, +those whom they disliked, and for diminishing the labors and increasing +the rations of their favorites. The existence of this secret government +among the rabble was in itself astonishing, its methods yet more so. + +Unlike the _ergastulum_ at Placentia the watch at the _ergastulum_ at +Nuceria was very lax and haphazard. It was effective at keeping us in; +there were but three escapes all winter. But communication with the +outside world was fairly easy and was kept up unceasingly. Many of the +inmates had friends among the slaves of Nuceria. The gate-guards were so +remiss that, daily, one or more outsiders entered our prison and left when +they pleased. The henchmen of the dictator even managed to slip out and +spend an hour or more where they pleased in the city. This, however, was +possible only if they returned soon, for the superintendent was keen on +calling us over three times a day. + +Through the activities of those inmates who arranged to get out and +return, and of their friends who entered and left, since the weighers of +the grain and flour were careless and their inspectors negligent, the +dictator and his friends drove a regular and profitable trade in stolen +flour, which they exchanged for wine, oil, dainties, stolen clothing and +such other articles as they desired; they even sold much of it for cash, +and not only the dictator but each of the six senators had a hoard of +coins, not merely coppers, but broad silver pieces. + +In this traffic and its advantages I had no share. In fact, of all his +fellows, I think the dictator hated me most; certainly he bullied me, made +my lot harder in countless petty ways, and abused and insulted me +constantly. + +After mid-winter I became aware of a traffic not only in dainties and +wine, but in implements and weapons. Many daggers and knives were smuggled +into the _ergastulum_, not a few files. The senators had a small arsenal +of old swords, regular infantry swords, rusty but dangerous. Gradually I +heard whispers of a plot. The conspirators were to file through the bars +of more than one window, plastering up the filed places with filth and +earth to conceal the filing, leaving a thread of metal to hold the filed +bars in place. Then, when all was ready, they planned to murder the +guards, overseers and superintendent, break out, sack the town-arsenal, +loot shops and mansions, and then, well-clad and fully armed, take to the +mountains and join the bands of the King of the Highwaymen. Two of the +senators claimed to have been men of his before their incarceration and +promised to lead the rest to the haunts of his brigands. + +The date set for their attempt was the fourteenth day before the Kalends +of April, a few days before the Vernal Equinox. My gorge rose at the idea +of the burning and sacking of Nuceria, even at the slaughter of our cruel +guards, overseers and superintendent. The more I thought the matter over +the less I liked the prospect. I had every reason to hate the dictator and +senators. I saw no likelihood of betterment for myself if I were carried +off with these riffraff as one of a band of looters, murderers and +outlaws, loose in the forests. + +I contrived to disclose the plot to the prison authorities. As a result +the _ergastulum_ was entered by the town guards, rigorously searched by +the aldermen and their apparitors, under the aldermen's eyes, all the sawn +bars, files, knives, daggers and swords discovered, the suspected men +tortured till the ring-leaders were identified, the dictator and his +senators flogged and manacled, and the management of the _ergastulum_ +renovated. + +I was conducted from the prison, given a bath, clothed in a clean, warm +tunic and cloak, provided with good shoes, abundantly fed and put to sleep +in a clean bed in the house of a freedman who watched closely that I did +not escape, but did everything to make me comfortable. + +The next day the chief alderman of Nuceria interrogated me at the town +hall, praised me, declared that I had saved the town many horrors and much +damage and loss, and asked me what reward I craved. + +I answered, boldly, that what I craved was what all slaves craved: +freedom. + +He replied that, in his opinion, I had merited manumission; but that I was +not the property of the municipality of Nuceria, but of the _fiscus_; +[Footnote: See Note B.] I was, in short, part of the personal property of +the Emperor and could be manumitted only by the Emperor, or by one of his +legal representatives. Such a manumission would be difficult to arrange +and its arrangement would take a long time. He would set to work to try to +arrange for it. Meantime, could I not ask some reward within their power +to grant? + +I at once replied that I desired above all things never to be returned to +that _ergastulum_. + +This he promised immediately, saying that recommitment there would be +equivalent to a sentence of torture and death, since my late associates, +infuriated at my treachery, as they named it, would certainly inflict on +me all the torments their malignity could suggest and keep on till I died. +He added that he and the other aldermen had never meant to recommit me; +deliverance from that _ergastulum_. they considered part of my reward and +that the least part of it. What else did I desire? + +"If," said I, "I must remain a slave and, remaining the property of +Caesar, must be employed as the administration of the _fiscus_ direct, at +least try to arrange that I be employed out of doors far from any town, on +a slave farm, or at herding or wood-cutting or charcoal-burning. I have +heard that many of Caesar's slave-gangs are busy afield, on farms, or +pasture-lands or in the forests." + +"That," said the alderman, "will be easy. Afield you shall go--even far +afield. Do you like horses? Can you manage horses?" + +"I love all animals," I said, "and most particularly horses." + +"Then," said the alderman, "I have already in mind the very place for you, +where none of your rancorous late associates can ever find you, on an +Imperial stock-farm or breeding-ranch in the uplands, among the forested +mountains. Would you consider it a reward, would you consider it the +fulfillment of your wish to be transferred from our town _ergastulum_, +where you were as an Imperial slave rented out to our city, to such an +Imperial estate, where you will be directly under the employees of the +_fiscus_?" + +"I certainly should feel rewarded," I said, "by such a transfer." + +"In addition," he concluded, "we shall present you with a new tunic and +cloak and new shoes, also an extra tunic, and with a purse containing ten +silver pieces." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE OPEN COUNTRY + + +After some days of rest, abundant food and leisurely hot-baths in the +freedman's house, I left Nuceria under convoy of three genial road- +constables and journeyed deliberately northward along the Flaminian +Highway to the Imperial estate which was to be my abode. I am not going to +locate it precisely nor to name the villages nearest it nor the +neighboring towns. It will be quite sufficient to set down that it was +near the Flaminian Highway and approximately half way between Nuceria and +Forum Sempronii. + +My reasons for vagueness are mandatory, to my mind. Feuds in the Umbrian +mountains differ greatly from feuds in the Sabine hills; but, like +Sabinum, Umbria is afflicted with feuds. Now I anticipate that this book +will not only be widely read among our nobility and gentry and much +discussed by them, but also that it will be talked of by more than half +Rome and that copies of it and talk about it will spread all over Italy +and even into the provinces. Talk of it may trickle into the Umbrian +mountains. Umbrian mountaineers live long. Some of those who loved me and +befriended me or loved and befriended those who loved and befriended me, +may still be alive and hearty and likely to live many years yet. So also +may be some of those who hated me. I do not want anyone holding a grudge, +or nursing the grudge of a dead kinsman or friend, to learn through me of +any secret kindness to me which he might regard as treachery to his kin +and so feel impelled to avenge on those who befriended me or their +children or grandchildren. Umbrian enmities ramify incredibly and endure +from generation to generation. I remember with gratitude many Umbrians who +were kind to me; I would not, however, indirectly cause any trouble to +them in their old age, or to their descendants. + +The Imperial estate was large and I learned its history. It was made up of +three adjacent properties confiscated at different periods by different +Emperors. One had fallen to the _fiscus_ under Nero, a second under +Domitian, and a third under Trajan, each as the result of its owner being +implicated in a conspiracy against the Emperor. The administration of the +resultant large estate was a perfect sample of the excellent management in +detail and stupid misjudgment in general so common under the _fiscus_. The +estate was hilly, some of it mountainous, and quite unfitted for horse- +breeding, which is best engaged in, as everybody knows, on estates +composed chiefly of wide-spreading plains or gently rolling country with +broad, flat meadows. Good judgment would have put this estate chiefly in +forest, with a few cattle, some sheep and more goats, but no horses. As I +found it, it had, to be sure, many goats, but almost as many sheep and +cattle, and horses almost as numerous as the cattle and far more +important, for to their breeding most of the efforts of the overseer were +directed. + +The overseer's house was the best of the three original villas. About it +were ample, commodious and scrupulously clean quarters for slaves like me. +Also it had yards for fowls, ducks, geese, guinea-fowls, and peacocks, +arranged before the confiscation and allowed since to run down, but still +productive and fairly well-filled with birds, as were the big dovecotes. +Besides, there were fish ponds and a rabbit-warren, left from the former +villa. There were extensive stables, cattle-sheds and pens, sheep-folds, +goat-runs and pig-sties adjoining the house. In the quarters I found a +goodly company of hearty, healthy, contented slaves, sty-wards, goatherds, +shepherds, cowmen and horse-wranglers. These were friendly from my first +arrival among them, seemed to look me over deliberately and appraise me, +and appeared to like me. + +I was first sent out as one of two assistants to an experienced herder in +charge of a rather large herd of beef-steers. We drove them up the +mountains to a grassy glade and, when they had eaten down the grass there, +to another. Our duties were light, as the steers were not very wild or +fierce and were easy to keep together, to keep in motion by day and to +keep stationary by night. Each night two of us slept by a smouldering fire +and the third circled about the herd as the steers lay sleeping or chewing +their cuds. The circling was done at the horse's slowest walk. Our horses +were good, our food good, and my two companions genial, though reticent. + +Only once did any of our charges bolt. Then, when we missed three steers, +our senior asked me: + +"Do you think you could find them and fetch them back?" + +On my affirming confidence that I could he smiled doubtfully, and shook +his head, but drawled: + +"I'll give you the chance, just to try you out." + +I found the runaways with no trouble whatever, for their trail was nowhere +faint, turned them easily and brought them back, manifestly, much sooner +than he had hoped. He appeared pleased, but merely grunted. + +Yet he must have spoken well of me to the superintendent, for after a +day's rest in the slave-quarters I was assigned the sole care of a small +bunch of young cows with their first calves. It seemed to be assumed that +I would make no attempt to escape. As I had been given a good horse and a +serviceable rain-cloak, I had thoroughly enjoyed my life from the start. + +The landscape was charming, the climate agreeable, spring was approaching, +I was out in the open air, camping at night by a fire wherever my charges +lay down to sleep, eating what I chose of the ample supply of good food +which I carried in my saddle-bags. I was happy, thoroughly happy, and I +throve from my arrival. I still mourned for Agathemer, but I did not miss +him as acutely as I had in the _ergastulum_. + +After about ten days in the woodland glades I brought my charges back to +the villa for inspection, according to orders. The inspector was pleased +with their condition and commended me. Some of the fellow-herdsmen, off +duty, stood or sat about and they seemed to approve. + +One of them asked: + +"Have much trouble, Greenhorn?" + +"Not a bit," I answered. + +"How'd you like to try to milk one of those cows?" another enquired. + +"I can milk any one of them," I replied. "I have milked most of them. I've +been drinking all the milk I could hold all the while I was out with +them." + +"That's the silliest lie I ever heard," they chorused. "Why, if you tried +to handle any one of those cows she'd gore you to death. You couldn't get +near enough to the udder of any one of them to get your hand on her teats. +Invent a lie we can swallow, or quit bragging. You can't fool us." + +I kept my temper, scaled the enclosure of the cow-pen, being careful not +to make any sudden movement, strolled to the nearest cow, stroked her +nose, pulled her ears, walked down her flank, patting her as I went and +handled her udder. + +"What have you to say now?" I called to the gaping yokels. + +"Try that on another," they shouted back. + +I did the like with two more. + +They were dumb. + +"Hand me a crock," I called, "and I'll get a quart or so of milk, if the +calves have left any." + +When, one handed me a small _olla_ I milked it more than half-full from a +dozen cows. I exhibited the milk, offered it to them, and, on their +laughingly replying that they were no milk-sops, they preferred wine, I +drank most of it. Then I went to the nearest calf, gentled it, picked it +up, lifted it onto my back, its legs sticking out in front of me across my +shoulders, and paced back and forth along the inside of the fence, the +mother following me, licking the calf and lowing, but mild and with no +show of anger, let alone any threat of attack on me. + +Before I put the calf down the superintendent came along. + +"What's all this?" he queried. + +"Felix here," he was answered, "is a sort of wizard. He can gentle these +cows, he can milk them, and he has been showing off how one will let him +carry her calf and yet not get excited." + +"Can you do as well with bulls, too?" the _Villicus_ enquired. + +"I think so," I replied. I had put down the calf and climbed out of the +cow-pen. + +"Come along!" the _Villicus_ commanded. + +We trooped off to a pen where there was a fine breeding-bull all alone. + +"Get inside, lad!" said the _Villicus_; "that is, if you dare. But be sure +you are ready to vault out again, and entirely able to clear the pen." + +I climbed into the pen and stood. The bull gazed at me, but made no +threatening movement and his demeanor was placid. I walked up to him, a +pace at a time, patted his nose, pulled his ears, walked round him, +stroking him, took hold of the ring in his nose and led him over toward +the awestruck gapers: + +When I climbed out of the pen one man said: + +"Try him on old Scrofa." + +We trooped off to the hog-pens and there was a six or eight-year-old sow +with a young litter. She was a huge beast, as ugly a sow as ever I saw. I +got into her pen, miring half to my knees in its filth, but keeping my +feet. She made no move to attack me, but grunted enquiringly. I picked up +one of her pigs, it hardly squealed and she grunted scarcely more than she +had already. I dangled the piglet before her, and she only smelt it and +kept on grunting, with no sign of wrath. + +"Come out, Felix," the _Villicus_ drawled, "you are sow-proof. But how do +you do it?" + +"I don't know," I replied, "but I have always been able to gentle fierce +animals of any kind. No animal ever attacks me." + +Thereupon he tried me with three rams famous for butting, two he-goats of +even worse reputation and half a score of watch-dogs. I came unscathed +from close companionship with the goats and rams, and the dogs behaved as +if they had been my pets from their puppyhood. + +"Can you do as well with horses?" the _Villicus_ enquired. + +"I believe so," I replied; "give me a chance." + +"I shall," he asserted. "I'll round up all our colts fit for breaking and +try you on them. I'll get in most of the boys to watch the fun. It'll take +about ten days to get ready. Meanwhile you can take out another bunch of +heifers with new calves. It seems to suit you and the calves and the +heifers." + +When I returned from my third outing, hard and fit and happy, the +_Villicus_ asked me how soon I would be ready for colt-breaking. + +"Tomorrow," I said. + +The next day was made a sort of festival, with all the horse-herders at +the villa paddocks. + +First of all four experienced horse-wranglers roped a filly, threw her, +bitted and bridled her while one sat on her head, let her get on her feet, +hobbled her, held her so while two more saddled her and then held her +while one mounted her. When they let her go she reared, bucked, dashed +about, bucked again and again, and continued till exhaustion forced her to +quiet down and obey her rider, who had kept his seat from the first. + +"What do you think of that, Felix?" the _Villicus_ asked me. + +"As good horse-wrangling as can be seen anywhere," I replied. "Up to +standard and even above normal. But I can do better." + +"Bold words," said the _Villicus_; "we'll give you a chance to prove +them." + +Another filly was roped, bitted, bridled, and saddled, and her captors +invited me to mount. + +"Pooh!" said I. "Let some one else ride her. I don't need all those +preliminaries. I can walk right out into that bunch of colts, catch any +young stallion you point out, hold him by the nose, gentle him without any +rope or thong on him, mount him by vaulting onto his back, and ride him +about unbitted, unbridled, bareback, and as I please, without his rearing +or backing or kicking." + +"Son," said the _Villicus_, "you are either a lunatic or a demigod. Go in +and try what you boast you can do. Show us." + +"Point out your stallion," I suggested. + +He indicated a beautiful bay with a white face. He let me approach him at +my first attempt, let me take him by the nose, let me lead him close to my +dumbfounded audience, let me mount him. I rode him about, turning him to +right or left as the _Villicus_ ordered, at my suggestion. When I got off +I lifted each of his hoofs in succession, crawled under his belly, crawled +between his fore-legs, and then between his hind-legs, while the onlookers +held their breath; finally I stood behind him, slapped his rump and pulled +his tail. + +"Is he broken?" I queried. + +"Apparently he is gentle as a lamb to you," the _Villicus_ admitted, "but +how about the rest of us?" + +"Bring in a saddle and bridle," I suggested, "and I'll bit him and hold +him while two of you saddle him and until one of you mounts him. He should +be no more dangerous than a roped filly." + +They did as I suggested and I then rode him about until he appeared used +to the saddle and bit and already, at once, bridle-wise. Then one of the +wranglers rode him. + +I gentled colt after colt all that day till sunset, with a very brief +pause for food and rest. Also I kept it up next day until mid-afternoon, +when the last colt had been tamed. + +Then, as we stood breathing, one of the horse-wranglers suggested: + +"Try him on Selinus." + +"That would be plain murder," one of the others cried. + +"I am not so sure," the _Villicus_ ruminated. "I am almost ready to feel +that he might even tame Selinus." + +Off we trooped to the stable of the choice breeding-stallions. There, in a +darkened box-stall, I was shown a beautiful demon of a horse, four years +old, a sorrel, with a white face and white forefeet. He certainly looked +wicked enough. + +"Will you try him?" the _Villicus_ asked me. + +"Of course," I said. "Let him out into the yard or the paddock." + +Into the paddock he was let out, by means of a door in his stall worked by +winches from above. In the afternoon sunlight he pranced and curvetted +about, a joy to see. + +"Let me show Felix what he is like," one of the younger horse-wranglers +suggested. + +"You can," the _Villicus_ agreed. "We all know how agile you are and how +quick at vaulting a fence." + +The fellow vaulted into the paddock when Selinus was at its further +corner. The moment the beast saw him he charged at full-run, screaming +like an angry gander, the picture of a man-killer, ears laid back, +nostrils wide and red, mouth open, teeth bared, forehoofs lashing out high +in front, an equine fury. The lad vaulted the fence handily when Selinus +was not three yards from him and the brute pawed angrily at the palings +and bit them viciously. + +"Want to try, Felix?" the _Villicus_ asked me again. + +Without a word I vaulted the enclosure within two yards of Selinus. He +stood, ears cocked forward, nostrils quiet, mouth shut, all four hoofs on +the ground, quivering all over. + +Inch by inch I neared him till my hand touched him. He trembled like an +aspen-leaf, but did not attack me. + +"Hercules be good to us all!" exclaimed one of the men. + +After that I did with Selinus all I had done with the first stallion-colt, +gentling him, leading him by the nose, mounting him, riding him, crawling +under his belly, between his fore-legs and hind-legs, pulling his tail, +slapping him liberally all over. Then, timidly, urged by their comrades' +jeers, the two wranglers whom I invited brought me a saddle and bridle and +I bitted him and held him while they saddled. Then I rode him. + +Afterwards, with much misgiving, but shamed into boldness, the chief +horse-wrangler mounted him and rode him. + +Selinus was tamed! + +"Felix," said the _Villicus_, "you are too valuable to set to herding +cattle. You are henceforward chief horse-wrangler of this estate. I'll +give you a house all to yourself and a girl to keep house for you. When +not horse taming here or wherever I lend you out, you can spend your time +as you please." + +The onlookers acclaimed his award and the displaced chief horse-wrangler +shook hands with me and declared that he was proud to be second to such a +wonder as "Felix the Wizard." + +After that I lived a life of ease. My dwelling was a neat cottage well +shaded with fine trees and bowered in climbing vines, with a tiny +courtyard, a not too tiny atrium with a hearth, a kitchen, a store-room +and two bed-rooms. It was as clean as possible and well furnished for a +slave's quarters. The girl and I liked each other at first sight. I am not +going to tell her name, but a jest we had between us led me to call her by +the pet name of Septima. If she had been a free-woman, she would have been +described as a young widow. Her former mate, one of the horse-wranglers, +had been killed by Selinus the previous autumn. Their child, not a year +old, had died before his father. Septima had recovered from her grief +during the winter and had become normally cheerful before she was assigned +to me. I found her constitutionally merry, very good company, always +diligent, a surpassing cook, magical with the garden, especially with her +beloved flowers, a capable needle-woman, always neat, and very good- +looking. We got on famously together. + +With her beehives only, Septima had trouble. She understood bees +perfectly, but was afraid of them, and with reason, for she was manifestly +obnoxious to bees and was far too often stung. Of course, bees, like all +other living creatures, were mild to me. I tended her hives, under her +supervision, for I knew nothing of bees; according to her directions I +captured several swarms for her. Also I, when the time came, removed combs +from such hives as she designated. + +Spring was in its full glory and I felt the exhilaration of it. Each home- +coming was a delight. And I was much away, for the _Villicus_ had me +convoyed about the countryside to every estate which possessed an unbroken +colt or an intractable horse. I gentled successfully every one I +encountered. + +After all the bad horses and raw colts for miles around had been tamed I +spent some days idling about my cottage and getting acquainted with it and +with Septima. But within not many days I grew restive. I told the +_Villicus_ I wanted something to do. + +"Well," he said, "five steers have eluded one of my herd-gangs and no one +can find them. Question the men (he named them) so as to get the right +start, and try your luck." + +I was off, trailing those five steers, for three days and two nights. By +sunset of the third day I had them back at the villa. + +After that I was called on to hunt down and round up all stampeded cattle +and all strays, whether cattle, horses, goats, sheep or swine. I enjoyed +my lone outings and between them basked contentedly in the comfort of my +cottage and the amenity of Septima's cheeriness. During my stays at home I +thoroughly familiarized myself with the villa, its outbuildings and all +their inhabitants. Also I put a good deal of time on Selinus, whom I +transformed from an insane man-killer into one of the gentlest stallions I +ever heard of. I taught him all the niceties of obedience acclaimed in +perfect parade horses till he would stand, sidle, back, sidle diagonally, +curvet and execute all the show-steps promptly at the signalling touch or +sound. I tamed him till he would let anybody gentle him, till it was +perfectly safe for anyone to ride him. I even trusted Septima on him and +he justified my confidence in my training of him and in him. In fact, from +being a man-killer who had to be kept penned up in the dark, whom not even +the boldest horse-master dare approach, he became so gentle and so +trustworthy that he could be let run at large, mild to all human beings, +even to strangers. + +He grew to love me like a pet dog, followed me about when I was not riding +him, and would come to me from far away to a call or gesticulation; and he +could see me and recognize me at such distances that I revised my notions +as to the powers of sight possessed by horses, for I had held the common +opinion that no horse can see clearly or definitely any object at all far +from him. Selinus repeatedly saw and recognized me a full half-mile away +and galloped to me, approaching with every demonstration of joy. + +During my horse-wrangling expeditions and my excursions after wandering +stock I had grown well acquainted with the country-side and its +inhabitants. I was on terms of comradeship with all my fellow-slaves, of +easy sociability with the yeomanry; while I was treated by the overseers, +the _Villicus_, and inspectors with marked consideration. Thus I rapidly +learnt all there was to know of the idiosyncrasies of the locality, since +everybody seemed to trust me and no one held aloof or was reticent with +me. + +I found conditions in the Umbrian mountains as amazing, as incredible as +in the _ergastulum_ at Nuceria. There the two vital facts were the +negligence and impotence of the warders and the secret system for cheating +and thwarting them. Here all the thoughts of slaves, peasants and yeomen +on the one hand, and of overseers, inspectors and landowners on the other, +pivoted on the existence in the district of a post of road-constabulary on +the lookout for bandits and of a camp of brigands owing allegiance to the +King of the Highwaymen. + +The wealthy proprietors, the gentlemanly landowners, the inspectors of the +Estate, its _Villicus_ and his overseers all suspected the presence of the +bandits and were doing all they could to assist the road-constabulary to +locate them, pounce on them and capture them. Their efforts were +completely futile. Neither any of the constabulary nor any of the well-to- +do persons who sided with them, could ever get an inkling of the location +of the outlaws' various camps nor was any of them ever able to be really +sure that bandits were actually within a few miles. For the whole body of +yeomanry, peasants and slaves, even the slaves of those proprietors +keenest on the scent of the brigands and most eager to nab them, were +leagued to bamboozle, thwart and oppose their masters and betters, and to +aid the outlaws, to keep them posted on everything said and proposed by +the loyal inhabitants, and to assist them in outwitting the authorities, +the constabulary and all persons who sided with them. In this they were +notably successful. + +It is my keen recollection of this condition of things which determines me +to omit from this part of my narrative all names of persons and places. +The generality of the population made a sort of religion out of their +complicity with the outlaws. They took an almost religious pride in +cooperating with them and in antagonizing their adversaries. They hated +all the adversaries of the outlaws, whether landowners, constabulary or +inspectors. But, above all, they loathed, abhorred, abominated and +detested with a white-hot animosity any yeoman, peasant or slave who +failed to do all in his power to foster the interests of the outlaws; +regarding such persons, male or female, as traitors to the cause of the +populace. Especially did they cherish an envenomed and malignant grudge +against anyone who actually sided with the constabulary, gave them +information or betrayed the outlaws: or even against anyone who helped or +shielded any such informer. + +As I was the means of spoiling the long-prepared and much-hoped for coup +on which the robbers had set their highest hopes, as not a few men and +women assisted me with information, aided me in other ways and protected +me afterwards, I dare not name any names for fear that some survivor or +some son or grandson of some participant in these doings might learn +through me of long suspected but never verified treason to the unwritten +law of the country-side and might bloodily avenge it on a surviving helper +of mine or on any such helper's children or grandchildren. The Umbrian +mountaineers are spleenful, tenacious of a grudge and ferociously +acrimonious. + +I learnt all these amazing facts without difficulty, for slaves, peasants +and yeoman alike assumed that I was of their party and was heart and soul +with the outlaws. I was not subject to suspicion because I visited the +post of the constabulary, became acquainted with every man of them, their +sergeants and their officers and frequented their company. All the +yeomen, peasants and slaves whose abodes were near the post, were, on the +surface, on the best of terms with the road-constables; pretended to help +them with information, retailing to them as rumors all sorts of inventions +calculated to throw them off the scent of the outlaws, always with an air +of the friendliest good-will; and loitered, idling about the post, +chatting of local gossip. + +I was so entirely trusted that I was taken to the outlaws' camp and made +acquainted with the entire band. Paradoxically the members of the band +were all hulking burly ruffians of twenty-five to thirty-five years, +whereas their chief, while big and brawny enough, was inferior in size to +any of his subordinates and younger by six full years than the youngest of +them. To him I was boisterously presented as a brother, for his name also +was Felix. In fact, he was the man since famous as Felix Bulla, for long +the most redoubtable outlaw in Italy. Then he was hardly more than a lad, +for all his bulk and strength and ferocity. He had been appointed chief of +the band by the King of the Highwaymen in person, who held him in the +warmest regard for his ruthlessness, courage, skill, and cunning, +especially for his cunning, rating him, as I was told by all the band, and +having proclaimed him to them, as the most subtle and crafty outlaw alive +after himself. + +Bulla, like everybody else, appeared to take to me and treated me as an +equal, after conversing with me for hours at a time. I was always a +welcome guest at any of the bandits' camps and they often made me show off +my admired powers on fox-cubs, badgers, weasels and other such wild +creatures which they or their peasant friends had trapped alive. My +ability to tame, handle, fondle and make tractable to anyone such animals +appeared a source of unflagging interest and unceasing entertainment to +these ruffians. + +As I was allowed to dispose of my time as I chose, whenever I was not busy +rounding up strayed stock or taming raw colts, I had plenty of leisure to +ride about the country-side, make friends, get intimate with the +constabulary and the outlaws and idle many of my days as appeared most +pleasant. I took full advantage of my partial liberty. + +The weather, from my arrival at the Imperial estate, was mostly fine and +often glorious. Spring came early and merged beautifully into summer. I +enjoyed myself hugely. Besides local peculiarities and the humors of the +tacit league to thwart the constabulary and foster the interests of the +outlaws, I derived much entertainment from the traffic on the Flaminian +Highway. Of course, there were Imperial couriers, travellers of all sorts, +and convoys of every kind of goods, long strings of wagons, carts or pack- +mules laden with wheat, other grains, wine, oil, flax, charcoal, firewood, +ingots of bronze, lead or iron, and countless other commodities on their +way to Rome; or convoys of clothing, hangings, furniture, utensils and the +like, going northwards from the City. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE OUTLAWS + + +From early spring, however, all this normal traffic was interfered with, +delayed, hindered and even totally blockaded by column after column of +wains and wagons passing southwards, huge wagons, drawn by six or eight or +even ten horses or mules or by as many big long-horned white oxen, every +wagon laden with a cage or two or more cages containing beasts being +conveyed to the Colosseum in Rome. This amazing procession roused my +interest as soon as it began to pass; filling, clogging, blocking the +highway and continuing without intermission day after day, ceasing its +movement, indeed, each night, but making the roadside almost a continuous +camp of teamsters and caretakers, barely half of them sleeping, the moiety +busy about their draft-cattle or the cages of their charges. + +The endless stream of caravans amazed me. I had seen beast-fights without +number in the Colosseum, but had never thought of the enormous labor and +expense incident on the preparations for even one morning's exhibition of, +say, a hundred lions and other beasts in proportion. Now I meditated over +the thousands of trappers and other hunters who must scour the forests of +Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, Illyricum, Pannonia, Noricum, Rhaetia and Germany +to gather such a supply of beasts for exhibition. I saw wolves, bears and +boars by the thousand, and hundreds of lynxes, elk and wild bulls, both +the strange forest-bisons, unlike our cattle, with low rumps and high +shoulders and their horns turned downwards and forwards, parallel to each +other, and the huger and even fiercer bulls, much like farm bulls, but +larger, taller and leaner and with horns incredibly long, so that their +tips were often two yards and more apart. I had no idea of the vast +numbers of such beasts which were yearly poured into Rome from all the +mountains and forests to the north and east of the Alps. I was amazed. + +Even more was I amazed to see hundreds upon hundreds of cages containing +beasts not from northern Europe, but from Africa, or even from Asia: lions +without number, panthers and leopards by the hundred, many tigers, +antelopes of all kinds by scores of each kind, rhinoceroses, and +hippopotami in enormous cages on gigantic wains drawn by twelve yoke of +oxen; even a dozen huge gray elephants pacing sedately, their turbaned +_mahouts_ rocking on their necks. + +I knew that the traffic in beasts from the northern forests concentrated +at Aquileia and I had a hazy notion that they were customarily shipped +from there by sea round Italy and through the straits to the Tiber. My +curiosity was excited as to why they were now coming overland instead of +going by sea. Still more was I curious as to why these hordes of animals +from the south should be traversing Italy from the north. + +I asked questions and could get no satisfaction from the natives of the +district: slaves, peasants, yeomen, proprietors, overseers, _Villicus_ and +all, they one and all knew nothing. If they claimed to know, what they +alleged merely emphasized their ignorance. + +The constabulary knew, but were inclined to be reticent and, when they +spoke, were laconic. Yet their briefest utterances contained hints which +confirmed the only fact I had elicited from the natives: namely, that this +traffic was not only unusual along the Flaminian Highway, but had never +been seen on it before; was a complete novelty, even a portent. They also +confirmed my impression that few animals destined for beast-fights in the +amphitheatres reached Rome overland; as I had thought, practically all had +hitherto come by sea and up the Tiber. + +Still curious, I made friends with the teamsters. Some were from Ravenna, +and even these grumbled at the two hundred and fifty miles as ruinous to +their cattle. The animals they convoyed had come overland from Aquileia to +Altinum and from there to Ravenna by sea. In this way had come the +crocodiles, hippopotami and rhinoceroses. + +More teamsters were from Aquileia itself. Some of these with the lighter +wagons for the cages containing wolves, lynxes, small antelopes, hyenas +or African apes, had been able to take the shorter though poorer road by +way of Patavium and Ateste to Bononia, which made their total journey +under five hundred and twenty miles. But most, including all those +conveying bears, boars, panthers, leopards, lions or tigers, had come by +the more northerly road through Verona. Those with panthers, leopards or +small stags had come from Verona, by way of Hostilia to Bononia and from +there southward as did all, making their journey about five hundred and +fifty miles; the men conveying cages of tigers, lions, bears, boars, elk, +or wild bulls had mostly come from Verona through Cremona; from there some +through Regio to Bononia, others through Placentia; and for these their +total teaming did not differ much, about six hundred and twenty miles for +the ones and ten miles more for the others. Teams tugging wains carrying +the heaviest cages containing unusually large elk, boars, bears or bulls, +had had to go by way of Milan and had been put to it to keep their teams +fit for a journey of over seven hundred miles. + +Besides the difference in weight of the loads, chiefly depending on the +needed strength of the cages, I found that their divergence of routes was +due, in part, to the efforts which the procurator of all this teaming had +made to avoid choking the roads. The teamsters averred that they knew +nothing as to why the beasts were being brought this way; and no more as +to why animals brought all the way from Africa to Aquileia, a voyage far +longer than the voyage to Rome, should then be conveyed overland from, +Aquileia to the Colosseum. + +I enjoyed idling about the teamsters' camps chatting with them and the +attendants who cared for the beasts. One hot evening, just about sunset, +when I was already thinking of riding off home to bathe and dine, while I +was lingering to watch his keepers urging their little gang of slaves to +pour more and more water over a gasping hippopotamus, there was a yell of +alarm all along the line and a scampering, scattering rush of fleeing men; +teamsters, attendants and keepers. A panther had broken out of its cage, +when a wagon overset. + +He came down the middle of the highway, keeping to it, as everyone ran off +it to right and left. I had strolled some distance from where I had +tethered my horse. Naturally, as I could not mount and dash off, I did not +run. I stepped into the middle of the road and faced the beast. Of course, +he stopped, stood still and stared at me. I walked towards him, very +deliberately, even pausing between paces, till I was an arm's length from +him. He cringed and cowered. I took him by the scruff of his neck, turned +him round, led him back to his cage, which was not broken, only jarred +open, made him enter it, and closed the door on him. + +Thereupon the fugitives flocked back, acclaiming me as a sorcerer. The +superintendent of that caravan insisted on my giving him my name. I told +him I was Felix, the horse-wrangler of the Imperial estate. He gave me a +broad gold piece. + +Unable to elicit anything from the natives or the teamsters I resorted to +the outlaws. I had been admonished before I saw any of them that it was +not according to the etiquette of the district for anyone to ride a horse +into the outlaws' camp. If anywhere near it one visited it on foot. If too +far one carefully avoided appearing to ride towards it or from it. When +the camp, for instance, happened to be south of my cottage I would ride +off north, east, or west, fetch a long compass about, tether my horse at +least half a mile from the camp, generally farther away, and stroll +towards it. On leaving I invariably departed by a path different from that +by which I had come. When I reached my horse I was careful similarly to +choose a return route which would bring me home some direction other than +that towards which I had gone off. Of course, I always observed these +precautions, since any neglect of them, if known, would have not only made +me unwelcome to the brigands, but also gotten me into disfavor with the +whole countryside. + +When I reached the outlaws' camp I was careful to let them do most of the +talking and to wait for the talk to come round to the subject of the +beast-caravans. I had not long to wait, and, when I expressed my amazement +and curiosity, they showed no reluctance about informing me. Bulla himself +explained that Commodus had become so interested in beast-fighting, had +developed such transcendent skill at fighting beasts and had grown so +infatuated with the sport that he spent most of his time in the arena, +displaying his dexterity to invited audiences composed of senators, +nobles, notabilities and their wives and even children; in which +exhibitions he had killed so many creatures that he had not only depleted +but had almost exhausted the normal reserves constantly kept at Rome, +Ostia and the other Tiber ports. When the procurators in charge of the +supplies of beasts for the arena realized that the Emperor was killing his +victims faster than they normally were brought in, even lavishly as they +had always been provided, they sent out orders urging greatly increased +efforts at hunting, capturing, caring for and rapidly transporting all +sorts of creatures destined for the Colosseum. The Emperor's killing +capacity and love of enjoying and exhibiting his knack so outran their +measures that, by the time the increased supply began to come in, the +royal sportsman's unerrancy and swiftness outran their best results, so +that hasty messages had to be sent to Marseilles, Aquileia, Byzantium, +Antioch and Alexandria ordering the instant despatch to Rome, with the +utmost speed, regardless of expense, not only of all newly captured beasts +as they came in, in contravention of the long-established regulations by +which Rome and the provincial capitals shared each variety of animal, but +also the concurrent despatch of the local reserves, even the emptying of +the beast despositories attached to each amphitheatre. As the voyage from +Aquileia to Rome was of variable duration, owing to the uncertainty and +shiftiness of the winds, orders had been given to forward all its reserves +and supplies, at once, overland. Hence the spectacle which had so excited +the countryside and so amazed me. As Commodus was still slaughtering all +sorts of beasts daily not only with arrows and spears, to show off his +accuracy as a marksman but, even with sword or club, to display his +incredible swiftness of movement and unerrancy in directing and timing a +blow, he was taxing the capacities of his procurators and their gigantic +organization of transports, teams, detention-pens, and hunters merely to +stave off the apparently inevitable day when, whatever might run wild in +the deserts, forests and mountains, there would be, at Rome, far too few +beasts to maintain the autocrat's daily sport. + +When I expressed my astonishment at the certainty with which these +explanations were uttered and my wonder as to how they came to be so sure, +Bulla said: + +"Why, our King of the Highwaymen has reliable, capable and secret agents, +entirely unsuspected, in every city of Italy. He has a brother and sister +in Rome and equally devoted and unfailing helpers in Capua, Aquileia, +Milan, Brundisium and Naples. He maintains a road service of swift +couriers who bring him promptly all the information collected for him in +the cities, where his backers catch every breeze of rumor and are +forehanded in getting advance information on all important moves of the +authorities as well as in sifting truth from falsehood. Equally prompt are +his couriers in disseminating to subsidiary bands like mine whatever he +judges we should learn; thus we know more of goings-on in Rome and at +Court than do provincial nobles and highway-police." + +As I trudged from the camp to my horse, as I trotted homewards, I was +despondent. I had no right to be so, for I was merely one of the +innumerable slaves held by the _fiscus_ as the property of Caesar. As such +I was notably well off. Even in my proper person I congratulated myself on +my amazing luck. I was alive, unsuspected, secure, well-housed, well-clad, +well-cared for, freer than many a freeman, than many a nobleman, +pleasantly busy at occasional tasks very congenial to me and blest with +much leisure among a companionable population in a lovely region full of +diversified and charming scenery set off by an exhilarating climate; I +should have been gay. + +Yet my thoughts were those of a Roman nobleman. I was horrified at the +state of the Republic. I knew that Italy had never been entirely free from +outlaws. Even under Tiberius highwaymen had perpetrated successful +robberies and had captured and held for ransom wealthy persons or even +notabilities. But under most of the Emperors these outrages had been few +and had occurred only in the wilder districts. During the civil wars +between Otho and Vitellius brigandage had become rife all over Italy, even +up to the gates of Rome, and Vespasian had had much ado to exterminate the +outlaws. Again, under Nerva, bandits had multiplied and prospered. But +none had ventured into any populous district during the principates of +Trajan, Hadrian and their successors until after the death of Aurelius. +Now, because of the negligence of his son, outlaws had so prospered that +they had a sort of organization among themselves, like a commonwealth +inside the Republic, as I had seen during my captivity with Maternus and +now glimpsed again in Bulla's revelations. It argued a horrible +disintegration of the governmental mechanism of the Republic and of the +Roman character that such things had become possible. + +Equally horrifying to me was the contemplation of Caesar's extravagance. I +knew that the Republic's income from all sources was insufficient to keep +up the court establishment and ceremonials at their normal cost; to defray +the expenses of the state festivals with befitting magnificence of games +in the circuses, amphitheatres and theatres; to maintain the Praetorian +guards, city police, road constabulary and frontier garrisons. I knew that +all these branches of the necessary structure of the state were constantly +in want of more funds than could be supplied to them. I knew that this +want of supplies crippled our commanders along the Euphrates, the Danube, +the Rhine and the Wall, as well as far up the Nile and in the Euxine and +made possible the insolence of the Ethiopians and Caledonians as well as +the greater insolence of the Parthians, Goths and Germans. + +Yet, when conditions so urgently called for greater expenditures along our +frontiers and for close economy at home, I beheld our Prince stinting his +commanders and their heroic legions and lavishing upon his own pleasure +and the gratification of his amazing vanity sums which would have enabled +our eagles not only to defy all assailants of our frontiers but to humble +and subdue every threatening foe, even to penetrate and subjugate Nubia, +Parthia and inner Germany. I sickened at the thought of our shame along +the frontiers as at the thought of the energies of thousands upon +thousands of hard-muscled, bold-hearted young men wasted on capturing +beasts and the like energies of thousands upon thousands of hardy peasants +who ought to have been busy at productive labor on farms or in forests or +mines, wasted on caring for and transporting swarms of beasts for Commodus +to kill. + +Those thoughts were depressing. I could not banish them. + +The next day the mood persisted. I had nothing to do, did not feel like +doing anything in particular and yet felt restless. The weather was +perfect. I set off afoot for a place not far from my cottage, not far +enough to be called a long walk, where a big gray crag or small cliff like +an inland promontory, a spur of a forested mountain, towered up from the +southeastern side of the Flaminian Highway. At that point the road was the +boundary of the Imperial estate; the crag lay outside it, and, at that +part of its foot which projected farthest, was not a hundred yards from +the highway. The mountain rose a thousand feet or more from the meadows +along the road. The crag was full three hundred feet high. It was +perfectly possible to toil up the steep wooded slope of the mountain and +walk out on either of two bush-covered shelves which ran round the crag. +From the lower of these, where it belted the front of the vertical cliff, +there was a fine view down upon the highway and along it both ways; from +the upper more of the highway could be seen; from the very top of the +crag, which was bare except for two clumps of gnarled trees and starved +bushes near its brow, the view included a full two miles of the highway in +each direction. + +I climbed the slope to the lower shelf and ensconced myself where I was +shaded from the sun and had a clear view of the road both ways. From my +coign I watched the traffic. I judged that the northern supply of arena- +beasts was already overtaxed. The procession of wagons was no longer +continuous. They came now in trains of a hundred or so with some miles +between the convoys. Just as I settled myself no beast-wagons were in +sight, the road-traffic was normal. An Imperial courier dashed into view +from the south, tore past at full gallop, and vanished northwards; three +family travelling carriages, also bound north, pulling to the side of the +road to let him pass; as did a train of a score of mules laden with +charcoal. + +The first sign of arena-beasts which I saw after I settled myself to watch +was a string of eight elephants, each with a turbaned mahout rocking on +his back, and seven each with his trunk clasping the tail of the elephant +before him. This was the second batch of elephants I had heard of; the +former, I had been told, came by way of Ateste, since the elephants could +swim the Po and all the other rivers had strong stone bridges. These +looked well after their four hundred mile tramp and fit for the hundred +and odd ahead of them. + +Before they were out of sight there came into view the head of a column of +wagons which turned out to be loaded with cages of bears, lynxes, bison, +aurochs, elk, wolves and other northern animals. I watched them pass and +meditated. After they were gone the road was normal for a full two hours, +during which I pondered the thoughts which obsessed me and gloomed with +shame over the condition of the Empire. I had brought food and water with +me and ate about noon, slept an hour or more and woke to watch the passage +of two trains of cages full of lions, tigers, leopards and panthers. The +second train was overtaken and passed by two Imperial couriers from the +north, racing each other, the former more than a half mile ahead of the +latter, and, apparently lengthening his lead. I spent the day on the crag. +Also I spent other days there, sometimes on one shelf, sometimes on the +other, sometimes on the top. + +Not many days elapsed before I again visited the outlaws' camp and had +another chat with Bulla; not we two alone, for there was always an easy +sociability about the bandits and, if none took part in or broke into +their chief's talk, usually two or more lay or sat about listening and +sharing our interview. + +In the course of our talk Bulla discoursed of his importance, of the +importance of the band, of the warm regard in which he and they were held +by their head chief, the King of the Highwaymen. + +Some quirk inside my head made me venturesome. + +"What is his name?" I queried. "You never name him." + +"His orders!" Bulla snapped. "I know his name; not another man of our band +knows it. He never uses it and takes great pains to keep all outsiders who +know his name from suspecting that he is King of the Highwaymen; and +similarly to make sure that all outsiders who know him as King of the +Highwaymen get no inkling of his name. If the knowledge got abroad the +usefulness to him of his brother and sister in Rome would be destroyed." + +I apologized for my question. + +"No harm done," Bulla smiled. "I don't have to answer any questions unless +I want to, and I don't mind questions from you." + +"If you don't," I pursued, emboldened, "perhaps you'll be willing to +explain how it can be that your king holds you and your band in such high +esteem, whereas, to all appearances, you have not acquired a sesterce- +worth of loot since long before I reached this neighborhood; in fact, as +far as I can hear, have not succeeded in robbing anyone since you located +your camp here?" + +"I am perfectly willing to explain," laughed Bulla, looking more +formidable when he smiled or laughed than when expressionless. "We are no +cheap bandits to rob market-women, poor farmers, ordinary travellers or +such small fry. We angle for bigger fish. We bide our time. We are here to +make three big strokes and then a quick disappearance. Once we have our +hands on our chosen prisoners to be held for ransom we shall be off for +the mountain heights and the thickest forests; once we have the booty we +hope for, those in charge of it will ride fast and far and get clear out +of this part of Italy. Is that intelligible?" + +"Entirely," said I, and was mute. + +Bulla gazed at me almost genially. + +"I don't in the least mind telling you," he said, "just what we are +waiting for. Half the countryside knows and are alert to help us all they +know how. + +"In the first place we have word of a big consignment of gold on the way +to Rome; ingots from the mines in the mountains of Noricum, nuggets and +dust washed from the rivers of Dacia and Pannonia and Moesia. Of course it +is in charge of a wary official and has a strong guard, but we have good +hopes of getting it. If we do, it will be the biggest haul that any of our +bands ever made, and that he has put me here to try for it is proof of my +King's esteem for me. + +"In the second place a wealthy senator, just the right man to capture and +hold for ransom, is coming up from Rome in charge of a big chest of gold +coin to be paid out by the administrators of Asia and Macedonia and +Achaia. He himself is going out as propraetor of Asia. With him is a +wealthy widow, going north to be married at Aquileia, and taking with her +a big jewel-chest full of the finest and largest gems in the most +magnificent settings. So we have in prospect three prisoners for ransom +and three rich treasures. + +"The difficulty is that it will be almost impossible to make both +captures. If we nab the propraetor and widow, with the coin and gems, the +rumor or report of it is almost certain to warn the procurator with the +raw gold so that he will elude us. Similarly if we get him, news of our +presence will most likely reach and alarm the propraetor and the widow. If +one comes ten days or even five before the other we can scarcely hope for +complete success. If fewer days intervene we might get both. I am here to +get both. The King thinks me capable of the feat. His instructions are +that, in case I judge that I can get but one, I am to try for the +procurator and his gold, as it is estimated that his gold is worth at +least twice the coin and gems together, even adding the possible ransoms +of the widow and the propraetor. + +"I am hoping they will come only a day apart or even the same day; all our +couriers with letters about the progress of the gold convoy and the +widow's preparations indicate that they will reach this part of the road +at about the same time. They might meet each other right here where, we +want them together. I keep nursing that hope. + +"Now you know as much as you need to know about our plans." + +I thanked him and marvelled at his frankness. But, as I rode home, I +reflected that thinking me the Imperial slave I appeared, he thought me +certain to be secret and, if possible, helpful. + +I spent the next day and the next on my crag, watching the fascinating +spectacle afforded by the highway. + +On the third day the _Villicus_ chided me for having told my name to the +sub-procurator after I had recaged the panther. + +"An Imperial courier has just passed," he said. "He is a close friend of a +trusty friend of mine in Rome. Like most couriers he is obliging and will +carry letters for his friends, even packets. He dropped here a note for +me, warning me that I am likely to lose you. My friend is a crony of some +of the upper slaves in the Palace and of others in the Beast Barracks. + +"Your manumission, which was urged by the aldermen of Nuceria, has been +favorably reported and may be ordered. On the other hand, the procurator +in charge of the reserves of arena-beasts has heard of you and vows he +must have you for service in or for the Colosseum. I am likely to lose you +either way. I don't mind your manumission; I'll wager that I can induce +you to stay on as you are. But I am all worked up over the prospect of a +requisition for you from the Beast Barracks. If one comes it will be your +fault." + +I told him I was more stirred up about it than he was; that I should hate +to leave him and loathed the very idea of being cooped up in Rome amid +fetid cages; caring for lions and such like. We thoroughly understood each +other, and he said: + +"I'll have to manage to report you killed, if the requisition comes. I'm +determined to keep you. I'll have to set my wits to work to arrange for +it." + +I hoped he might, but I felt nervous. I dreaded being dragged to Rome and +recalled the prophecy of the Aemilian Sibyl. I had a feeling that to Rome +I was going, my situation was too good to last. I thought of leaving +Septima with much regret. Not that I loved her or even cared for her; but +she was a girl no man could but respect and admire and wish well to. If I +must leave her I resolved to leave her as well off as I could. + +Making sure that I was far from any human being and unobserved I opened my +amulet-bag, looked over the gems it contained, selected a medium-sized +emerald of perfect color, sewed it into the hem of my tunic and sewed up +the amulet-bag with the rest of the gems inside it. + +At the first opportunity, I revisited the outlaws' camp, with the usual +precautions, and found Bulla idle and genial. I told him I needed cash, +all the cash I could get, and had an emerald I thought would be worth a +noble store of gold and silver coin. + +"Show it to me!" he commanded. + +I took out my sheath-knife, ripped the emerald out of its hiding-place and +passed it to him. + +He conned it. + +"You are right, brother," he said; "this is a fine gem. I tell you what +I'll do. I'll ride, myself, to Sentinum and exchange this for cash, part +gold and part silver. Sentinum seems an unlikely place in which to find a +cash purchaser for a gem like this, but our King has a friend there who +acts as his agent in several respects; among others he keeps cash in hand +to exchange any time for precious loot; especially jewelry. He'll hand me +the cash without hesitation. + +"But if I am to do it for you, you must agree in advance to accept his +valuation of the jewel and to divide with me, share and share alike, +whatever he pays me for your emerald. In a case like this I charge half +the proceeds of the sale as my commission for making the deal and as my +fee for my time, risk and trouble. Do you agree?" + +"Certainly," I said, "and I am amazed at your offer. How can you be away +three days or more at this juncture? Might not your prizes: procurator, +propraetor, widow, jewels, coin, and gold all slip through your hands +during your absence in my behalf?" + +"No fear, lad!" he laughed; "our advices never deceive us. The procurator +with his gold is far away and approaching slowly; neither the widow nor +the propraetor is ready to leave Rome; both are occupied with endless +preparations. I have plenty of time. And it won't take me any three days +to reach Sentinum and return. I'll set off at sunset. About the third hour +tomorrow I'll be at Sentinum, my mount lathered and blown, but far from +used up; about the ninth hour I'll pass out of one of the gates of +Sentinum on my return, completely refreshed myself and with my mount fit +for the return journey: I'll be here in camp at dawn day after tomorrow, +with the coin bags. You can come for your cash any time after the third +hour day after tomorrow. Is it a bargain?" + +"Done!" said I. + +"Then get home," he said. "If I'm to go two nights without sleep I'll give +orders now, post my out-pickets and what not and snooze till dusk." + +I spent the next day on my crag. Several trains of wagons with arena- +beasts passed, but they were farther apart than ten days before. The other +traffic on the road was normal. + +Next day, not long after the third hour, I was in the outlaws' camp. Bulla +I found awake and with no signs of drowsiness or fatigue. In full sight of +all of his men he spread a blanket, and, on it placed four coin-bags, two +small and two full size. From the larger he spilt their contents on the +blanket and, each of us taking a bag, we picked up the silver one piece at +a time, both keeping count together. There was an odd piece. + +"It's yours, lad!" said Bulla. "I've enough here." + +The gold pieces similarly spilled and counted, came out even. + +"Are you satisfied?" Bulla queried. + +"Both with the amount and the division," I replied, "and now I'll be off. +You must need sleep." + +"Sit still!" Bulla commanded. + +He rose and went into his tent, for the outlaws had excellent hide tents. +He returned with a fine new coin-belt of pigskin leather. + +"Here," he said as he squatted down and handed it to me, "is a little gift +from Bulla. Wear it next your skin. And remember to keep it flat and +loose. Many a man has lost his life with his coin in a tight place because +a bulging belt betrayed him to greedy ruffians. My lads will respect you, +but you may encounter bandits who have no inkling that you are under my +protection. Don't attempt to carry too much, of your coin about your +waist." + +I thanked him and tramped off. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE POINT OF VIEW + + +That evening, after our dinner, a perfect dinner eaten under a grape- +arbor, lingering over the fruit and honey in the mingled light of waning +dusk and a clear crescent moon, I showed Septima my belt and bags, put in +the belt what silver would fill it to a flaccid and comfortable flatness, +and gave her all the gold and the rest of the silver. I had already +explained to her what impended over us, and had emphasized my wish to +remain with her and my anxiety to know that she was provided for, if we +were to be separated. + +I did not visit the post of the road-constabulary as often as the camp of +the outlaws. Next day I rode over to their post and chatted with one of +the sergeants and several of the men. They were in doubt between, two +opinions: most held that their presence in the district had frightened the +bandits away and that they had left the neighborhood and transferred their +attention to a wholly different region; only a few maintained the view +that the brigands had been lurking near from before their arrival and that +all their efforts had failed to locate their hiding place. I heard nothing +which led me to believe that they had any inkling of the location of the +outlaws' camp, of their purposes, or of their intended coup. + +After a day of happy idling on my crag I visited Bulla. He was gay. + +"It promises well," he volunteered. "The procurator and his gold are well +on this side of Ariminum and the propraetor and widow left Rome yesterday. +They'll he here within two days of each other, if he holds the rate he has +kept all the way from Bononia and they travel as such luxurious folks +generally do. Come over as often as you like. No one will suspect you or +follow you. I'll keep you posted as to what our advices promise us. You +may be able to help us." + +By this time I was so interested in Bulla and his plans that I oscillated +between my crag, the outlaws' camp and the constabulary post, with no more +other occupations than what I judged absolutely needful to forestall any +unwelcome interest in my doings and the possibility of too many persons +knowing of my visits to the outlaws. + +When next I visited them Bulla told me that something had alarmed the +procurator. Either some rumor of their presence along the road had reached +him or he knew of the bad reputation of the stretch of the Flaminian +Highway through the Umbrian mountains between Forum Sempronii and Nuceria, +which it had acquired some years before when the King of the Highwaymen +himself had made on it a succession of valuable captures which had yielded +him princely booty and the reports of which had spread all over Italy. +Anyhow their advices informed them that he had packed his bullion-chests +with stones and old-iron and had parcelled out his packets of dust and +nuggets among the wagons of a long train of arena-beasts. + +"We'll fool him!" Bulla boasted. "We'll nab him and hold him for a big +ransom. Also we'll not only make sure of his bullion chests in case our +information is false, or based on an intentional rumor he has given out as +a blind; but we'll get that bullion, too, if it is not in the chests, but +hidden in the wagons in the guise of dusty packets of provender for the +draft-cattle or of meat for the caged beasts. We'll get it!" + +Prom his mention of the wagons we fell into talk of the increasing +difficulty of getting fresh meat for the lions and other beasts, of the +depletion of the flocks and herds along the roads from Aquileia, to Rome; +and he told me that his advices reported that the whole country near the +highways was already swept clean of all goats, sheep and cattle, except +breeding stock, milch stock and their choicest young kept for breeding. +The inhabitants could get no beef, mutton or goats' flesh for themselves; +all had gone into the maws of hyenas, tigers, wolves and the rest; and the +procurators were insisting on the farmers selling their kids, lambs, +calves, ewes and cows-in-milk, any stock, even mules and horses; any +animals fit to butcher for lion-food. + +From this we came round to chatting of my talks with the teamsters and of +my prospect from my crag. I had told Bulla of the crag long before, but he +did not seem to have taken in the idea. Now he was delighted. + +"If I'd paid attention to you soon enough," he said, "I'd have put in a +day or two with you watching the show. It's too late now. Our prayed for +chances are coming soon, and not far apart." + +Next day he was gleeful. + +"It's all going to work out like the end of a theater-play," he said. "The +procurator and the propraetor and his charge are practically certain to +come along tomorrow afternoon. I calculate that they will meet not far +south of your crag. I've planned to post one ambush near the foot of your +crag, just south of it, another at a judicious interval down the road +nearer Rome. I'll have 'em between the two ambushes about the middle of +the afternoon or between that and sunset. We'll nab all three ransom +prizes at once and we'll lay our hands on the jewels, coin and gold almost +at the same instant. I've arranged to lead the constables off on a false +scent about noon and they'll be miles away up a lonely crossroad when we +pull off our coup. We'll make our getaway, with the swag, hours before +they can get wind of the occurrence and follow on our trail. We'll have a +long start of them. + +"You can watch the whole thing from your crag. This ideal weather is going +to last many days yet. And the moon will be full two nights from now, so +its light will help us two nights on our getaway. I envy you up on that +crag watching the show, comfortable as a senator at a theater, aloft like +Jupiter on Olympus in the Iliad." + +Next day I made sure that the _Villicus_ would not want me, had Septima +put up for me an abundant supply of her inviting food and set off about +the middle of the morning for my crag, on foot, of course. I climbed to +the very top and ensconced myself under and among sheltering bushes so +that I was certain that I could not be seen from the road in either +direction, yet could view it both ways as far as the horizon, except just +at the foot of the crag and where, in the distance, hilltops hid the +hollows behind them. Close by me I placed my precious kidskin of much +watered wine, I might say of water flavored with wine, so that it would +keep cool in the thickest shade. The day was hot, clear and still and the +rays of the sun fierce. The occasional slight breezes were very welcome. + +The outlook was really magnificent; a broad prospect of rolling pasturage, +hilly pasturage, and wooded mountains; the grass-lands and grassy +hillsides diversified by scattered trees, clumps of trees and small +groves; the lower levels of woodland broken by grassy glades; the brighter +green of the forests of chestnut, beech, and oak merging imperceptibly +into the darker green of the pine-forests; the score of farms in sight +brilliant in the green landscapes like semi-jewels; all the wide prospect +glowing under a deep blue sky, varied by a very few very white clouds, the +intense sunlight beating down on everything. It was a perfect summer day. + +I conned the road, on which I saw only the rear of a column of wagons +convoying arena-beasts receding over the hilltops to southwards, and the +normal traffic, horsemen or two-horse carriages or wagons far apart and +few. I dozed. + +I must have slept a full hour. I waked hot, but much refreshed, feeling +lively and full of interest in what was to come. Just after I waked I saw +the constabulary, the officers and about a third of the men on horseback, +the rest afoot, come up the road from the direction of their post, which +was south of the crag. The infantrymen, tramped their fastest and the +mounted men kept pace with them. They were evidently off on their wild- +goose chase. As they came into sight below me, after passing my perch, I +watched them double-quick northwards and wheel to their right into the +first crossroad. They were barely out of sight among the forested hills +when I saw momentarily, on the Highway, fully four miles to northward, on +a sunlit hilltop, what I took to be the first wagon of a train of teams +drawing cages of arena-beasts. I watched the road in that direction. What +I saw confirmed my conjecture. Soon the road to northward was filled from +its farthest visible hilltop to just below my crag with wagon-teams such +as I had many times watched transporting cages of lions, tigers, leopards, +panthers and the like. I made out also some cages which I was certain +contained hyenas. + +Every little while I glanced the other way. Just as the first wagons of +the long train vanished from my sight into that section of the road +immediately below me where my crag hid it from my view, I saw appear on a +hilltop to southwards what I made sure was the travelling carriage of a +wealthy noble. I conjectured that it had inside of it the ransomable +propraetor. I kept my eyes on the road in that direction, only glancing +northward from time to time. One such glance caught a glimpse of a +travelling carriage among the beast-wagons; probably the procurator in +charge of the bullion. + +After I had caught glimpses of it on several successive hilltops the +propraetor's carriage was near enough, on one of them, for me to recognize +it. Of course, I had known from childhood the travelling carriages of our +senate and nobility. As everybody knows, each, has a certain unmistakable +individuality. Our makers of travelling carriages never make two precisely +alike, and, what is more, the tastes of different families are so +different that patterns are very unlike. I recognized the carriage for +that of Faltonius Bambilio. + +Why he was going out as propraetor of Asia so long after his term as +praetor was a puzzle to me. I accepted it as one of the countless +eccentricities of Imperial administration under Commodus. The +irregularities of the management of the provinces ruled in the name of +Caesar by prefects and procurators had notoriously extended to the +provinces ruled by proconsuls and propraetors in the name of the senate. I +had always disliked, despised and even hated Bambilio for his pomposity, +self-esteem and bad manners. I rejoiced at the opportunity to look on at +his capture. + +It was by this time past the middle of the afternoon, the day still +surpassingly fair and lovely, with few clouds in the sky, a steady light +breeze, the mellow afternoon sunlight bathing the world and the sun +already visibly declining towards the western horizon. + +While I was grinning at my thoughts and watching the advance of Bambilio's +carriage, glancing back at intervals at the beast-train and the +procurator's coach, I caught sight, on the highway behind Bambilio's +carriage, of another travelling carriage of which I had descried no +glimpse before, though I must have missed seeing it as it topped several +hills further south. When I caught sight of it, it was near enough for me +to recognize it at first view. + +Vedia's travelling coach! + +Between the first and second beat of my thumping heart, I went through an +amazing variety of complex, shifting and lucid thinking. And my thinking, +multifold and effective as it was, was but as a chip on the surface of a +freshet in a mountain gorge amid the torrent of emotions which inundated +me. + +Since I had begun to mend as the result of the succour and medication of +old Chryseros Philargyrus I had resolutely refrained from, thinking of +Vedia. I had argued with myself that it was impossible for me to forget or +ignore the daily and hourly contrasts between my former status as a +wealthy nobleman and my present condition as a fugitive always in danger +and generally in acute discomfort. Amid the inevitable resultant +depression I might keep alive, healthy and sane if I concentrated my +thoughts on self-congratulation at my survival. If I dwelt on my downfall +I should lose my wits. If, in addition to thoughts of my loss of rank, +wealth, friends and ease I yielded to my inclination to brood over my loss +of Vedia, I should infallibly go insane. I resolutely put thoughts of her +away. I succeeded in keeping them away. During my winter at the hut in the +mountains, during my succeeding adventures, I had not thought of Vedia; +thoughts of her had crossed my mind but seldom and fleetingly. + +Now, all at once, I was overwhelmed by the realization of how ardently, +how unalterably I loved her, how keenly I longed for her, how tenderly I +felt towards her. Nothing, past, present or future, mattered to me except +Vedia and her welfare. I had been thinking with relished amusement of the +dismay of some pampered beauty haled from, her luxurious coach and off +through the wild mountains, immured in some lonely cave in the forests, +guarded by coarse ruffians, reduced to the most primitive diet and +bedding, forced to endure all sorts of discomforts, and threatened with +death or worse if an enormous ransom were not forthcoming promptly. I had +been chuckling at the prospect of getting a far-off glimpse of the first +act of this comedy. + +My revulsion of feeling was dazing. I was hot and cold with horror at the +thought of Vedia's agony, terror and misery and of her danger among +Bulla's swarthy, brutal ruffians with their black curly hair and beards +intensifying the villainy of their lowering faces, with their mighty hands +always close to their daggers. Vedia I must save! + +How? + +Almost as I recognized her carriage, my eyes, instinctively sweeping my +entire outlook, caught sight of Selinus feeding among a small herd of +young mares on a hillside midway of the extensive pasture on the other +side of the road just to north of my crag. I knew there was, a little to +the north of the crag, on the same side of the road, a knoll from which +that bit of hillside was plainly visible at no great distance. I had my +plan worked out in all its details. + +I drank all I could hold of my watered wine, left my cloak by the kidskin, +tucked a small packet of food into my belt-wallet, and raced down, the +steep slope of the mountainside to the north of the crag, leaping from +rock to rock under the huge forest trees. I reached the gentler slopes +near the highway and gained the top of the knoll. Selinus was in plain +view, grazing among his brides, and by good luck, all were headed towards +me. I stood on the summit of the knoll and waved my arms. Selinus caught +sight of me and galloped joyously down the slope of the pasture towards +me. When he was near I ran towards him down the slope of the knoll, being +careful that he should not lose sight of me. My luck held and he and I +approached the highway and each, other where there was a comfortable +interval between the lion's cage on the wagon which had been passing when +I topped the knoll and the leading yoke of the team tugging the wagon next +behind. The wind, also, was towards me, so that Selinus did not smell the +lions till he and I met in the highway and I had mounted him. Like a +hunting dog bounding over a fallen tree Selinus had leapt the tall thorn +hedge which bordered the highway to keep stock off it and in the meadow. + +Once I was on his back we set off northward at full gallop, which almost +at once quickened into a maddened run. He had shied violently as we passed +the first cage and he winded the lion in it, but I stuck on him. Also I +stuck on at each, less violent sideways lurch as we passed cage after +cage: tiger, panther, leopard, hyenas or lion; all smelt equally +terrifying to him, but he only ran faster and his terror went into speed +ahead rather than into leaps aside. + +When we reached the crossroad, up which the constabulary had turned, the +procurator's carriage was still somewhere up the highway; I had not seen +it since I left the top of the crag. The train of beast-wagons seemed +endless. + +Into the crossroad we turned and up it Selinus tore. I chuckled. No road- +police, no matter how young, nimble and long-winded, could maintain a +double-quick any distance on that up-slope. Selinus mounted the hills like +a grayhound after a hare. We were sure to overtake the detachment soon. +They could not have gone far. + +Overtake them we did and the maddened run at which Selinus scaled those +steep hills caught their officer's attention. I had rehearsed what I meant +to say and wasted no words. What I said conveyed the whole situation to +him. + +"We are too few horsemen to overcome them," he said, "but we can scare +them from their booty and maybe from their captives. We'll ride our +fastest and we have time to reach them before they are thinking of flight. +The complete surprise will save the jewels, coin and gold and most likely +the lady and the officials. + +"But you fellows must double-quick after us to support us in case they +recover from their amazement, rally and round on us from some near +vantage-ground. You can retrace your steps in a tenth of the time it took +us to reach here. Race! + +"And you, Felix, give me that racer of yours. Fall in with the men. Here +Caius, give Felix your saddle and bridle. Your mare is giving out. Felix, +saddle and bridle your horse for me. Caius, take my horse." + +In a moment I was afoot among the infantry constables, the officer was in +the saddle on Selinus, the reins in his hands, and the horsemen were off +at a tearing gallop, with us footmen after them at a run which carried us +almost by leaps down the steep slope. + +When we reached the highway neither the mounted police nor any outlaws +were anywhere in sight. But it was plain that more time than I had +realized had elapsed since I vaulted on Selinus. Not only was the sun near +the horizon, but the bandits had evidently been further up the road than +this. For an instant I marvelled that they had come this far at all when +both their ambushes were south of the crag. Then I realized that they had +been searching the wagons for the bullion. Every wagon was stalled, half +were overset, the tongue-yoke of each was hamstrung, every cage was empty, +not a lion, tiger or leopard, panther or hyena to be seen; all, +apparently, let out that their cages might be ransacked. I conjectured +that letting them out had taken less time than it would have taken to kill +them. + +Panting, sweating, nearing exhaustion, we hastened along the highway at a +jolting run not much faster than the quick walk of untired men, but our +best speed. We passed scores of stalled wagons, every cage empty, two +hamstrung oxen or mules or even horses lying in agony before each wagon, +the rest of the cattle either loosed and gone or held fast by the stalled +wagons behind them. We saw not one teamster, not one beast. The long +series of stalled wagons, with their hamstrung or stalled cattle and empty +cages extended to the foot of the crag and beyond it. Beyond it we came on +the procurator's carriage, empty; no horse to it or by it. Still we had +seen no human being. + +A half-mile further, midway of a flat stretch of road, on one side of +which was an expanse of swampy ground, varied with pools bordered by +sedge, reeds and bushes, with areas of tussocks and with clumps of willows +and alders, we came on Bambilio's and Vedia's carriages, their gilded +decorative carvings, coral-red panel-bars, pearl-shell panel-panes, gilded +rosette-bosses, silver-plated hubs and gilded spokes and fellies +glittering in the late sunshine. + +His coach was without any sign of a horse near it, hers with all four +hamstrung; their white leather harness, with its gold and silver bosses, +horridly stained with the blood they had spattered all over them as they +lay struggling and trying to kick. Both carriages were empty, their +cushions and mattresses and other contents scattered about on the roadway. + +The sun was near setting. Our sergeants, blown as their men and as I, +paused and mopped their faces. We scanned the outlook. Far away well up +the mountain side we caught sight of a group of burly men, and among them +a slender figure clad in a garb of pale lavender hue with the sheen of +silk. Below and close a similar group among which were two figures +conspicuous for crimson cloaks or the like. Far below and much nearer us +we glimpsed the pursuing horsemen. + +Off we set, and our fresh excitement seemed to put fresh vigor into all of +us. We ran a full mile straight across pastures and wooded hills towards +the point where I had glimpsed Vedia. + +The sun set. + +The constables ran on, panting, but by no means failing. + +I gave out. + +The hopelessness of such pursuit took all the heart out of me. + +I stopped. + +I could not hope to keep up with the excited police. I could not believe +that they would give any effective support to their mounted comrades or +even that they could overtake the outlaws after sunset in such broken and +wooded country, or that any or all of them could rescue any of the +prisoners I shuddered to think of Vedia in the clutches of such ruthless +villains. But I could accomplish nothing towards helping her. I turned to +slink homewards. + +Half way to the spot where we had left the highway I encountered a lion. +He did not attack me or menace me and I was not afraid of him. But the +sight of him brought to my attention that the light was waning and that I +was, for a man afoot, a considerable distance from my cottage in broken +country full of escaped beasts of prey. I had never understood my power +over all animals, but I had always conceived that it depended on the way I +looked to them when they gazed at me. I was totally unafraid of the most +ferocious beast by daylight, but by no means comfortable in twilight or +dusk, while after dark I had no reason to think that a lion, or tiger +would prove more tractable to me than to any other man. I felt that I must +hasten home, if I was ever to reach it alive. With what breath I had left +I ran the rest of the easy downhill path to the highway. + +When I reached it twilight had not yet deepened into dusk and I could see +fairly well. The four hamstrung horses were struggling pitifully to rise +and screaming at intervals. With my sheathknife I put them out of their +misery; as also the four pack-mules which lay, similarly hamstrung, in the +roadway, behind the carriage. + +In spite of my dread of carnivora after dark I examined the coach and what +lay about it on the road. There were two kidskins, bulging roundly, +presumably with wine. Three covered food hampers, unopened; and, intact, a +beautiful little inlaid chest, such as ladies have for their combs, +brushes, ointment-pots and similar toilet articles. From their condition I +conjectured that the bandits had just commenced to rummage the coach when +the unexpected approach of the mounted constables, whose small numbers +they most likely did not realize, had scared them away. + +Reluctant to be off and fearing to remain, I glanced about, irresolute. In +a clump of willows and alders in the midst of the swampy tract I caught +sight of a bit of color out of keeping with anything which naturally +belonged there and suggesting a woman's garment. There was a dryshod way +to that clump of trees and bushes. I threaded it towards what I had +glimpsed. When I was hardly more than half way from the road to the clump +I thought I heard a sob. I made haste. + +Hearing the place I saw a young and slender and graceful woman dressed as +a slave girl. Somehow the sight of her brought to my mind's-eye vivid +recollections of my convalescent outings in Nemestronia's water-garden. +She looked terrified and yet hesitating to flee from me, as if she feared +the swamp. A step nearer I realized that Vedia's maid, a woman not unlike +her in build, as faithful to her as Agathemer was to me and amazingly +astute, had had the shrewdness and also the time to fool the brigands by +exchanging clothes with her mistress in the carriage. + +"Vedia!" I exclaimed. "Caia!" + +"Castor!" she screamed. "You know me? You call me Caia? Are you a ghost? +Are you alive? And that voice! Oh, are you real?" + +"Real and alive," I answered. "I am myself. I am Hedulio." + +To my amazement there, in the dusk under the willows, among the alders, +she gave a half-smothered shriek and the next instant her arms were round +my neck and mine round her, and she was sobbing on my shoulder, repeating: + +"Call me Caia again. This is too good to be true." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +MOONLIGHT + + +When our transports had abated a little I was aware that the twilight was +deepening into dusk and that I must somehow save Vedia from the roaming +wild beasts. I guided her along the twisting track from her hiding-place +to the road. As we gained it I heard a loud snarl of a lion or tiger or +panther far off towards the crag. We must make haste. + +I reflected that it would be a very strong and enterprising beast, even if +a lion, which would break into Vedia's coach when its panels were slid and +fastened. + +"We are too far from any habitation," I said, "for us to reach any while +the light holds. I dare not make the attempt with you among all these +freed wild beasts. I should be afraid to try it alone in this deepening +dusk. The best thing we can do is to get inside your carriage, slide the +panels and trust to them to keep out any inquisitive leopard or lion. With +the carcasses of four well-fed horses and as many mules laid ready to eat, +no tiger ought to be hungry enough to be eager after us." + +"I had thought that, too," she agreed. + +I peered through the open door into the coach, which was roomy. Then I +replaced in it its mattresses and cushions, Vedia showing me how they +fitted and, going round to the other door and opening it, helping me to +lay smooth the unmanageable feather-stuffed upper-cushions. She also +showed me the receptacles for her toilet-box, the food hampers and the +kidskins. While we were thus busied the almost full moon rose clear and +bright over a distant mountain. I helped Vedia into the coach and she +disposed herself at full length on its cushions, sinking into the +feathers. I walked round the coach and slid all the panels except the +front panel through which the moonlight entered, then I climbed inside, +shut and fastened the door, shut the panels, fastened each and stretched +out by Vedia, like her with plenty of cushions and pillows under my head +and shoulders. + +As I fastened the last panels we heard the hunting-squall of a leopard at +no great distance. Vedia clung to me, shuddering. + +"You have saved me, Caius," she said. "As you did on the terrace at +Nemestronia's." + +Naturally, for a while, we exchanged kisses and caresses without any +intermingled words. + +When, she spoke she said: + +"How do you come to be alive?" + +"That," I said, "is thanks to Agathemer and is a long tale. I am faint +with hunger and thirst, you yourself should be in need of nourishment and +might be the better for it. There should be food in those hampers and wine +in the kidskins." + +"There is," she said, "and plenty. I am as hungry and thirsty as you, now +I am no longer terrified and am recovering from my panic. But I am +intensely eager to hear your story. Do begin at the beginning just as soon +as you can, and tell it while we eat." + +Then she showed me how to dispose the hampers as they were designed to be +arranged while the occupants of the coach ate. They were very generously +filled with the most luxurious fare: hard-boiled eggs, ham, cold roast +pork, sliced thin; breast of roast goose, breast of roast duck, young +guinea-fowls, broiled whole and cut up, broiled chickens, broiled squabs; +half a. dozen kinds of bread, a quarter loaf and different sorts of rolls; +lettuce and radishes; bottles of oil, vinegar, garum sauce, and other +sauces; salt smoked fish; figs, both big green figs and small purple figs; +a jar of strained honey, several kinds of cakes, and plenty of salt, +pepper, other relishes, and a lavish provision of knives and of silver, +plates, spoons, cups and other utensils. + +"Why all this profusion?" I queried. "You have enough here for a party of +ten." + +"I always have a variety like this," she explained. "I generally have very +little appetite on a journey so I tell Lydia to put in all the things she +can get which she knows I like. Then something is likely to tempt me." + +We feasted by moonlight, while I told my story from the moment when I had +received her warning letter. + +"I knew that you mounted the horse in front of Plosurnia's Tavern," she +said, "but I have never heard of you after that. Tanno and I did all we +could to find out what had become of you; all we could without risking the +secret service getting an inkling that we had a hope that you were not +dead. + +"In fact it was not only advertised from the Palace in due course, but +circumstantially reported to us privately, that the secret service had +learned that you had arranged for a fishing-vessel to take you to sea from +Sipontum. They had then set three detachments of Praetorians to intercept +you, one on each road, with watchers to warn them if you were recognized. +You were seen or betrayed somewhere between Hadria and Auximum, one +account said at Ortona, and the Praetorians killed you. + +"Tanno said that the secret service always gave out such an account if +they failed to locate and capture any man they should have arrested. But +the confirmation of the story by three different private agencies plainly +destroyed his hopes that you might still be alive. I tried to keep on +hoping, but, after a whole year, I stopped lying awake and sobbing in the +dark; while I felt more grief for you than I ever felt for Satronius +Patavinus and more truly widowed than when he died, I ceased to grieve and +regained my interest in gaieties and suitors. Don't you think that was +natural?" + +"Very natural," I admitted and went on with my story. + +The moon rose higher and its rays no longer struck on our faces, but, +striking through the open panel, diffused from what part of the cushion or +sides of the coach they fell on directly, lit up the whole interior with a +pearly glimmer. By this subdued light Vedia looked bewitchingly charming +and coquettish, all the more because of the contrast between her elaborate +coiffure and the simple costume her maid had worn. + +I ate liberally and with relish and she appeared to enjoy her food as I +did. + +"You don't seem a bit worried," I remarked, "over the loss of your +jewels." + +"Loss!" she exclaimed. "I haven't lost them, they are all in the secret +compartment under us inside the coach body, just where Lydia put them +before we left Rome. The bandits had barely begun to ransack the coach +when we heard the yells of the constabulary and then the hoof-beats of +their horses. They and their horses made so much noise that the brigands +thought they had to do with a hundred or more and fled, dragging off +Bambilio and Lydia and leaving me and the hampers, even the wine-skins. +They never were near laying hands on those jewels. They had Bambilio's +coin-chests, to be sure; but not my jewelry nor so much as a nugget of the +bullion they had expected. They were preparing to torture the procurator +to make him reveal the hiding place of his bullion, when the yelling and +galloping horsemen scared them away." + +I congratulated her and we ate with even more relish. Both of us, however, +were sparing of the wine, though I gloated at the savor of the first +really good wine I had tasted for more than two years. + +And garum sauce! I had not realized how I had craved such luxuries as +garum. + +I told my story to an accompaniment of Vedia's exclamations. She was +amazed at all of it; at our crawl through the drain, at the loyalty of old +Chryseros, at my involvement with Maternus, at my encounter with +Pescennius Niger, at my involvement with the mutineers; but most of all, +at my having been present in the great circus, an eyewitness of the most +spectacular day of racing Commodus ever exhibited under his transparent +pseudonym of Palus and his last day of public jockeying; and, equally, at +Agathemer's device by which we survived the massacre. + +We had finished our leisurely meal and I had finished my story, neither +our appetites nor the flow of my narrative marred by the distant squalls +of leopards and roars of lions, nor by the uncanny sounds made by the +hyenas, when, all of a sudden, a lion uttered a powerful and prolonged +roar within a dozen yards of us. Vedia shrieked and clung to me, clutching +me so I had to remonstrate with her in order to be able to slide shut and +fasten the open front panel. I had barely fastened it when another roar as +loud, sudden, and long answered the first from the other side of us, +somewhere in the swamp tract. This time Vedia did not shriek, she only +clung closer to me. I held her as close as she held me and, so clinging to +each other, in the pale glimmer of the moonlight striking on the shell +panes in the panels, we listened to repetitions of the roars, each time +nearer, till the two beasts were roaring at each other not much more than +its length from the carriage, apparently facing each other across the dead +pole-horses. I expected a fight, but they ceased roaring, and, by the +sounds they made, fell to gorging themselves on horse-meat. + +When we had become used to their proximity, since, after a lapse of time +which seemed like half an hour or more, they kept on crunching and rending +without any roarings and without coming nearer the carriage, Vedia, her +arms still about me, told me the story of her doings since my downfall. +Most of it was taken up with social gaieties and with rejections of +tolerated suitors. + +Then she, shyly, told me of her liking for Orensius Pacullus, of Aquileia, +and her promise to marry him. She explained at length why she had been +called imperatively to Aquileia, why he felt bound to remain there and how +it was that she had agreed to travel to Aquileia to be married there, +instead of his returning to Rome, which would have been the most +conventional arrangement. + +While she was telling me this we heard not only the noise of the feeding +of the two lions which were eating the dead horses, but heard also a third +animal as noisily tearing at one of the dead mules behind the coach. + +"I cannot believe," she said, "that I ever consented to marry anybody +else, even when I was certain you were dead. But you know, Caius, it is +natural to be married; and to live alone, as maid or widow, is not only +lonesome and unnatural, but unfashionable and absurd. + +"But, now that I know you are alive, I shall not care who thinks me +ridiculous or who calls me silly; I shall feel lonely, but lonely merely +because I cannot live with you. I shall jilt poor dear Pacullus, who is as +good a man and as good a fellow as ever lived, and I shall stick to my +widowhood until I die or Commodus joins the company of the gods and we can +arrange for your full rehabilitation and the restoration of your estates +and rank." + +Just as she said this we distinctly heard clawing and snuffing against the +panels behind our heads, opposite where the lions were feasting. Vedia did +not shriek, she was too scared to make any sound: she merely clutched me +closer. + +Both lions roared in front of the coach; a tiger's rasping yarr answered +from behind it and almost instantly there were noises alongside the coach +indicating that a lion and tiger were at grips; growls, snarls, more +growls and more snarls, each choked off in the middle as it were, half +swallowed and left unfinished. For some reason the noise of the fight +immediately started a chorus of hyenas, emitting their strange cries, much +like human laughter, but the laughter of maniacs. Our situation and +environment was to the last degree uncanny. + +The fight lasted no long time. We could not conjecture which combatant was +victorious, but they dashed off, one pursuing the other. The remaining +lion roared twice; long, choking, snarling torrents of thunderous noise; +then it also went away. Except for distant snarls, squalls and roars, we +were in a silent moonlit world, almost peaceful. I ventured to unfasten +the other front panel and slide it a little way open. The rays of the high +moon, poured in on our feet, we looked out on a magical prospect. + +Vedia put a relishing warm arm round my neck. + +"Call me Caia again," she whispered. "Where you are Caius I am Caia!" +[Footnote: From the Roman marriage-ritual.] The implication thrilled me. +It was as if we were married, had been man and wife for long past. + +It may have been midnight, was near midnight when she said: + +"I don't want to go to sleep at all. We can do without one night's sleep. +We can sleep tomorrow night, when we are not together. Let's try to keep +awake every minute till daylight." + +In fact it was not easy to sleep, for a pack of hyenas, apparently as +friendly with each other as if they had hunted together since they were +weaned, came and picked the bones of the horses and mules, even ate the +bones, which cracked loudly between their powerful jaws. The noise of +their gluttony would have kept awake a pair sleepier than we. + +But, when the moon was almost half way down the sky, when the roars and +squalls and snarls of lions and leopards and tigers and the horrid +laughter of hyenas had ceased to sound, when the night silence was so +complete that we could hear the cocks crowing near distant farmsteads and +the faint breezes rustling in the willows, we did sleep, she first, her +arms round me and her head on my shoulder. + +When we woke, with the slanted moon rays on the back corner of the coach +behind me, she cuddled to me luxuriously, patted me and presently +whispered, in a bantering, roguish tone which I detected even in her +softest whisper: + +"You remember that old sweetheart of yours?" + +"I don't remember any sweetheart except you," I retorted. "I never had any +sweetheart except you." + +"I mean," she said, "that minx who made eyes at you and all your country +neighbors and certainly tried to marry you and most of your Sabine +friends." + +"You mean Marcia?" said I. + +"Ah," she said, playfully and teasingly, "I thought you would remember her +name. If you remember her name you must remember her." + +"Of course I remember Marcia," I said. "How could I forget her after the +way she led my uncle by the nose, had half the countryside mad for her, +set us all by the ears, rebuffed Ducconius Furfur, and married Marcus +Martius? + +"If I had never known her before I'd be bound to recall the creature who +embroiled me with you. My! You were in a wax!" + +"I certainly was," she whispered, "and I thought I had reason to be +indignant. But now I believe your version of her relations with you and +feel no qualms at recollecting the slanders I then credited. But, the +point is, you remember her." + +"My dear," I said, "if I had never set eyes on Marcia except when I +encountered her in the Baths of Titus the day you rescued me from drowning +when I fainted in the swimming pool, I'd remember her for life. She is too +beautiful to forget." + +"Am I so hideous?" she demanded. + +"You are the loveliest woman alive," I vowed. "But Marcia is amazingly +spectacular and the pictures she makes impress themselves on one's memory +and eyesight. I could never forget her in that brilliant tableau on the +camp-platform facing the mutineers, even if I had never seen her before." + +"I was coming to that," Vedia said. "Marcia, who was a foundling and a +slave as the adopted child of a slave, has risen so high that she is truly +Empress in all but the official title. She has all the honors Faustina or +Crispina ever had, except that she keeps out of those religious rites, +participation in which is confined to women married with the full old-time +ceremonies and observances." + +I then told her what Agathemer and I had heard about Marcia while +domiciled with Colgius, and of the absence from all talk about her of any +mention of or allusion to Marcus Martius; I asked if she knew what had +become of him or, indeed, anything about him. + + "Oh, yes," she said, "all Roman society knew the main facts and dear old +Tanno supplied me with many of the intimate details. Commodus made a point +of having Martius specially presented to him because he had heard that he +had been, with you and Tanno, one of the foremost fighters in your affrays +in Vediamnum and near Villa Satronia. At his private audience he +congratulated and bepraised Martius and acclaimed his prowess. Martius, +who seems to have been a very fine fellow, disclaimed any pretensions to +such laudations and modestly stated that he had, at the beginning of each +fight, been far in the rear in your travelling-coach, with Marcia; that +she had clung to him and so delayed his getting out; that each time he had +gotten out and picked up the staff of a disabled combatant, but that, in +each combat, he had arrived barely in time to land a few blows on some of +the routed enemy; that in neither affray had he done any real fighting or +been in any danger or performed any exploits. + +"Commodus, in his blunt way, had asked whether he was good for anything, +anyhow. Martius had replied that he was considered more than a mediocre +horse-master. + +"Commodus had then invited him to demonstrate his prowess in the Stadium +of the Palace. There Martius had shown such skill, courage, agility, +judgment, grace and ease that Commodus was delighted. He had Martius ride +a number of wild, fierce and unmanageable horses and was more and more +charmed with him. + +"Next day he had another batch of intractable mounts for him. As Martius +was manoeuvring one which he had almost subdued Commodus stepped too near +the plunging brute and, in saving the Emperor from being run down and +trampled, Martius was somehow thrown and his neck broken. + +"Commodus was very penitent, felt that he had caused Martius' death, had +him given a funeral of Imperial magnificence and, as soon as her grief had +quieted enough, paid Marcia a ceremonial visit of condolence, as if she +had been the widow of a full general killed in battle on the frontier. + +"One sight of Marcia was enough. Within a very short space of time her +wiles had ensnared him and Crispina raged in vain." + +Then she told me all the story of the intrigues by which Marcia poisoned +the Emperor's mind against the Empress, until Crispina fell under all +sorts of suspicion in the eyes of Commodus: of how at the same time Marcia +subtly laid snares for Crispina and enticed her into injudicious behavior +with several gallants, until finally the Emperor put her under +surveillance, later relegated her to Capri, then to some more distant +island, and finally had her brought back to Rome, publicly tried, +convicted and executed. + +I told her my conjectures as to the queer outcome of the arrest of +Ducconius Furfur and as to who Palus really was and who occupied the +throne while Palus exhibited himself as wrestler, boxer, charioteer and +what not. + +"I know nothing to confirm your surmises," she said, "but we about the +Court have often been puzzled at the way Commodus appeared to be in two +places at once. You set me thinking." + +After the second cockcrow, since dawn was not now far away, we fell to +talking of the future. + +"I shan't marry anybody, ever, except you, dear!" she promised, without my +asking it and again and again: "I'll remain a widow until I die unless we +outlive Commodus, and Tanno and I succeed in having you rehabilitated. I +have many consolations in my wealth and social position and friends." + +"And suitors," I put in, mimicking her tone when she bantered me about +Marcia. + +"And suitors!" she replied. "Caius, I love you, and I'll never marry +anyone else, but I do love attention. I love to keep a dozen good catches +dangling about me; their wooings and their gifts and their behavior +generally are no end of good fun. And it's good fun to have half the +marriageable belles furious with me. I cannot help encouraging any man, or +even lad, who moons about after me. But you have never had any reason to +be jealous, you have none now, you never will have." + +I expressed my faith in her the best I could. + +"You are a dear, dear boy," she said, "and it is good of you not to be +jealous, even when you have so little reason to be jealous. I have much +more. Suppose I raged about Nebris or Septima?" + +I tried to change the subject and succeeded, when I suggested that we must +plan what we were to do at dawn and in the future. After a full discussion +and the airing of her ideas and mine, we agreed that there was little or +no likelihood of the road-constables returning or of anyone else +approaching her carriage before full daylight. As soon as there was +sufficient light for it to be safe, I would open the panels enough for us +to keep watch up and down the highway and in the direction the constables +had taken. When we saw them returning I was to wait till they were near +enough to assure her safety and then, at the last moment, I was to slip +out on the other side of the coach. That was next the swamp and I could be +out of sight among the willows and alders when less than two score yards +from the road; also I knew the path across the swamp and could cross it +and go off home through the meadows and pastures beyond it. This was our +plan. + +She said she would, whenever the road-constables returned, behave as if +she had been alone in the coach all night. She had no doubt that the +police would give her every assistance in their power. + +"Of course," she said, "my intendant galloped off somewhere, somehow and +the coachman and outrider and mule-drivers ran away; you couldn't expect +any or all of them to make a stand against all those armed brigands. If +the constables return, as they will, all my men will come back. Osdarus +will manage to get me horses from the nearest change-station or somewhere +else, somehow. Once at an inn I can get fresh horses. I can buy a team at +Nuceria." + +"Can you pay for a team?" I interrupted. "Have you the cash?" + +"My gold and silver," she laughed, "are in the other secret compartment. +The outlaws did not get my coin any more than my jewelry. Why look! +Lydia's earrings are in my ears now and her necklace round my neck and her +bracelets on my wrists and her rings on my fingers. The rascals were so +sure of not being interfered with and so much at ease that they were +startled frantic by the galloping horsemen and scuttled off with +Bambilio's coin-chest, dragging him and poor Lydia and totally forgetting +me, thinking me the maid, not even noticing these little trinkets, which +are mostly silver and some of gold and so worth stealing. + +"I have the cash to pay for two teams or three: I brought plenty for the +journey to Aquileia, because we could learn little of the state of the +roads beyond Bononia and I thought I might have to travel by Placentia or +even by Milan. I'll get back to Rome, as fast as I can. I don't want to be +married now, so I don't want to go on to Bononia, let alone all the way to +Aquileia. If I did want to go on, the bandits have run off with my maid, +and I could hardly get along without her, and they have also removed my +escort, and I certainly could not keep on without a proper escort. I have +every excuse for turning about at once and making haste to get out of this +dangerous neighborhood and getting back home. + +"Poor Lydia! I hate to think of her at the mercy of those brutal ruffians. +They may maltreat her horribly if they discover that they have the maid +instead of the mistress, and by the maid's device. I'll tell everybody I +see that I'll pay any ransom in reason, even beyond reason, for poor +Lydia, if the brigands will restore her to me safe and sound. I fancy +their friends hereabouts, and almost every inhabitant of the district is a +friend of theirs, by your account, will speedily have conveyed to them the +news that their capture is worth almost as much ransom as they hoped to +extort for me. That news ought to protect Lydia while she is among the +outlaws and ought to help me to get her back without much delay. + +"As soon as I am in Rome I'll send a trusty agent up here to set on foot +negotiations with the outlaws and to rescue Lydia by paying what they ask +for her. + +"And, the moment I reach Rome I'll set in motion all the forces I can +control or enlist, and I can influence many men in high places, I'll have +all I can influence working quietly and most unobtrusively for that +official manumission, of yours. Once you are free you had best travel +secretly and without haste to Bruttium. No folk are more secretive or more +loyal than the herders and foresters of Bruttium. Not only your former +slaves on your uncle's estate there, but all their neighbors will do as +much to keep secret your presence among them, and shield you and to make +you comfortable and happy as the Umbrians hereabouts have been doing to +help and protect Bulla and his band and to shield them from the +constabulary and authorities. In Bruttium you can lurk in safety as long +as Commodus lives and it will even be safe for us two to exchange letters. +In Bruttium it can be arranged that no secret-service agent or Imperial +spy can ever get wind of your existence, let alone of your hiding-place. +You can be free, in a way, housed comfortably, with no duties, able to +pass your time as you please, and well cared for. Tanno and I will see +that you are supplied with cash for the journey and for your needs after +you reach your haven." + +The cocks crowed vociferously at all the neighboring farmsteads and we +could hear them plainly across the considerable distances from us to each. +The moon hung low and the pale first light of day began to overcome the +moonlight. + +Vedia petted me and I petted her and she repeated her vows of unalterable +fidelity to her pledge to marry no one else and to hope to marry me. + +As dawn brightened the hyenas burst into a belated chorus and a lion +roared far away. After that the beasts made no sounds which came to our +ears. + +Vedia insisted on my eating more of her delicacies and, I confess, I ate +liberally and with relish. A night with almost no sleep and much +excitement causes an unnatural hunger at dawn and the delicious rarities +tempted me. + +She explained, over and over, that I was to behave precisely as if we had +not encountered each other and be sure not to mistake some secret-service +agent for her emissary. The watchword was to be, in memory of that used at +my escape from Rome, that whoever came from her or Tanno to me would ask: + +"Can you direct me to the leopard-tamer who rode the horse with the blue +saddle-cloth?" + +I was to reply: + +"The blue saddle-cloth was bordered with silver." + +He was then to respond: + +"I have silver for the leopard-tamer." + +I was then to say: + +"I am the leopard-tamer and I have a pouch for your silver." + +After we had rehearsed the passwords till both were sure neither could +forget or misplace a word, as the day was coming on, we kept a keen +lookout through the partly opened panels. Before sunrise I saw the mounted +constables approaching down the mountain trail, for there were several +points on it where horsemen could be seen through the trees, even from +where we were. + +I unfastened the coach door next the swamp, we kissed each other again and +again, and, as the horsemen came in sight away across the meadows where +they emerged from the woods, we exchanged a last farewell kiss and I +slipped out and across the swamp. + + + + +BOOK IV + +DISSIMULATIONS + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +FELIX + + +From the marsh my path homewards led me past the villa, for it was +directly between my cottage and the swamp. The very first human being I +encountered was the _Villicus_ himself. + +"Hullo, Felix," he said. "I've been looking for you. We need you. Septima +says she hasn't seen you since early yesterday. Where have you been all +night?" + +"Up a tree," I replied. "Bulla told me day before yesterday that he and +his lads planned a spectacular capture and robbery on the highway south of +Diana's Crag for yesterday afternoon. Most of the days lately on which you +haven't wanted me I have spent on top of the crag, watching the traffic on +the road. I went up there about the third hour yesterday morning, to view +the show Bulla had promised me. I expected to enjoy it, but, somehow, when +I saw the victims' coaches come in sight, the idea of a Roman lady in the +clutches of Bulla's gang went against my gorge. I ran down alongside the +crag towards where Selinus was grazing in the roadside pasture. He came to +me and I galloped up the highway and up the first crossroad to warn the +constabulary, who had gone up that road about noon, on some false +information given them by someone at Bulla's suggestion. Their officer +took my horse and I had to run with the infantrymen. My breath gave out +and my legs too and I dropped behind when they left the highway south of +the crag and struck off across country after the bandits, who had been +scared off by the cavalrymen. It took me a long time to get my breath and +rest my legs. When I felt able to walk it was after sunset. I can gentle +any beast by daylight, but after dusk I'm no better off than any other man +facing a lion or tiger. The brigands had opened scores of cages and the +freed beasts began to roar and snarl soon after sunset. I climbed a maple +and spent the night in a fork about six yards from the ground, where I +felt safe as long as I could keep awake. I dreaded to fall if I dozed, and +I was frightfully drowsy after such a hot day and such a long run. When +the sun rose I started home." + +"Come along, prudent youth," he said, "we need you. The sub-procurator in +charge of the beast-train which the brigands interfered with is at the +villa: so are half his beast-tenders and teamsters. The animal-keepers vow +they dare not attempt to recapture their charges and the procurator is +angry and worried and anxious about his responsibility and what will be +expected of him by his superiors. He does not want to lose one single lion +or tiger or even hyena; wants them recaged at once. So do I. I've lost +more stock than I like to think of. The hyenas and panthers and leopards +have slaughtered a host of my sheep and goats, and the lions and tigers +have banqueted on some of my most promising colts and on many of my +cattle. + +"Can you duplicate your feat with the panther loose on the highway?" + +"I can repeat it as often as I can get anywhere near any of those beasts +by daylight," I said. "Let us start at once. There is no hurry, for the +beasts will do little damage in daytime, as most of them will hide till +dark. But there seems to be a large number loose; I doubt if I can catch +all of them before dusk." + +"It'll take you two days, Felix, or three," the _Villicus_ laughed. "The +procurator states that his train had in its cages twenty-five panthers, as +many leopards, fifty tigers, a hundred lions and two hundred hyenas. +That's four hundred beasts for you to catch as fast as they can be located +by their keepers, assisted by my whole force of horse-wranglers, herdsmen, +shepherds, and the rest and all the farmers hereabouts, and all their +slaves. We'll have plenty of help. Three farmers are at the villa now +raving over the loss of sheep or cattle; every farmer will turn out with +his men to help us; anyhow, every bumpkin and yokel will want to enjoy the +fun and they'll all flock to the scene." + +I do not know how many days I spent catching the escaped beasts for the +procurator. I enjoyed the first day, did not mind the second and was not +painfully weary on the third; but the rest passed in a daze of exhaustion; +though I had good horses, a fresh horse whenever I asked for it, wine and +good wine as often as I was thirsty, plenty of good food and every +consideration; and although the various farms at which I spent the nights +(for we did not once return to the villa) did all they could for my +comfort, the repetition, for hundreds of times, of dismounting, +approaching a lion or tiger in his daylight lair among reeds or tall grass +or bushes, catching him by the mane or the scruff of his neck, leading him +to his cage and caging him, was extremely, even unbelievably exhausting. + +Whenever any of our searchers located a beast in hiding the teamsters +drove their wagons with his cage as near as might be; in no case did I +lead a cowed captive half a mile; seldom two furlongs. But I walked a +great distance in the course of each of these days, rode many miles in the +course of all the riding I did between recaptures, and was never calmed +between my recurrent periods of tense excitement. I felt limp. + +My condition was not improved by the occurrence and recurrence of +perturbing excitement from a more disquieting cause. Early on my third day +of animal-catching, just as I stepped back from bolting the door of a cage +on a lion, I felt rather than saw out of the tail of my eye someone rush +towards me from behind, trip when a few yards from me and fall flat. I +whirled to look and beheld a mere lad, one of my fellow-slaves at the +villa, a stable cleaner, scrambling to his feet. When he was half up the +man nearest him, another of my fellow-slaves, an assistant colt-wrangler, +apparently the man who had tripped him, dealt him a smashing blow on the +ear with his clenched fist and felled him again. As he went down I saw +that he had a long-bladed, keen-edged, gleaming dagger in his right hand. +It flew from his grasp as he plowed up the ground with his face. The colt- +wrangler picked it up. + +We were on a crossroad, some distance from the highway, in the woods. The +wagon and cage were surrounded by almost a score of the slaves of the +estate, with nearly as many more helpers; farm-slaves, farmers, teamsters, +beast-warders, yokels and stragglers; the _Villicus_ was near. + +"Napsus," he said to the colt-wrangler, "kill him with his own dagger!" + +Instantly Napsus stabbed the fallen lad between the shoulders. The thrust +went home neatly, under the left shoulder-blade, deep and inclined a +little upward. It must have reached his heart, for he died after one +violent convulsion which threw him into the air, and turned him completely +over, his corpse slapping the ground like a flopping fish on a stream- +bank. + +"Hand me that rope!" the _Villicus_ ordered a teamster. + +He knotted a hangman's noose at one end of the rope, tried it to make sure +it worked properly and ordered the estate slaves to hang the body to a +convenient limb of a near by tree. They did. + +I stood, gazing questioningly, first at the swinging corpse, then at the +_Villicus_. + +"Felix," said he, "I perceive that you do not understand. Tiro meant to +kill you, and would most likely have succeeded had not Napsus first +tripped him and then killed him. Napsus shall be handsomely rewarded in +every fashion within my power. Tiro has been dealt with as he deserved, as +any similar fool deserves. I propose to protect you to the extent of my +abilities and authority, which includes peremptory execution of any estate +slave whom I so much as suspect; I don't have to wait for any overt act, +nor for any threat, uttered or whispered or hinted. You can rely on all +the protection I can give you and I fancy it will suffice. If there is any +other fool about let him take notice." + +He spoke loudly, so as to be audible to everyone of the gathering. + +I stared numb, puzzled, almost dazed. + +"But," I blurted out, "why did he try to kill me? Why should anyone want +to kill me?" + +"You don't know Umbria, lad," spoke the _Villicus_, indulgently. "Many +eyes in addition to those of the teamsters and beast-wardens beheld you on +Selinus, galloping your fastest northwards along the highroad. Many saw +you turn Selinus up the crossroad the _viarii_ had taken. Many saw their +officer on Selinus when the cavalrymen charged down the highroad and +scattered the bandits. Many saw you afoot among the infantrymen when they +turned from the crossroad into the highway and as they double-quicked down +it. Every partisan of the outlaws blames you for their discomfiture, and +regards you as a detestable traitor, many a one is looking for such a +chance at you as Tiro thought he saw. I'll give you a body-guard of men I +can trust, for the rest of this beast-catching job. But keep a bright +lookout, yourself. You may need all your own strength and quickness to +save yourself." + +The strain of this surprise and anxiety was a hundredfold as trying as the +most daunting beast-catching. I felt it. + +I felt it more after a second similar attempt that very afternoon. I had +threaded a dense patch of undergrowth, approached a lurking leopard, +caught her and led her out of the thicket, led her almost to her waiting +cage. By this time our helpers were so used to seeing me cage lions, +panthers, leopards and tigers that they no longer, as at first, hovered at +a distance, gaping at me as I, completely alone with my catch, led it +towards its cage, set ready by its wagon, from which the team had been +loosed and removed: no longer drew off some yards beyond the cage and +wagon and stood ready for instant flight if my capture escaped me; they +now merely drew aside as I approached and opened a lane for me and my +charge, no more afraid than if I had been leading a calf. + +As I drew near the cage, my mind intent on the leopard and my eyes on the +open cage door and its fastenings, a slave of one of the neighboring +farmers dashed at me, sheath-knife uplifted. He came from my left side, +from a little behind me. I whirled round to face him, pulling the leopard +round roughly, so that she snarled. I let her go. She was face to face +with my reckless assailant and they were close together. She gave one +joyful, gloating, triumphant squall and one mighty leap. Her claws sank +into his shoulders, her long white fangs met, horridly crunching, in his +throat, and she bore him to the earth where she crouched flat on him, +greedily gulping his blood. + +The bystanders fairly fell over backwards in their panic as they +scattered. I stood by the leopard, and when she had exhausted the supply +of hot blood, succeeded in caging her; but dropped limp on the earth once +I had fastened her in her cage, for a beast of prey which had just tasted +human blood was a ward with which I had felt very uncertain of being able +to cope. + +After that no one attempted to molest me while out catching the escaped +beasts. But the night before my last day of beast-catching, as I lay abed +very fast asleep at a villa fully ten miles from the Imperial villa where +I belonged, I became gradually aware of some noises, then slowly I +wakened. There was a fight going on at my door. Soon after I got out of +bed our host and my master, the _Villicus_, came with a light and three or +four slaves. The light revealed One of my fellow-slaves flat on his back +and another throttling him. A dagger lay on the floor. Evidently the one +had saved me from the other. + +Late next afternoon, far up in the hills near Helvillum, I caught and +caged the last hyena. These, being smaller and more cowardly than the +nobler animals, were harder to locate. It was after sunset when we reached +the villa where we found the procurator in charge of the beast-train; and +along with, him and his men were welcomed and entertained. + +After our bath and a lavish dinner the _Villicus_ exchanged a few +whispered words with our host and then he and I had a long conference +alone. He explained that my life was in danger, not only from local +friends of Bulla and partisans of the King of the Highwaymen who all not +merely regarded me with detestation and hatred as a traitor but suspected +me of being a government spy, but also from the King of the Highwaymen +himself, who was certain to be informed by Bulla of how they had been +discomfited and who had a long arm and countless capable and intrepid +agents. He was of the opinion that the three attempts at assassination +which I had escaped were a mere beginning. He was emphatic that I could +not remain on the Imperial estate and survive many days. He advised me +strongly not to return to the villa. + +Then he told me that the procurator of the beast-train had sent to Rome by +an Imperial courier, whom he had managed to intercept at a change-station, +a letter setting forth my powers over fierce animals and asking that an +order be sent for my transfer from the horse-breeding estate to the Beast +Barracks attached to the Colosseum, where the animals are housed from +their arrival in Rome, until their display in the arena; that this letter +had come into the hands of the same officials who already had under +consideration the requisition for me made by the procurator in charge of +the Beast Barracks; that somehow these same officials appeared to know +nothing of my identity with the slave who had foiled the conspirators who +were fomenting a mutiny in the _ergastulum_ at Nuceria, and for whose +manumission a request had been made by the aldermen of that town, and +indeed appeared to know nothing of any such request for manumission; that +a requisition for my transfer from the horse-breeding estate to the Beast- +Barracks at Rome had been made out, approved by the higher officials, +sealed, stamped and sent out by an Imperial courier and received that very +afternoon by the procurator of the beast-train, who consequently had +authority to take me to Rome with him as one of the attendants on the +animals of his train, which was now again in order, I having recaged all +the four hundred escaped beasts, except five hyenas, one panther and one +lion which had been killed by stock-owners and their slaves while +attacking stock. + +The _Villicus_ went on to say that this fell out very advantageously for +me, in his opinion. He advised me not only to go with the procurator +without demur, but to arrange with him that I drop the name of Felix and +adopt some other. He pointed out that, if it was known that Felix the +Horse-wrangler of Umbria had gone to Rome as Felix the Beast-Tamer, then +the King of the Highwaymen would be able without difficulty to trace me +and set on me his ruthless agents until one of them assassinated me. + +I felt that he was right. The danger to my former self as Andivius +Hedulio, implicated in a conspiracy against Caesar, appeared now far off +and unimportant, in spite of the fact that the secret service might still +be keen to catch me and the hue and cry out after me from the Alps to +Rhegium; the danger to my present self from the enmity of Bulla, of his +ruffians, of their partisans in Umbria, of their Chief, the King of the +Highwaymen, whoever he might be, appeared close and menacing. A change of +name would make it impossible for Tanno and Vedia to carry out her plan +for my manumission by the _fiscus_, my clandestine journey to Bruttium and +my comfortable and unsuspected seclusion there until some other prince +succeeded our present Emperor. I had grasped eagerly at the thought of +this plan and had built much on it. But I realized that Bulla's admirers +or the agents of the King of the Highwaymen would make an end of me long +before Vedia's influence could obtain my manumission; and that, if she did +accomplish all she expected, I could never hope to escape the vigilance of +the tenacious and expert pursuers who would inevitably dog my footsteps. + +I thought the advice of the _Villicus_ good. I regretted that I was not to +say farewell to Septima; she deserved a most fervent expression of my +esteem, gratitude, regard and good wishes; but, after my encounter with +Vedia, Septima seemed of very little importance. I had my amulet-bag on +its thong about my neck and my coin-belt about my waist. I agreed to go +with the procurator and thanked the _Villicus_ for his solicitude for me, +for his good offices and for his advice. + +He said that it would be best that he should not know what name I meant to +adopt. Also he said that, if I was to escape the vengeance of the King of +the Highwaymen, it would be imperative that I be thought dead; he would +give out that I had been killed by one of my fellow-slaves and everybody +would assume that I had perished at the hands of some partisan of the +outlaws; Bulla and the King of the Highwaymen would feel their animosity +satiated. + +I reflected that whereas news of my supposed assassination would fill +Vedia with grief and would probably, after her grief abated, leave her +feeling free to marry, yet, if a false report of my death was not spread +abroad, a genuine report of my actual death soon would be. It was a choice +between a lesser and a greater evil. I acquiesced. + +I then ventured to ask him if he knew anything as to how far the brigands +had succeeded in spite of my intervention and how far they had failed +because of it. He told me that they had effected their escape with the +propraetor's coin-chests, the propraetor, and the procurator and had +carried off the widow's maid by mistake for the widow, on account of her +clever device of changing clothes with her mistress. + +Also that Vedia had announced that she would pay a large ransom for her +maid. + +I then felt safe to ask what had become of Vedia, her name being known +from her advertisement. He said she had procured horses and mules and had +returned to Rome, sending up agents from Nuceria to negotiate with the +bandits, rescue Lydia and pay her ransom. + +The next day, at dawn, I set off with the beast-train, riding by the +procurator. He and I and the _Villicus_ had had a talk. After the +_Villicus_ left my name was Festus. + +I asked the procurator what had become of the bullion on account of which +the brigands had routed out the cages. He laughed and asked whether I had +noted anything peculiar in the handling of the cages while I was returning +their contents to them. I said I had noticed that the rollers lashed to +the wagons were never used, but fresh-cut rollers each time a cage was +taken off a wagon or put back on. + +He laughed again. + +"You can conjecture then," he said, "why the outlaws got no grain of the +dust, let alone any nugget: six hundred rollers, even with very moderate +holes bored into half of them, would hold more bullion than the procurator +was convoying." + +I laughed also. + +"I suppose," I said, "it could not be told which rollers were bored out +and might crush if used." + +"Just so!" said he. + +We journeyed to Rome with as much hurry as could be made by such a beast- +train, which was very slowly for men on good horses. We made excursions up +crossroads, idled at inns, were entertained at villas and I decidedly +enjoyed the beginning of my life as Festus the Beast-Tamer. We were +fourteen full days on the road. + +I had time to meditate on the fifth fulfillment of the prophecy of the +Aemilian Sibyl. Also I had time to offer two white hens to Mercury at +Nuceria, at Spolitum, at Interamnia, at Narnia and at Ocriculum. + +Towards sunset just before our last night's halt out of the city, from a +hilltop on the highway, I had a glorious view of Rome bathed in mellow +evening sunlight, much as I had viewed it when I came down the same +highroad with the mutineers from Britain. As always this unsurpassable +sight filled me with intense emotions. + +We entered Rome, of course, by the Flaminian Gate and at dawn. Before +sunrise I was in the great mass of buildings variously known as the +Choragium, the Therotheca, the Animal Mansions and the Beast-Barracks. +These were mostly of many stories, the ground-level used for the beasts, +the second floor for their keepers and attendants, the cage-cleaners, the +overseers, and the rest of the army of men who cared for the animals, and +the upper floors utilized as store-rooms for all sorts of weapons, armor, +costumes, implements and apparatus used in and for the spectacles; swords, +spears, arrows, shields, helmets, breast-plates, corselets, kilts, +greaves, boots, cloaks, tunics, poles, rope, pulleys, winches, jack- +screws, derricks, wagons, carts, and the like. + +The jumble of buildings was without any sort of general plan. Apparently a +courtyard and the structures about it had been found necessary for housing +the beasts and their attendants and had been bought by the management of +the Colosseum. When it was overtaxed, as the number of animals exhibited +increased, an adjacent property had been acquired and annexed. So the +Choragium had been created and extended till it now covered many acres and +had many courtyards, all arcaded on all sides. Under the arcades were set +as many cages as they could accommodate; when the beasts were too numerous +for their cages to be all under the arcades some were stood out in the +courtyards. + +I was comfortably housed in light, airy, roomy, clean and well-furnished +quarters on one of the biggest courtyards. From dawn after my first +night's sleep there I was busy quelling vicious beasts so their cages +could be cleaned; keeping others quiet while the beast-surgeons dressed +wounds inflicted by their captors or keepers or sores caused by their +confinement; inducing others to swallow the remedies the animal-doctors +thought good for them; leading beasts out of their cages into others; and +so on. + + * * * * * + +Before I had been a full day at my duties the procurator of the Beast- +Barracks complimented me, declared that I was his very ideal of just the +kind of man he had always needed and wanted, averred that I was already +indispensable and vowed that he could not conceive how he or the Choragium +had ever gotten on without me. Within a very few days he came to my +quarters and said: + +"I want you to be contented here. I won't listen to a word hinting at your +leaving. Otherwise I'll do all I can to gratify every wish of yours not +inconsistent with your continuing here and keeping up as you have begun. +Of course, within a few days now, you'll have no such rush of all-day toil +as you have been having. You have been doing in the past few days all the +left-over jobs which should have been attended to since warm weather +began. Once you get clear of legacies from the past you'll find a day's +work can be done in much less than a day and will neither exhaust nor +weary you. Now what can I do to make you as comfortable as possible?" + +He had sat down and had motioned me to be seated also. I ruminated. + +"In the first place," I said, "I do not want to be made to show off in the +arena before audiences. I am willing to tame animals and to keep on taming +animals, but I do not want to be forced to display my powers before the +populace and the nobility, Senate and court. I have the most powerful +antipathy to being compelled to become a performer as part of a public +spectacle." + +"Set your mind at rest," he said. "I give my pledge that, unless my +authority is overridden, you shall not take part in public spectacles +except that you may often have to enter the arena to lead out ferocious +beasts which are not to be killed or which the Emperor, or some of the +courtiers, senators, nobles or populace have taken a fancy to for some +display of courage or craft and have ordered spared. The driving into a +cage or out of a postern of such a beast is generally an irritating +matter, delaying the spectacle and often calling for the use of as many as +a hundred muscular, agile and bold attendants. I perceive that you can do +alone, quickly and easily, what a large gang of eager men has often taken +a long time to accomplish. Often they have to kill a recalcitrant beast. I +feel that I need you for this and I trust that you are willing." + +"Entirely," I answered. + +"Good!" said he, and resumed: + +"Now, what is your next point?" + +"In the second place," I said, "I do not want to be pestered with +visitors; nobles or wealthy idlers who take a fancy to me and think they +are conferring a favor on me by intruding on me and wasting my time with +their inquisitive questions and patronizing remarks. In particular I have +a horror of the kind of women who have a fad for molesting with their +attentions singers, actors, gladiators, beast-fighters, charioteers and so +on; if one of them gets after me and the infection spreads to more I shall +find life here in Rome altogether unendurable. + +"I speak feelingly (I thought it proper to lie like a Greek, if necessary, +in a situation like mine). Where I was before I suffered from the +attentions of enthusiastic admirers and I have had all I want of it and +far more; enough to last half a dozen lifetimes." + +"Festus," said the procurator, "where were you before?" + +"If you had seen my back," I said, "you wouldn't expect me to tell you." + +"I don't expect you to tell me," he laughed, "but I could not help asking; +you are such a wonder that I am tormented with the desire to know all +about you, not merely where you came from and how you got into the +_ergastulum_ at Nuceria. But I shall not press you for any information +about yourself. Keep your own secrets as long as you are willing to work +miracles for me. + +"I don't want to see your back; without seeing it I may say that if anyone +ill-treated you he was an amazing fool. You shall not be flogged here, nor +ill-used in any way. I'll take all the measures in my power to ensure that +no visitors bother you and that you are protected not only from genuine +sporting nobles but still more from the silly loungers who think it adds +to their importance to make the acquaintance of all persons of public +reputation. Especially I'll have you guarded from intrusive fine ladies." + +"What next?" + +"I want plenty of the best fruit," I said boldly. + +"You'll get all you can eat of whatever the markets afford," he said, "and +understand right here that I'll indulge you to any extent in anything +relating to your food or wine, as long as you keep sober. Similarly you +can have anything you ask for in the way of extra clothing or bedding or +furnishings for your quarters. If you don't like the slave detailed to +wait on you I'll have another put in his place and keep on changing till +you get one to suit you. + +"You are to be indulged and pampered in every way in my power, except that +I mean to keep you hard at work, long hours each day, at the cages, +whenever it is necessary." + +I thanked him and agreed to do my best to please him. + +Not many days later, as he had foretold, my work became less continuous +and less burdensome. Soon afterwards I settled into a sort of daily +routine which occupied me, but did not wear me out and which often left me +not a little free time. + +I found that I was entirely free to go and come as I pleased, when not +occupied. I did go to the Temple of Mercury and offer two white hens +bought in the Forum Boarium, as I had done when in the City with Maternus. +Otherwise I kept pretty close for more than a month. I feared to be +recognized as myself by some secret-service agent; I feared almost as much +to be identified as Felix the Horse-Tamer by some henchman of the King of +the Highwaymen. I wanted to try to communicate with Vedia, but the more I +pondered on how to do so the more I saw only betrayal, recognition and +death as the probable results of every plan I devised. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +FESTUS + + +Domiciled in the Choragium and busy there and in the Colosseum I spent +almost a year. Until the approach of winter put a stop to spectacles in +the arena and after the outset of spring permitted their resumption, I was +not only continuously busy, but entirely contented. Of the dreary and +tedious winter between, which was intensely dispiriting and appeared +interminable, the less I say the better. I do not want to remind myself of +it. + +I was of course free from the bodily miseries which had made my winters at +Placentia and Nuceria so terrible: I did not suffer from cold, hunger, +vermin, sleeplessness, overwork, exhaustion, weakness, blows and abuse. I +was, on the contrary, comfortably lodged and clothed, well attended, +lavishly and excellently fed and humored by the procurator. + +But at Placentia and Nuceria I had solaced myself amid the horror of my +situation by reminding myself that I was, at least, alive, and, as long as +I was in an _ergastulum_, entirely safe from any danger of being +recognized and executed. Here, in Rome, often in the arena, under the eyes +of sixty thousand Romans, thousands of whom had known me in my prosperity +and hundreds of whom had known me familiarly from my childhood, I was, +every instant, in peril of recognition and of betrayal to the secret +service. While I was actually in the arena I was so busy or so exhilarated +by my participation in the most magnificent spectacle on earth that I +never worried a moment. I seldom worried while I was occupied with any of +my duties in the Colosseum or Choragium, although I knew I was very liable +to recognition, for the passages and vaults of the Colosseum and the +courtyards of the Choragium were habitually visited by men of sporting +tastes; gentlemen, wealthy idlers, noblemen, senators, courtiers, even the +Emperor himself. I was, in my intellect, conscious of my danger; but, +while I was occupied, it did not perturb my feelings. + +During the idleness of the long winter my peril did rob me of sleep, of +appetite and of peace of mind. I had continually to devise excuses for +remaining in my lodgings, for declining invitations to banquets, for +keeping to myself. I dreaded that the procurator himself was growing +suspicious of me. He had, in the kindness of his heart, thrown in my way +offers of opportunities for outings, for diversions, for entertainments, +which any man in my situation might have been expected to accept with +alacrity. My refusals, I felt, might set him to thinking. He was entirely +loyal to the Emperor and the government. If the idea ever crossed his mind +he would, at once, have reported to the secret service that it would be +well to take a look at Festus the Beast-Tamer; he might be other than he +appeared. The anxiety caused by these thoughts preyed upon my mind. + +Without reason, apparently. The procurator, as I look back on that deadly +winter, seems to have accepted all my peculiarities without question. If I +would remain content and quell obstreperous beasts when spring opened as I +had until autumn ushered in winter, I might do and be anything I pleased. +If I pleased to mope in my quarters, pace under the arcades of the +courtyard, lie abed from early dusk till after sunrise, what mattered that +to him? Such, apparently, was his attitude of mind. He gave orders that I +was to have my meals alone in my quarters, as I requested. He had brought +to me, from the libraries of the Basilica Ulpia, most of the books I asked +for. I had read all the books on catching, caring for, curing, managing, +taming and fighting beasts which formed the library of the Choragium. +After they were exhausted I asked the procurator for more. As he had a +cousin among the assistant curators at the Ulpian Library he was able to +gratify me. After I could learn of no more books on beasts I took to +comedies and read Naevius, all of Menander and Caecilius, and most of the +best plays of other writers of comedies; then. I turned to histories, +which I thought safe, and spent my days for the remainder of the winter +sleeping early, long and late, eating abundant meals of good food, walking +miles round and round the big courtyard under the empty arcades, +exercising in the gymnasium of the Choragium, steaming and parboiling and +half-roasting myself in its small but very well-appointed and well-served +baths, and, otherwise, reading every bit of my daylight. I kept well and I +remained safe, ignored and unnoticed. The procurator kept his word as to +shielding me from visitors, and he said he had much ado to succeed, for +the ease and certitude with which, in the open arena, before all Rome, I +approached a lion or tiger which had just slaughtered a criminal and +lapped his blood, seized the beast by the mane or scruff of the neck, as +if he had been a tame dog, and led him to a postern or into his cage, +roused much interest, much curiosity, many enquiries and not a little +desire to see me closer, question me, talk with me, get acquainted with me +and learn the secret of my power. + +I thanked the procurator for his resolution and success in rebuffing +would-be patrons eager to pamper me. Also, all winter, I dreaded that he +would he less lucky or less adamantine when spring came. + +Thus passed my fourth winter since my disaster. + +I might have been spared much of my anxiety during the winter if I had +learned sooner that such aloofness as mine was no novelty to the +procurator, that he had, among his most valued subordinates, a man even +more unsociable than I, and even more highly esteemed and more sedulously +pampered. This was the celebrated and regretted Spaniard, Mercablis, who, +for more than thirty years, was accorded by the Choragium a home of his. +own, a retinue of servants and the fulfillment of every whim, of which the +chief was his determination to have as little as possible to do with any +human being except his wife and their three children, for he was not a +slave, but a freeman. In his way Mercablis was as celebrated as Felix +Bulla the brigand or Agyllius Septentrio the actor of mimes, and the +memory of his fame yet lingers in the recollections of the aged and in the +talk of their children and grandchildren. For it was Mercablis who, for +half a life-time, invented, rehearsed, and kept secret till the moment of +its display the noon-hour sensational surprise for each day of games in +the Colosseum. + +I have, in my later years, met many persons who congratulated me on my +luck in having personally known and frequently talked with Mercablis, just +as many have similarly envied me my encounters with Felix Bulla. For +myself I have never plumed myself on such features of my adventures, +though they are not unpleasing to recall. + +When, in the spring of the next year, while Fuscianus and Silanus were +consuls, I came to know Mercablis and to consider him, I arrived at the +conclusion that his inclination for solitude and his aloofness were not +the result of any dread of strangers or of any need for seclusion, like +mine, but the product of a disposition naturally churlish, crabbed, and +unsocial. + +Habituated as the procurator had been to Mercablis and his loathing for +strangers, my desire for privacy had seemed to him as a matter of course. + +Resolute as Mercablis was to be let alone, he was enormously vain and +self-conceited and puffed up with his conviction of his own importance. He +never smiled, but some subtle alteration in his countenance betrayed that +any flattery pleased him. + +He was a tall, spare, bony man, with a dry, brown, leathery skin, lean +legs and arms, a stringy neck, almost no chin, a hooked nose, deep set +little greeny-gray eyes and intensely black, harsh, stiff, curly hair and +very bushy eyebrows. He wore old, worn, faded garments and stalked about +as if the fate of the universe depended on him. + +Certainly he never failed to surprise all Rome when the time came for his +novelty to be displayed. Every one which I saw, either earlier when I was +myself or while in the Choragium as Festus the Beast-Wizard or later, +justified the claim of Mercablis to being the most original-minded +sensation-deviser ever known in the Colosseum or elsewhere. + +One of his utterly unpredictable surprises recurs often to my +recollection. + +It was a hot July day and, during the noon pause, the vendors of cooling +drinks did a good business among the spectators of the upper tiers. To the +ring-rope round the opening in the awning, over the middle of the arena, +had been fastened a big, strong, pulley block. One of the lightest and +most agile of the awning-boys hung by his hands from the radial rope +stretched from nearest that pulley, worked out to it, sat on it, rove +through it a light cord which he carried coiled at his waist, and worked +back along the radial rope, leaving the cord trailing from the pulley- +wheel to the sand of the arena. By means of the cord the arena-slaves rove +through the pulley first a light rope, then a very strong one. + +The end of this rope they fastened to an iron ring, from which hung four +stout chains, three of them of equal length, each about thirty feet, whose +lower ends, at points precisely equidistant from each other, were fastened +to a big iron hoop all of twenty-four feet across. From the hoop hung six +lighter chains, like the fourth chain which hung from the ring. As the six +were fastened to the hoop either where one of the upper chains ended or +exactly between two of them each of the six was precisely twelve feet from +those on either side of it and from the center chain hanging from the +ring. The hoop hung perfectly level and each of the seven chains, about +thirty feet below the level of the hoop, had hung to it an iron disk, a +yard or more across, hanging by a ring-bolt in its center and perfectly +level. From a second ring-bolt in the underside of each disk depended more +of the same light, strong chain, to a length of some thirty feet below the +disks. + +I, like all the arena-slaves and Choragium-slaves, like all the +spectators, knew that this apparatus portended some unpredictable +surprise; but I, like the others, like the audience, gaped at it, +incredulous and unable to conjecture what it could be for. + +Then arena-slaves carried in and set down on the sand a full hundred feet +from the hoop and chains, a dozen or more wicker crates full of quacking +white ducks with yellow bills. They and the noise they made recalled +unpleasantly to me my sensations as I clung to the alder bush immersed in +Bran Brook, after Agathemer and I had crawled through the drain at Villa +Andivia. + +Then there was a delay and I was called out to assist the mahout of the +Choragium's best trick elephant, the smallest full-grown elephant I ever +saw and the worst-dispositioned elephant of any age or size which ever I +encountered. When I and the _mahout_ had put him in a good humor he +entered the arena and stationed himself by the crates of quacking ducks. + +Then there marched out into the arena a procession of arena-slaves, four +by four, each four carrying by two poles a strong cage housing a big +African ape. These cages they set down each under one of the chains +depending from the hoop. Then I was called to deal with the baboons. + +Now I fear no beast, but of all beasts I most dislike an African ape. +These creatures, inhabiting the mountains of Mauretania, Gaetulia and the +Province of Africa, are big as a big dog and have teeth as long and cruel +as any big dog. They are violent and treacherous. Whereas any wild bear or +wolf I ever approached would permit me to handle him without snarling or +growling, every baboon I ever had to handle made some sort of threatening +noise inside him. Although none ever bit me or attempted any attack on me +yet the hideousness of such apes and their vile odor always made me timid +in dealing with them. + +Each of these seven had around his middle an iron hoop-belt, with a strong +ring-bolt in the back. It was my task to affix the end of each pendant +chain to the ring-bolt in the belt of one of the baboons. This was easy to +do, as each cage, in addition to a door in one side, had a trap-door in +its top; and each chain had a snap-hook ringed to its last link. More +difficult was managing so that the apes should be hauled up out of their +cages without any two swinging sideways enough to clutch each, other; for, +while baboons in their native haunts hunt in packs, male baboons not of +the same pack always fight venomously and members of the same pack, if +separated for a time, are as hostile to each other as males of different +packs. + +By care and caution, the slaves at the rope obeying my signals promptly, I +at last had all seven apes clear of their cages, and not swinging too +much. Then the cages were removed and the hoop lowered somewhat. Then I +steadied each chain till none had any side-ways swing. Each ape finally +hung on a level with every other ape, and about two yards above the sand +of the arena. + +I say finally, for it was at once manifest why the disks were hung to the +chains; each baboon swarmed up his chain; each got no higher than the +disk, for it was too broad for his arm to reach the chain above it, so +that each failed to climb past it, and, after some chattering, and +hesitation, each climbed down his chain again and hung by his belt, every +one mewing and chattering at his neighbors, frantic with hostility and +eager for a fight. + +When all seven were quiet the herald proclaimed that wagers might now be +laid on the apes, the survivor of the seven to be the winner. Each had a +different color painted on his iron ring: blue, green, red, yellow and so +on. The spectators appeared to make bets. + +Then when the arena was clear between the elephant and the baboons and +beyond them, the mahout spoke to his charge, the elephant inserted his +trunk through the opened lid of a crate of ducks, grasped a duck by the +neck, lifted it out, swung it, and hurled it at the hanging apes. It +hurtled through the air, napping its wings in vain, and passed between the +baboons, they grabbing for it as it shot by, it falling far beyond them on +the sand. + +A roar of appreciative yells rose from the spectators. + +The elephant threw another duck and another. The third came within reach +of one ape. He seized it and bit it savagely, tearing it to pieces with +vicious glee. Its impact set him swinging. + +Duck after duck was hurled till another baboon caught and rent another. +This went on till two of the swinging apes came within grasping distance +of each other. At once they grappled, bit each other and fought till one +was killed. + +It made a queer spectacle; the crates of quacking ducks, the thin-legged, +blackskinned, turbaned _mahout_, the wickedly comprehending little +elephant, the chattering baboons, the ducks hurtling through the air, and +running about the sand all over the arena, for many of them fell and +escaped alive, the yelling spectators of the upper tiers, the mildly +amused parties in the Imperial and senatorial boxes, the blaze of sun over +everything. + +The duck-throwing was continued till only one ape remained alive. + +It was all very exciting and so whimsically odd that it was acclaimed a +most successful surprise. It is yet remembered by those who saw it or +heard of it from them as the most spectacular and peculiar of all the +inventions of the lamented Mercablis. + +Of my experiences while in the Choragium and about the amphitheater the +most notable were my opportunities for observing Commodus as a beast- +fighter, the passion for the sport which possessed him, his absorption in +it, even rage for it, his unflagging interest in it, his untiring pursuit +of it, and his amazing strength and astounding skill in the use of arrows, +spears, swords, and even clubs as weapons for killing beasts. + +Keen as was his enjoyment of his own dexterity and fond as he was of +displaying it to admiring and applauding onlookers, infatuated as he was +with the intoxication of butchery, proficiency and adulation, he retained +sufficient vestiges of decency and self-respect to restrain him from +exhibiting himself as a beast-fighter in public spectacles before all +Rome. Of late years I have heard not a few persons declare and maintain +that they had seen and recognized him in the arena during the mornings of +public festivals; that his outline, attitudes, movements and his manner of +handling a sword, a club, a spear or a bow were unmistakable. I asseverate +that these persons were and are self-deceived, or talking idly or +repeating what they have heard from others or merely lying. Commodus never +so far debased himself as to take his stand in the arena of the Colosseum +on the morning of a public spectacle with all Rome looking on; still less +did he ever disgrace himself by actually killing beasts in full sight of +the whole populace. I speak from full knowledge. I know. + +I may remark here that, taking the other extreme from these detractors or +gossips, there exist persons who maintain that Commodus never drove a +chariot in public, let alone as a competing jockey in a succession of +races in the Circus Maximus on a regular festival day in full view of all +Rome; likewise that he not only never, as a gladiator, killed an adversary +in public combat, but never so much as shed blood in any of his fights; +asserting that he merely practised with lath foils inside the Palace. + +These latter persons are of the class who are horrified that a Prince of +the Republic should have debased himself as did Commodus, who feel that it +is discreditable to Imperial Majesty in general that such shameful +occurrences took place and who are foolish enough to fancy that harm done +may be undone by forgetting what happened, by whispering about it, by +keeping silent, by hushing up as much as possible all reports of it, by +expunging all mention of it from the public records, by garbling histories +and annals so as to make it appear that Commodus merely longed to do and +practiced or played at doing what he actually did. + +These wiseacres are as far from the truth as his libellers and slanderers. + +If anything in addition to my solemn assertion is needful to convince any +reader of this chronicle that I am right, let me remind him that all Rome +knew or knew of Palus the Gladiator, afterwards of Palus the Charioteer, +later yet again of Palus the Gladiator; of Palus, the unsurpassable, the +inimitable, the incomparable: incomparable in his ease, his grace, his +litheness, his agility, his quickness, his amazing capacity for seeing the +one right thing to do, the one thing which no other man could have thought +of, and for doing it without a sign of perturbation, haste or effort, yet +swift as lightning, with the effectiveness of Jove's thunderbolts and with +the joyousness of a happy lad; always the same Palus and always in every +dimension, attitude and movement the picture, the image, the double of +Commodus: whereas no one ever heard or saw Palus the Beast-Fighter. + +I think the chief reason why Commodus could not resist the temptation to +degrade himself to the level of a public character and a public gladiator, +yet, despite his infatuation for beast-killing, shrank from dishonoring +himself by appearing at a public festival as a beast-fighter, was that +beast-fighters are not merely more despised than charioteers or gladiators +but the contempt felt for them has in it quite a different quality from +that felt for gladiators and charioteers. Everybody sees criminals killed +by beasts and there are all sorts of variations in the manner in which +criminals are exposed to death by wild animals. Some are turned naked and +weaponless into the arena to be mangled by lions or bears or other huge +beasts: others are left clad in their tunics; some of these are allowed +the semblance of a weapon; a club, knife, dagger or light javelin; so that +their appearance of having some chance may make their destruction more +diverting to the spectators: others, in order to prolong their agonies, +are furnished with real weapons, as a sword, a pike, a trident, even a +hunting spear with a full-sized triangular head, its edges honed sharp as +razors; others are left completely clad, with or without sham weapons or +actual arms, yet others are protected by armor, corselets, kilts, greaves, +or even hip-boots and helmets, and wear swords and carry shields as well +as pikes or spears: these last differ in appearance in no respect from +professional beast-fighters. + +This produces, in the minds of persons of all classes a sort of confusion +between beast-fighters and criminals and brings it about that there +attaches to those persons of noble-birth or free-birth who, whether from +hope of gain, from poverty, or from infatuation with the sport or from +mere bravado, abase themselves as beast-fighters, an obloquy far intenser +than that which attaches to freemen or nobles who dishonor themselves by +becoming gladiators or charioteers. Such self-abasements have been known +ever since the reign of Nero, began to become more common under Domitian +and have ceased to be regarded as anything unusual; in fact, so many men +of good birth or even of high birth have become gladiators or charioteers, +so many of these have acquired popularity, so many, even if actually few, +have won wealth and fame, that professional charioteering or swordsmanship +has almost ceased to be regarded as a degradation. Not so beast-fighting. +No one can point to a record of any freeman or noble having appeared in +the arena as a beast-fighter and afterwards having regained by any +acquisition whether of reputation or fortune the position in society which +he had forfeited by his dishonor. + +At any rate, Commodus gratified his enthusiasm, for beast-killing in two +entirely different ways. One was by regaling the people with spectacles of +unheard-of, even of incredible magnificence, at which not only the noon- +hour was filled with ingenious and novel feats of trick-riding, tightrope- +walking, jugglery, acrobatics and the like, and one of the surprises +invented by Mercablis and the afternoons ennobled by hosts of gladiators, +paired or fighting by fours, sixes or tens, twenties or in battalions, as +if soldiers in actual battles; but the mornings were exciting with the +slaughter of hordes of animals of all kinds; with fights of ferocious +beasts, and with, the fighting and killing of fierce animals by the most +expert and venturesome beast-fighters. At these spectacles Commodus +participated as a spectator, in the Imperial Pavilion, surrounded by his +officials and the great officers of his household, clad in his princely +robes, seated on his gold-mounted ivory throne. + +His other method of gratifying his infatuation was by himself killing all +sorts of beasts, either from the coping of the arena, or from platforms +constructed out on the arena or from the level of the sand itself, for +which feats he had as spectators the whole Senate and the entire body of +our nobility, summoned by special invitation and most of them by no means +reluctant to enjoy the spectacle of the superlative prowess possessed by +their Prince. + +When any of the Vestals were present at these eccentric exhibitions they +occupied their front-row box and Marcia usually sat with them, generally +accompanied by as many of her intimates among the wives of senators as the +box would accommodate. The Vestals, as the only human beings in Rome who +did not fear Commodus, were often entirely independent in their behavior +and refused his invitations; but they did it politely, alleging that the +regulations of their cult forbade any Vestal absenting herself from the +Temple and Atrium on that particular day. When no Vestal was present +Marcia occupied their box, by their invitation, and filled it with her +noblest and wealthiest favorites among the senatorial matrons, often wives +of ex-consuls. + +On these occasions Commodus wore fulldress boots of a shape precisely as +with his official robes but not of the usual color: they had indeed the +Imperial eagles embroidered on them in gold thread, but, instead of being +of sky-blue dull-finished leather, they were of a shiny, glaze-surfaced +leather as white as milk, their soles gilded along the edges. Gold +embroidery set off his tunic, which was of the purest white silk, +shimmering brilliantly. He always wore many gold rings, set with rubies +and emeralds; also an elaborate necklace matching his rings. His bright, +soft, curly, yellow hair haloed his face as did his almost as bright and +fully as yellow and curly beard. His eyes were very bright blue, his +cheeks very red. He was very handsome. The expression of vacuous +miscomprehension like that on the face of a country bumpkin, which was so +usual with Commodus when dealing with official business or social duties, +never appeared on his countenance when revelling in his favorite sport: +then his expression was intelligent, lively and even charming. + +He was at this time in his twenty-sixth year and in the very prime of his +life. Before his death, instead of the rosiness of health on his face and +the glow of youth on his cheeks, his entire countenance was unbecomingly +flushed and florid, like that of a drunkard. + +His weapons were as exquisitely designed and finished as his costume. When +he used a club it was of the wood of some Egyptian palm or of cornel-wood, +heavily gilded; a heap of such clubs was always in readiness when he +entered the arena. Similarly there was ready for him an arsenal of swords, +of every style, shape and size, from short Oscan swords not much longer +than daggers to Gallic swords with blades a full yard long and thin as +kitchen spits. All were gold-hilted, sheathed in colored, tooled, +embroidered, gilded or even bejewelled leather; many had their blades +gilded except the edges and points. There was piled up ready for his +choice a mountain of spears, of patterns as various as the swords. All had +their shafts whitened with some novel sort of paint which produced a +gleaming effect like the sheen of the white portions of the finer sorts of +decorated Greek vases. This glaze effect was over all of each shaft except +at the grip, where the natural wood always appeared, roughened like the +surface of a file with criss-cross lines to afford him a surer grasp. His +bows were all gilded, his quivers gilded or of gem-studded, brightly +tinted leather, in many colored patterns; his arrows gilded all over, +points, shafts and feathers; or with feathers dyed red, blue, green or +violet. Every detail of his get-up and equipment was to the last degree +perfect, reliable, beautiful, unusual and costly. + +I pondered a great deal over his infatuation and its consequences. + +In the first place, as when contemplating the torrent of beast-wagons +flowing down the Flaminian Highroad, I was, being still inwardly a Roman +noble, overwhelmed with shame that the enormous, but even so insufficient, +revenues of the Republic should be diverted from their proper uses for the +maintenance of our prosperity and the defence of the frontiers of the +Empire and squandered on the silly amusements of a great, hulking, empty- +headed lad. + +Then I was almost equally ashamed that a man who could, on occasion, if +sufficiently roused, be, for a space, as completely Prince and Emperor as +Commodus had repeatedly shown himself in my sight, could, on the other +hand, waste his time and energies on displaying his dexterity in feats of +archery, javelin-throwing, swordsmanship, agility and mere strength. It +appeared to me not only shameful but incredible that a man who was capable +of such complete adequacy in his proper station in life as Commodus had +shown himself to be, for instance, when berating Satronius and Vedius or, +still more, when facing the mutineers and dooming Perennis, should be +willing to leave the management of the Republic and the ruling of the +Empire to an ex-slave and ex-street porter like Cleander, and occupy his +time with spearing bears, shooting with arrows lions, tigers, or elephants +and what not, burying his sword-blade in bulls, even with clubbing +ostriches. + +I oscillated or vacillated between these two lines of thought. The sight +of Commodus dodging the lightning rush of an infuriated ostrich and neatly +despatching him with a single blow on the head from a palm-wood club no +longer and no thicker than his own forearm not only stirred my wonder that +any man could possess such accuracy of eyesight, such power of judging +distances and time, such perfect cooerdination of his faculties of +observation, of his will and of his muscles; but also roused my disgust +that a man capable of ruling the world and with the opportunity to show +his capabilities should degrade himself to wasting time on tricks of +agility and feats of strength and skill. + +On the other hand the sight of Commodus using a full-grown male Indian +elephant as a target for his arrows enraged me. Next to a man an Indian +elephant is the most intelligent creature existing on this earth of ours, +as far as we know. An elephant lives far longer than a man. His life of +useful labor is longer than the total life of a long-lived man. And his +labor can be very useful to mankind. An elephant can travel, day after +day, as fast and far as a horse, he can accomplish easily tasks to which +no team of horses, not even of sixteen horses, is adequate, he can outdo +any gang of men at loading or unloading a ship with massive timbers or +with many other kinds of cargo in heavy and bulky units. It can only be a +shame to kill, for mere sport, so noble a creature. It is bad enough to +exhibit in the arena fights of elephants, which kill each other for our +diversion, when we might utilize their courage and prowess in battle, as +the Indians do. But to use an elephant as a mere target for arrows is far +worse. + +Then again, while I watched Commodus killing an elephant with his arrows I +could not but think of the hundreds of men who had been employed in +tracking his herd, building a stockade, driving into it what elephants +they could, fettering them, taming them, caring for this one after he had +been tamed, tending him on his journey of many thousand miles from India, +across Gadrosia, Carmania, Susiana, Mesopotamia and Syria to Antioch and +from there to Rome; on getting food for him on his journey and at +different cities; on the vast expense of all this; and for what? That a +silly and vainglorious overgrown child should shoot him full of arrows +till he bled to death! + +I raged inwardly. + +I quite agree that Commodus enjoyed killing for killing's sake; it gave +him a sort of sense of triumph to behold any animal succumb to his +weapons. But I think his sense of triumph was also far more for his +repeated self-congratulation on his accuracy of aim for shot or blow, on +the perfection of his really amazing dexterity. + +When he shot at elephants the procedure was always the same; two elephants +were turned into the arena, and Commodus was matched against some archer +of superlative reputation, whose prowess had been repeatedly demonstrated +before the audiences of the Colosseum, a Parthian, Scythian, or +Mauretanian. A prize was offered to him if he won and wagers were laid, +mostly of ten to one or more on Commodus; he, of course, betting on +himself with at least one senator at any odds his taker chose. Then the +contest began, Commodus shooting from the Imperial Pavilion, his +competitor from any part of the _podium_ which he might choose, so that +both archers were on an equality, being placed on the coping of the arena +at spots they had chosen. The prize went to whichever killed his elephant +with the fewest arrows. Commodus always won. Not that his competitors did +not do their best. They did. But he was, in fact, the best archer alive. +His accuracy of aim was uncanny and his strength really terrific. He could +himself string a hundred and sixty pound bow and he shot a bow even +stiffer than that without apparent effort and with fascinating and +indescribable grace. He never missed, not only not the animal, but not +even the vital part aimed at. I was told that, when he first practiced on +an elephant, he killed it with arrows in the liver, of which eleven were +required to finish the beast. He then had it cut open under Galen's +supervision, he watching. He thereafter never failed to reach an +elephant's heart with his third arrow, killed most with his second, and +not a few with his first, a feat never equaled or approached by any other +archer, for the killing of an elephant with five arrows by Tilla the Goth +remains the best record ever made in the Colosseum by any other bowman. +The impact of his arrows was so weighty that I have beheld one go entirely +through the paunch of a full-grown male elephant and protrude a foot on +the other side. + +With rhinoceroses and hippopotami the procedure was similar. Neither of +these animals could be had as plentifully as elephants, of which I saw +Commodus and his competitors kill more than thirty; mostly Mauretanian +elephants, but some Indian and a few Nubian. I saw killed for his +amusements in similar contests in which he participated four rhinoceroses +and six hippopotami. In these matches he killed one rhinoceros with two +arrows and the rest with one; so of the hippopotami. As with the +elephants, after he had seen a rhinoceros and a hippopotamus cut open +under Galen's direction, he retained so vivid an impression of the +location of its heart that, from any direction, whether the beast was +moving or still, he sent his arrow so as to reach the heart. This sounds +incredible, but it is exactly the truth. + +As I watched I kept imagining the baking deserts of Libya or the steaming +swamps of Nubia, the shouting hordes of negroes, the many killed by the +beast, its capture, and the infinite and expensive care necessary to bring +one alive to Rome. + +Besides these enormous animals he practiced archery on the huge long- +horned bulls from the forests of Dacia and Germany; on the bisons from the +same regions, beasts with heavy shoulders, low rumps and small horns, +parallel to each other, curving downwards over the brows; on the big stags +from these far-off forests, or any sort of stags! And on two varieties of +African antelope not much inferior in size to stags or bulls. He very +seldom needed a third arrow to put an end to any beast of these kinds, not +often a second arrow, and, actually, killed hundreds, even thousands, +neatly and infallibly with his first shot. All these animals he shot from +the _podium_, often leaning on the coping, his right knee on it, generally +standing, his feet wide apart, the toes of his right foot against the +coping wall; for, as with sword or spear or club, he also shot left- +handed. + +Prom the arena itself, standing on the sand on which they scampered about, +he shot multitudes of smaller animals: wild ponies, wild asses, striped +African zebras, gazelles, and at least a dozen varieties of small African +antelopes, for which there are no special names in Latin or even in Greek. +The antelopes and gazelles, although they ran quicker than hares, he never +missed and seldom did he fail to kill with one arrow whatever animal he +aimed at. He never, to my knowledge, missed even the incredibly speedy +wild asses. + +Nor did he ever miss an ostrich, though he shot both from the _podium_ and +the sand these birds, which are swifter than even the wild asses. He shot +at them with arrows made specially after a pattern of his own, with +crescent-shaped heads set on the shaft with the two horns of the crescent +pointing forward, the inner curve sharpened to a razor edge. Shooting at +an ostrich racing at top speed he never failed to decapitate it with one +shot, invariably severing its neck about a hands-breadth below its head. + +He also killed with javelins or arrows wolves, hyenas, bears, lynxes, +leopards, panthers, tigers and lions. But when killing such dangerous and +ferocious animals he took his stand on a platform, the floor of which was +about three yards square and elevated about that distance above the sand, +constructed well out in the arena so that he could shoot down in any +direction on beasts rushing towards or past the platform or driven past it +or towards it. He slaughtered incredible multitudes of these creatures and +certainly displayed amazing strength and skill, habitually killing a lion +with one javelin, almost as often with one arrow, and the like for tigers; +and oftener for panthers and leopards. He never needed a second arrow to +finish a wolf or hyena or even a lynx. The marvellous accuracy of his aim, +the way he planted his arrow unerringly in the heart of a galloping wolf +scudding across the sand far from him; the way he drove a broad-bladed +hunting-spear clear through a huge shaggy bear, never failed to rouse my +wonder, even my admiration. [Footnote: See Note J.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +RECOGNITION + + +I do not recall any special feat of the Imperial beast-killer during the +summer and autumn of the year in which I had fooled Bulla and been +transferred from the stud-farm to the Choragium, which was the year in +which Crispinus and Aelian were consuls, the nine hundred and fortieth +year of the City, [Footnote: 187 A.D.] and the eighth of the Principate of +Commodus. But, when the season for spectacles in the arena opened with the +first warm, fair weather of the following spring, he returned to his +favorite sport with redoubled zest, amounting to a craze. + +It was during the spring and early summer of this year that he began to +make huge wagers with wealthy senators, betting that he could kill a +specified number of a specified variety of animal with a specified number +of spears or arrows; always proposing so to limit himself as to number of +weapons that the exploit appeared impossible. The result was that +avaricious Midases were eager to wager, as they felt certain of winning. +Yet he never lost, not once. + +And, after each wager made, or won, he made the next on a narrower margin +at smaller odds, until he struck the whole nobility numb by offering to +wager even money that he could kill one hundred full-grown male bears from +his usual platform with one hundred hunting spears, covenanting that he +was to lose if he needed one hundred and one spear-casts to lay out those +hundred bears limp, flabby and utterly dead. This appeared so utterly an +impossibility that Aufidius Fronto offered to put up two million sesterces +against him. The pompous sham philosopher, who feigned the profoundest +contempt for riches, could not resist what looked like enormous gains. He +made the wager, and Commodus won. + +Now I cannot insist too positively on the amazing, the incredible strength +and skill and nerve required for this fatiguing and taxing feat. Any other +man I ever knew or heard of would have shown evidences of weariness long +before he had despatched his hundredth bear; would certainly have betrayed +the terrific strain on his nerves. Commodus was, apparently, as fresh, as +jaunty, as full of reserve strength, as far from being unsure of himself +when he finished the hundredth bear as when he drove his first spear into +the first. + +Now it requires altogether exceptional strength so to cast even the best +design of hunting-spear, as keen as possible, as to drive it through the +matted pelt, thick hide and big bones of a bear; in so driving it, to aim +it so that it will pierce his heart calls for superhuman skill. And to +reiterate this feat ninety-nine times in succession argues a perfection of +eye, hand and nerve never possessed by any man save Commodus. Any other +man would have felt the strain, most men would have become so anxious +towards the end as to become agitated. He kept calm and cool. + +I thoroughly enjoyed the discomfiture of Aufidius Fronto and relished his +futile efforts to appear indifferent to his money loss. + +Not many days later Commodus made a similar and still more hazardous wager +with Didius Julianus, the most opulent and ostentatious of the senators, +who was afterwards nominally Emperor for two months and five days. This +wager covenanted that Commodus, from his platform in the arena, would +despatch one hundred full-grown male lions, in their prime and vigorous, +with one hundred javelins. On this arduous frivolity they wagered ten +million sesterces and had the actual gold, fifty thousand big, broad, gold +pieces, carried into the arena and piled up in a gleaming mound on a +monster crimson rug for all to behold. This bit of ostentation was like +Didius Julianus and not unnatural for Commodus. I have never seen any man +perform so easily so difficult a feat. Killing a lion with three javelins +requires very unusual strength and skill. To kill ten lions with forty +casts would tax the muscles, dexterity and nerves of the best spearman the +world ever knew. To kill a hundred lions with, barely one javelin apiece +was bravado to propose and miraculous to accomplish. Accomplish it he did +and without any visible effort or strain. Eighty-nine of the hundred he +shot through the heart; the remaining eleven with difficult fancy shots +which he was, against all reason, tempted to essay, and which, against all +probability, uniformly were fully successful. + +Didius Julianus paid his wager without any show of chagrin, as he could +well afford to do. + +At once Commodus offered to bet that he could kill a hundred similar lions +with a bare hundred arrows. Didius at once wagered the same sum he had +just lost and the bet was made. The exhibition was delayed more than a +month until it had been possible to accumulate at Rome a full hundred +full-grown male lions. Then Commodus again shot in sight of a pile of gold +pieces on an expanse of crimson velvet spread on the sand of the arena. + +Commodus won as before, with exactly the same number of heart shots and +fancy shots. If one miracle can be greater than another this feat +surpassed its predecessor. For a lion takes a great deal of killing before +he dies, and each of these hundred lions died as quickly as any lion ever +does. Instant killing of a lion with a javelin is a miracle, even more +miraculous is instant killing of a lion with one arrow. Commodus so killed +the full hundred. + +I know of no more astounding demonstration of his infallible and +tremendous muscle power than the fact that, shooting at a lion fully +twenty yards away, and in the act of rearing rampantly at the beginning of +a bound, he sent his arrow into the roof of its mouth, through the brain, +the entire length of the spinal cord and so far that its point protruded +from the dead beast's rump above the root of its tail. Galen, who, as +often, was in the amphitheater in case of injury to the Prince, and who +was in the habit of dissecting such dead beasts as interested him, cut +along the path followed by the missile, cleaving the dead lion in two +lengthwise and laying the two halves hide downward on the sand, so as to +demonstrate to a bevy of curious and awed spectators the incredible path +of that arrow. + +Commodus lived on miracles. Of all the thousands of darts, javelins and +spears which I saw him throw, of all the countless arrows I saw him shoot, +not one ever missed its mark, not one merely hit the beast aimed at, +everyone, even if launched at an ostrich skimming the sand or a gazelle, +struck deep and true precisely where he had aimed it. + +As I am about to narrate the occurrence which put an end to the insensate +indulgence in beast-killing in which Commodus had revelled, I am reminded +that, besides his vilifiers, who assert that he publicly exhibited himself +as an ordinary beast-fighter, and his apologists, who maintain that he not +only did not do so, but never so much as drove a chariot in public or +spilt human blood with an edged weapon, there are others who, while not +retailing or inventing any fictions or attempting to blink or suppress any +facts, yet inveigh against Commodus as absurdly assuming the attributes of +Hercules while really a weakling and as pretending to powers which he +never possessed, as having been largely or wholly a counterfeit spearman, +a make-believe archer, a sham swordsman and a mock athlete. + +Among other alleged proofs of these baseless contentions they cite the +ecstatic joy with which, to the limit of the supply gathered from all +parts of the African deserts, he day after day, on the sands of the arena, +delightedly clubbed ostriches, alleging that killing an ostrich with a +sword or club is child's play and no feat of skill. As to this particular +citation of vaunted evidence, as in their contentions at large, they are +egregiously mistaken and far from the facts and the truth. + +Actually, for a lone man, on level ground, far from any shelter, an angry +full-grown young male ostrich is a formidable assailant and a dangerous +antagonist. No living creature that roves the surface of our earth moves +faster than a healthy ostrich. When running it skims the arena, when +attacking it darts. It kicks forward, raising its long and powerful leg +high in the air and bringing it down with a blow so swift that the eye +cannot follow it and so forcible that I have seen one such stroke smash +all together the collar-bone, shoulder-blade, upper arm-bone and half the +ribs on that side of its unfortunate victim, a big, agile, vigorous +Nubian, habituated to ostriches in their haunts. And, if the leg misses +its mark, as it very seldom does, the bird, as it hurls past its enemy, +pecks viciously at his face, its sturdy beak being capable of inflicting a +serious wound wherever it strikes, and often destroying an eye, its usual +target. + +To stand alone, far out in the arena, bare-headed, clad only in a +diaphanous silken tunic, armed only with a club no longer or thicker than +his forearm; so habited and armed to await the assault of an infuriated +bird so bulky, so swift, so agile and so powerful; to dodge jauntily, but +infallibly, both the stroke of the leg and the stab of the beak, and +invariably to bring his club down on the darting head and finish the bird +neatly with that one blow; this was equally a feat of self-confidence, of +dexterity, of agility and of strength. I hold no man justified in +condemning Commodus because he gloried in clubbing ostriches. + +The incident I recall occurred when spring had already waned and was +merging into summer. The lower tiers of the Colosseum were well filled +with senators, nobles and other persons of sufficient importance to be +invited. None of the Vestals were present and their box was occupied by +Marcia and her intimates. There were enough spectators seated to give the +amphitheater an appearance of gaiety and vivacity almost as great as if it +had been filled by all classes of the populace. The weather was clear, +warm and sunny, with a light, soft breeze. + +Commodus had exhibited his dexterity as an archer by shooting a great +number and great variety of small antelopes, each one of which he had +killed with a single arrow. Next he began clubbing ostriches and disposed +of a dozen or more. Altogether there were about fifty. It was +characteristic of Commodus that he was impatient of any delay between +different exhibitions when he was thus displaying his prowess. After the +ostriches he intended to mount his platform and shoot fifty or sixty +lions. In order to have them handy to begin on as soon as the last ostrich +was despatched he had commanded that those which were to be let out of +posterns should be disposed behind the doors and that some of the cages of +those which were to be liberated from cages should be hoisted from the +crypt and set ready in the arena. A full dozen of such cages had been set +out. I was not with the gang hoisting these cages and marshalling other +lions behind posterns, but was at the opposite end of the arena with a +smaller gang which was engaged in getting ready a score or more of tigers +which were to be let out after the lions and which were giving a great +deal of trouble. + +Commodus was facing my end of the arena and so had his back to the lions +in their cages, which were about thirty yards from him. The liberated +ostriches did not seem to pay any attention to the caged lions and each, +as he was driven back towards Commodus by men with long hayforks, with +which they caught the birds' necks and held them off, turned furiously on +Commodus and charged him viciously. Each bird Commodus dodged with one +slight instantaneous and effortless movement; each bird fell dead at once, +neatly clubbed on the head. + +As he clubbed the last ostrich I saw a lion step dazedly and tentatively +out of one of the cages. Of course, it was not intended that any of the +lions should be liberated until the Emperor had mounted his platform, +approved the bow selected for him or chosen one for himself, and similarly +inspected and approved as many arrows as he expected to need. It was +hardly possible that any cage-door came open by accident. I conjectured a +plot similar to that which I had seen fail when the piebald horse threw +himself and his fall and the wreck of the chariot he helped to draw failed +to cause the death of Palus the Charioteer. + +The lion, once he was wholly out of his cage, sneaked forward his length +or more, crouched, and bounded towards Commodus. A shout of dismay, horror +and warning went up from the audience. Marcia shrieked and leapt to her +feet. Most of the spectators also stood up, the audience rising in a sort +of wave as it emitted its yell of consternation. + +Commodus whirled round, saw the lion, stood and eyed him precisely as if +he had been a charging ostrich; appeared to measure the diminishing +distance, showed no sign of perturbation, crouched slightly, dodged as the +lion sprang at him; dodged so slightly that I was sure the lion had him, +but so effectively that no claw touched him; straightened up as the lion, +wholly in the air, shot past him; swung his short club and brought it down +on the lion's neck; and stood there, triumphant, by a lion stretched out +motionless on the sand, totally limp and unmistakably dead. + +Marcia fainted. + +So did half her guests. + +So did some of the older senators. + +Commodus, not so much as noticing the perturbation of his guests, not even +Marcia, called out to the overseer in charge of the cages: + +"Not a man of you dare move. Stand where you are." + +The guards, a batch of whom were stationed at each postern by which the +attendants entered and left the arena, ran towards the Emperor. He ordered +them to summon all their fellows from all through the Colosseum and when +their chief officer approached him gave orders that they form a cordon +behind the cages and see to it that no man of those who had been getting +out the cages should escape. + +While this was being done the spectators had reseated themselves, the +inanimate had been revived and even Marcia had recovered consciousness and +composure and, with her guests was as before their fright. + +When all were in order Commodus ordered: + +"Let out another lion!" + +The overseer in charge of the cages and the officer of the guards +demurred. + +"Do as I tell you!" Commodus browbeat the overseer. To the officer he +said: + +"If I, with only a tunic and club, am not afraid of a lion charging me, +you and your men, in armor and with shields and swords ought not to be +afraid." "We are not," the officer declared, "we are concerned for you, +not for ourselves." + +"Pooh!" said Commodus. "If I could kill the first handily when I was not +expecting him, I can kill all the rest the same way when I know what is +coming. A lion, by that sample, is as easy to dodge and club dead as an +ostrich or easier. Send me another." + +Another was let out amid the dead silence of the dazed and astounded +spectators. Commodus killed the second as handily as the first. + +Now I must say that no exploit recorded of any human being or traditional +of any legendary hero, outclasses as a feat of strength, coolness, courage +and perfect coordination of all the mental and physical faculties, this +act of Commodus' in killing two successive lions with a palm-wood club. A +charging lion is an object so terrifying as to chill the blood of a +distant onlooker. Very unusually good nerves and very exceptional self- +confidence are required to face with composure a portent which appears so +irresistible. And when the lion emits his tremendous roar and rises, +bodily, into the air in his mortal spring, mouth wide open, its crimson +cavern glaring, teeth gleaming, eyes blazing, mane erect, paws spread, +claws wide, the stoutest heart might well quail. Yet, after barely +escaping one lion, this foolhardy coxcomb, this vainglorious madcap, +joyously called for another and jauntily despatched him: whatever may be +said against Commodus as a man and an Emperor, as an athlete he believed +in himself and justified his belief. + +He called for a third, in spite of Marcia's shrieks, gesturing to her to +sit down and keep still, and laughing up at her. But by this time Aemilus +Laetus, who was afterwards the last Prefect of the Praetorium to Commodus +and who was then an officer of the Guards, superior to the officer who had +protested, approached, saluted and spoke to the Emperor. Their conference +was conducted in tones too low to be overheard, but it was afterwards +reported, both by those who claimed to learn of it from Commodus and by +those who claimed to have been informed by Laetus, that he had urged upon +the Emperor that his personal importance to the Republic was too great for +him to risk himself so needlessly, and that Commodus had yielded to his +expostulations. + +At any rate Commodus ordered arrested and bound the entire gang who had +been handling the lions' cages. He then walked up to them and enquired who +had let out that lion. When no one confessed to having been responsible +and several were accused by their fellows, the Emperor gave orders to lead +off all concerned, hale them not before the Palace court, nor the +commission in charge of prosecutions for offences against Imperial +Majesty, but before the regular public magistrate in charge of trials for +murder, assassination, poisoning, homicidal conspiracy and the like. + +"Let him put the entire gang to the torture," the Emperor was reported as +ordering. "Let him prosecute his enquiry until he gets a confession +plainly naming the man who bribed the poor wretch who left that cage half- +fastened, or the man who bribed the man who forced him to do it, or the +whole chain of scoundrels, from the noble millionaire conspirators who +hatched the idea, through their rabble of go-betweens down to the fool who +hocussed that door-snap." + +After the prisoners were marched off Commodus had the herald apologize for +the interruption of the entertainment, proclaim that it would now proceed +and request everyone to remain to enjoy it. Then he mounted his platform. + +Yet this was his last exhibition of himself in the role of beast-slayer. I +conjecture that as the episode of the piebald horse enlightened him as to +the facilities for unobtrusive assassination afforded his enemies by his +public appearances as a charioteer, so this episode of the accidentally +liberated lion awakened him to the ease with which it might be arranged, +whenever he entered the arena as a beast-slayer, that some monster might +be loosed at him rather than for him. At any rate he never again took his +stand in the arena for his long idolized sport. Beast-slaying he +thenceforth eschewed. + +Of course it was not by any means at once that we in the Choragium +realized that the Emperor had abandoned his vagary. We knew only that we +were suddenly unemployed and were merely glad of the respite and then +uneasy at the change. I had time to reflect how marvellous had been my +luck. Commodus himself had three several times asked me questions about my +ability to control beasts; Galen had many times stood by me or passed near +me, often with his eyes apparently meeting mine. Satronius Satro had stood +and gazed at me, not three yards away. A score of other senators, all of +whom had known me in the days of my prosperity, had been as near me, and +noblemen to the number of something like a hundred. Not one of these had +identified me. + +If I escaped recognition it was, I conjectured, because of the deep-seated +habit of mind of noblemen and more exalted personages and of men, like +Galen, who have risen to a station in life which places them on an +equality with nobles; the habit of mind which makes them regard a slave +not as a human being, to be looked at as an individual, as they look at an +equal or any freeman, but as a mere object like a door, or gate or piece +of statuary or of furniture or a sort of utensil. Such men look full at a +slave, if unknown to them, without really perceiving him. From this cause, +I conceive, I escaped recognition, detection, and annihilation. + +Much less than a month after the episode of Commodus and the two lions I +was reading in my quarters, when the slave detailed as my personal servant +entered and, cringing, said that there was a gentleman who wanted to see +me. I gazed at him severely and said: + +"I think you are mistaken. Please remember what the procurator told you +about persons desiring to intrude on me." + +The fellow fairly cowered, visibly sweating and trembling, but insisted: + +"I really think that you really will be glad to see this gentleman." + +I perceived that some unusual enticement must have been offered the +pitiful wretch to induce him to brave the terrors of the punishments with +which the procurator had threatened him if he allowed any would-be +visitors to reach me. It also appeared to me that the fellow was fond of +me and had the best of intentions. + +"Show the gentleman up," I finally said. + +He had been gone but a very short time when the door opened and in +came.... + +Tanno! + +He shut the door fast and, without a word, we were clasped in a close +embrace. + +When our emotions quieted sufficiently I pressed Tanno into a chair and +resumed mine. We gazed at each other some time before either mastered +himself enough for words. Tanno spoke first, veiling his feelings beneath +his habitual jocularity. He said: + +"Caius, you are certainly unkillable or bear a charmed life. You have been +officially certified as dead two several times. First you were butchered +by the Praetorians at Ortona, then you were assassinated by a disgruntled +public-slave in the Umbrian Mountains: after two demises here you are, as +alive as possible. Please explain." + +"I feel faint," I said, "and, illogically, both thirsty and hungry." + +I signalled for my servitor and, almost at once, he brought plenty of the +Choragium's more than passable wine, fresh bread and a variety of cold +viands. A draught of wine and a mouthful of bread and ham made me feel +myself. Then I told about my close shaves when I three several times +barely escaped assassination at the hands of partizans of Bulla, about the +kindness of the _Villicus_ and procurator and why I had changed my name. + +"Why didn't you send at least a tiny note to Vedia and let her know you +were alive after all?" he queried. + +"I have lain awake night after night," I replied, "composing letters to +Vedia and to you, letters which would tell you what I wanted if, by good +luck, they came into your hands, but which, if they fell into the hands of +secret-service agents, would tell nothing and not so much as arouse enough +suspicion to cause them to investigate me and take a look at me. I could +not frame, to my satisfaction, even one such letter. I knew that any +messenger I employed would most likely post off to some Imperial spy and +show him my letter before he took it to its destination or instead of +delivering it. I canvassed every possible messenger, from my personal +servitor here in the Choragium, through all the slaves I knew here or in +the Colosseum who are free to run about the city, up to every sort of +street-gamin, idler, loafer, sycophant and what not. I could not think of +any kind of messenger who would be safe, nor of any letter which would not +be dangerous. Much as I wanted to apprise Vedia of my survival I could not +but feel that any attempt on my part to communicate with her or with you +would lead straight to betrayal, detection, recognition and the death from +which Agathemer saved me." + +"I believe you were right," Tanno agreed. "It has all come out for the +best. You are alive and unsuspected and I have found you." + +"How did you find me?" I queried. + +"Galen," he said, to my astonishment, "told me that you were sheltered in +the Choragium, cloaked under the style and title of Festus the Beast- +Tamer. He said he recognized you last fall, but did not judge it wise to +give me or Vedia so much as a hint as long as you were busy in the arena +in full view of all Rome on festival days and under the eyes of our entire +nobility during our Prince's exhibitions of himself as Hercules Delirans. +When Commodus abruptly realized that beast-killing might not suit his +health because of the opportunities it gave for accidentally letting lions +or tigers or what not out of their cages at unexpected moments, since he +was not likely to revert to his renounced sport and you were not likely to +be so much in demand and therefore less likely to be much under +observation, Galen thought it safe to tell me. He says he has always +believed that you had nothing to do with Egnatius Capito's conspiracy, had +merely been seen by some secret-service agent while talking to Capito, +never were a member of his conspiracy, never conspired against Commodus, +never were disloyal, have never been and are not any danger to our Prince, +and therefore are a man to be shielded rather than informed on. So he kept +his face when he recognized you in the arena masquerading as Festus and +kept his counsel till he judged the time ripe to tell me. + +"I at once told Vedia, in person and privately. She is overjoyed, and, +just as her encounter with you on the Flaminian Road not only stopped her +proposed marriage to Orensius Pacullus, but made her feel she never wanted +to hear of him again, so your resurrection and reappearance now has +spoiled an apparently prosperous wooing of her by Flavius Clemens, who is +as good a fellow as lives; noble, rich, handsome, charming and just such a +suitor as Vedia might and should have married if you were really dead, and +one she could not, in any case, help flirting with. She must have +admiration, attention and admirers. With all her love of gaiety she loves +you unalterably." + +"I infer," I said, "that she told you of our encounter on the Flaminian +Way." + +"She did," he answered, "and gave me a full report of your story of your +adventures from Plosurnia's Tavern till she saw you. As soon as we +conferred we both started to use all our influence and any amount of cash +necessary (we both have cash to spare, hoards of it) to arrange for your +legal manumission by the _fiscus_, your disappearance, and your comfort in +some secure shelter until it might be safe for you to reappear as yourself +in your proper station in society. + +"We found we should have no difficulty in arranging for your manumission. +It has already been favorably reported on the recommendation of the +authorities of Nuceria. We had only to slip a small bribe or two to +expedite matters. But when we sent off a dependable agent, armed with all +the necessary papers, to set you free from your captivity on the Imperial +estate, and provide you with plenty of cash to make everything smooth for +your disappearance, he was confronted with a most circumstantial story of +your assassination and burial, with the official reports of both and the +affirmation of an upper inspector who had investigated the matter. + +"We could not but think you dead in fact and Vedia was as heartbroken as +five years ago, if not more so, for the glamour of that romantic encounter +with you was magical. I believed you dead and was astounded when Galen +gave me his information. Vedia is as amazed as I." + +After some mutual desultory chat he fell to questioning me about my +adventures and, drinking and eating when the humor took us, we spent most +of the day together, I rehearsing for him all that I had told Vedia and +much more in detail and also telling of all which had befallen me since +then. + +When Tanno left, it was as late as he could possibly remain and yet reach +the Baths of Titus in time for the briefest bath there. + +Next day he came again. + +By this time both he and I had had time to think over the situation and to +arrive at definite conclusions as to what was best to do. I was delighted +to find that his ideas and mine agreed as to all essentials. + +When he first came in he said: + +"I had mighty little sleep last night. I could hardly close my eyes for +thinking over your marvellous adventures. The more I ponder over them the +more wonderful they seem; especially your involvement with Maternus; your +encounter with Pescennius Niger; your presence in the Circus Maximus when +Commodus:--I mean Palus:--drove his car over the axles of the stalled +chariots and escaped between them out of the smash and wreckage; your +involvement with the mutineers, and your safety in Rome all these months, +even in the arena of the amphitheater. I congratulate you." + +Then he told me his plan which he had already talked over with Vedia and +which she approved. There happened to be in Rome a distinguished and +wealthy provincial of senatorial rank, about to leave for Africa, where +his estates were situated and where he owned vast properties near +Carthage, Hippo Regius, Hadrumetum, Lambaesis and Thysdrus, in all of +which places he had residences of palatial proportions and luxury. He had +been making enquiries among his acquaintances for a slave much of the sort +Agathemer had been to me. He had not found one to suit him. Tanno thought +that I would suit him and could easily pass myself off as the sort of man +he wanted. Then I would get out of Rome unsuspected and be comfortable and +well treated in the most Italian of all our out-provinces, in a delightful +climate, amid abundance of all the good things of life. + +I agreed with him. + +Then he disclosed his plan for bringing this about. By influence or +bribing or both he would arrange to have me sold out of the Choragium, +ostensibly as now superfluous there, and to have me bought from the +_fiscus_ by a dependable and close-mouthed go-between buyer, who would +agree to hold me for quick resale to a purchaser designated by Tanno. Thus +Nonius Libo, the wealthy provincial who was to be induced to purchase me, +would know nothing of my identity with Festus the Animal Tamer or of my +connection with the Choragium. + +I acclaimed this project, as far more promising than Vedia's plan to +seclude me in the dreary wilds of Bruttium. + +Tanno gave me a letter and went off. I found the missive a long and loving +letter from Vedia: one to soothe and transport any lover. + +Tanno had said that he would not visit me again except as was absolutely +needful, considering it reckless and venturesome to run the risk of some +Imperial spy noticing his visits to the Choragium and making +investigations. Though he remarked that no man in Rome seemed less likely +than he to be suspected of disloyalty, intrigue or of being a danger to +the Prince. + +Within a very few days he paid me one more visit to inform me that +everything had gone well, that all necessary arrangements had been made +for my sale by the _fiscus_ out of the Choragium, and all necessary +preparations made to take full advantage of it. + +A few days later I was formally sold for cash to a provincial slave- +dealer, named Olynthides. In a slave-barrack which he had hired for the +month only I found myself with a motley crew, but kept apart from them and +comfortably lodged, well fed and considerately treated, as valuable +merchandise. + +The day after Olynthides had bought me Nonius Libo came to inspect me. He +talked to me in Latin and in Greek, commended my fluency and polish in the +use of both, had me write out a letter in each at his dictation, read both +and commended my accuracy, script and speed; questioned me about the +history of music, painting, and sculpture and as to my opinions on the +works of various sculptors, painters, architects and composers; asked +about my tastes along these lines and as to jewelry, fine furniture, +tapestries, carpets and the like; also as to my personal tastes concerning +lodging, bathing, hunting, food and clothing and was I a good sailor and +fond of the sea; and stated that I suited him. + +I was not present at his chaffering with Olynthides but, after no long +interval I was summoned into the courtyard and Olynthides handed me over +to Nonius Libo, along with a bill of sale. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +PHORBAS + + +Olynthides had said to me: + +"I make it a point always to forget the names of the slaves I buy for cash +without any guarantees and resell the same way. I have as bad a memory for +names as any man alive and I help my bad memory to be as much worse as I +can. I'll forget your name in a few days. I am not sure I remember it now. +What is it?" + +I was ready for him, for I had made up my mind to change my name again and +had selected my new name. + +"Phorbas" I answered. + +"Oh, yes!" he ruminated, "Phorbas, to be sure. I should have said Florus +or Foslius or something like that. Phorbas! I'll remember Phorbas till +after you are sold and the cash in my hands and you and your new master +out of sight. Then I'll forget that too, like all the rest." + +As Phorbas, Phorbas the Art Connoisseur, I began my life with Nonius. He +was domiciled in a palace of a residence on the Carinae, which he had +leased for the short term of his proposed stay in Rome. There I was lodged +in a really magnificent apartment, with a private bath, a luxurious +bedroom, a smaller bedroom for the slave detailed to wait on me, a tiny +_triclinium_ and a jewel of a sitting-room, gorgeous with statuettes and +paintings, crammed with objects of art and walled with a virtuoso's +selection of the best books of the best possible materials and +workmanship. + +There I spent some happy days. Nonius had told me I might go out all I +pleased. I had replied that I preferred to remain indoors until we set out +for Carthage. He smiled, nodded and said: + +"I understand: do as you like." + +I passed my time most agreeably, except for several intrusions by Libo's +wife, Rufia Clatenna. She was a tall, raw-boned, lean woman, with +unmanageable hair which would not stay crimped, a hatchet face, too much +nose and too little chin, a stringy neck, very large, red, knuckly hands +and big flat feet. She had a mania for economy and close bargains, seemed +to regard her husband as an easy mark for swindlers and to be certain that +he had been cheated when he bought me. She thought herself an art-expert, +whereas she had no sound knowledge of any branch of art, no memory for +what she had heard and seen, and no taste whatever. To demonstrate that +her husband had made a bad bargain when he bought me she bored me with +endless questions concerning the contents of her domicile, of which she +understood almost nothing, and concerning famous composers, painters, +sculptors and architects, as to whom she confused the few names, dates and +works she thought she knew about. + +Nonius came on us in his atrium while she was putting me through a +questionnaire on every statue, painting and carving in it. The first time +he saw me alone he said, smiling: + +"You mustn't mind her; I put up with her, you can, too." + +When he came into my apartment and told me he meant to set off from Rome +next day, I ventured to express my puzzlement that he had bought me and +never mentioned to me, since I came into his possession, any of the +subjects on which he had questioned me and for knowledge of which he had, +presumably, wanted me. + +"Oh," he said, "I didn't buy you for myself. I know very little about art +and music and am no connoisseur at all. I bought you for my cousin +Pomponius Falco. He is as much interested in such matters as any man in +Africa. He is richer than I and you'll find him the best possible master. +He'll be at Carthage when we get there and I'll resell you to him soon +after we land." + +Nonius and Clatenna had no children, but doted on her sister's son, a lad +of not much over twenty, lean as his aunt, but small boned and not +unshapely. He was not, however, handsome, for he had a pasty, grayish +complexion, thin lank hair, almost no beard, and a long nose suggesting a +proboscis. His name was Rufius Libo, and he was Nonius Libo's heir. In his +favor Nonius made a will a few days before we left Rome, leaving him his +entire estate except a jointure to Clatenna, endowments to some municipal +institutions in his home towns, legacies to various friends and +manumission to faithful slaves. Of this will he had several duplicates +made and properly witnessed and sealed. One of these he left on deposit in +Rome; another he despatched to Carthage by a special messenger by way of +Rhegium, Messana, the length of Sicily to Lilybaeum and thence by sea to +Carthage; and he gave one each to Clatenna and to Rufius. + +When he gave orders for the despatch of the copy of his will by the +special messenger I was astonished, as I assumed that we were to travel by +the same route. But I found that he meant to sail all the way from the +Tiberside water-front of Rome to Carthage. This amazed me. And not +unnaturally. For we Romans generally dislike or even abhor the sea and +sail it as little as possible, making our journeys as much as we can by +land and as little as may be by water, choosing any detour by land which +will shorten what crossings of the sea cannot be avoided. + +Among the few Romans whom I have known who enjoy sea voyages I count +myself. Of all of them Nonius outclassed the rest. He worshiped the water +and was happiest when afloat and well out to sea. He told me that he had +spent more money on his private yacht than on any of his residences, and, +when I saw her, I believed him. A larger, better designed, better +equipped, better manned, better supplied, better appointed private yacht I +never beheld. His rowers kept perfect time and made top speed all down the +Tiber, her crew set sail like man-of-warsmen, her officers were pattern +seamen and got the very most speed on their way from every condition of +wind and weather. Rufius and Clatenna, while not as good sailors as Nonius +and I, were notably good sailors and we had a very pleasant voyage until +we were almost in sight of Carthage. Then we encountered a really terrific +storm. + +Now I am not going into any details of our disaster. I do not know whether +all writers of memoirs get shipwrecked or all survivors of shipwrecks +write reminiscences, but I am certain that of all the countless memoirs I +have read in the course of my life, ninety-nine out of every hundred +contained one or more accounts of shipwrecks, narrated with the minutest +detail and dwelling on the horrors, agonies, miseries, fears, discomforts +and uncertainties of the survivors and narrators with every circumstance +calculated to harrow up their readers' feelings. I could write a similar +meticulous narrative of my only shipwreck, and it was sufficiently +uncomfortable, terrifying, ghastly and hideous to glut a reader as greedy +of horrors as could be, but I am going to pass over it as lightly as +possible and summarize it as briefly as I may. + +Suffice it to set down here that we were not driven on any rock or reef or +shoal nor did we collide with any other ship. Laboring heavily in the open +sea, straining on the crests and wallowing in the troughs of the +stupendous billows, the yacht, even as carefully built a yacht as Libo's, +began to leak appallingly, the inrush of the water surpassed the utmost +capacity of the pumps and the most frantic efforts of the men at them; the +vessel settled lower and lower, labored more and more heavily and was +manifestly about to founder. + +The officers were capable men, the small boats sturdy and their crews and +steersmen skillful and confident. Clatenna was brave and Libo magnificent. +He kept his head, dominated his officers, and insisted that Rufius and I +should embark in a different boat from that to which he and Clatenna +trusted themselves. He personally saw to it that Clatenna and Rufius had, +on their persons, each their copy of his will. + +Both boats were successfully launched, and, as we drew away from the +doomed ship, we saw a third and fourth put off with other valued members +of his household. While a fifth and sixth were being swung overboard we +saw, from the top of a huge swell, the yacht go under and vanish; saw, +when we next rose on the chine of a billow, the water dotted with spars, +wreckage and swimmers; saw, five or six times more, the three other boats: +and then many times, high on a vast wave, beheld only the waste of +lifeless waters, without boat or swimmer. + +All night we floated and, not long after sunrise, we were seen and rescued +by a trading ship from Carales in Sardinia, bound for Carthage. + +At Carthage we were soon in the palace formerly Libo's and now the +property of Rufius. He, on succeeding to his uncle's estate, at once +rewarded with a huge donation the steersman of the boat in which we had +been saved, saying that the other steersmen did their best, but that, if +the others had been as dexterous as he, his aunt and uncle would not have +perished by so deplorable and so untimely a death. + +Within a few days he, now my owner by inheritance, sold me to Pomponius +Falco, as Nonius had intended to do himself. + +Falco liked me at first sight and I him. He was a man between thirty-five +and forty years of age, a natural born bachelor and art connoisseur. He +was of medium height, of stout build, with curly black hair and a curly +black beard, a swarthy complexion, a bullet head, a bull neck, a huge +chest and plump arms and legs. He was by no means unhandsome in appearance +and very jovial, good-humored, and good-natured; manifestly fond of all +the good things of life and able to discriminate and appreciate the best. + +For several days after I came into his possession I was his dearest toy. +He spent most of his waking hours conversing with me about music and +musicians, poetry and poets, literature and authors, paintings and +painters, statuary and sculptors, architecture and architects, gems, +ivories, embroideries, textiles, furniture, pottery and even autographs +and autograph collecting. He seemed to appraise me an expert on all such +lines and to be well pleased with his purchase. + +Certainly I was as well clothed, fed, lodged and attended as if I had been +his twin-brother. + +Before he had owned me many days Falco said to me: + +"Phorbas, I've been puzzling about you. You are a slave and you were sold +to poor Libo and by Rufius to me as a Greek. Yet you have none of the +appearance nor behavior of a Greek nor yet of a slave. You look and act +and talk like a freeman born and a full-blooded Roman, and a noble at +that. Please explain." + +Now, of course, in imagining all the forms in which I might be assaulted +by the perils which beset me, I had foreseen just such a query as this +utterance of Falco's involved and I had pondered and rehearsed my answer. +I realized that I must be ready with a reply wholly plausible because +entirely consonant with the facts of our social life, as they existed, so +that no one could take any exception to it. I thought I had framed such a +reply. + +"You know how it is," I answered easily. "A Roman master buys a young and +comely Greek handmaid. In due course she has a daughter, legally also a +slave and nominally a Greek, yet half Roman. When she is grown, if she +happens to be comely and the property of a master like most masters, she +has a daughter, a slave and spoken of as a Greek, yet only a quarter +Greek. If she has a similar daughter, that daughter, a slave and called a +Greek, is only one-eighth Greek. I conceive, from all I know, that my +great grandmother, grandmother and mother were such slave women. I, a +slave and ostensibly a Greek, am fifteen-sixteenths Roman noble, by +ancestry, according to my reckoning. No wonder my descent shows in my +bearing, manner and conversation." + +This answer was, actually, not so far from the facts, my mother, +grandmother and great-grandmother had, certainly, been Roman noblewomen, +daughters indeed, each of one of the oldest and longest-lineaged houses of +our nobility; and, like my father, grandfather and great-grandfather, my +great-great-grandfather had been a Roman nobleman. But his father, my +great-great-great-grandfather, had been a freed-man, manumitted in the +days of Nero, acquiring great wealth, attaining equestrian rank during the +last years of Nero's reign, and vastly enriched during the confusion of +the civil wars, marrying a young and wealthy widow after Vespasian was +firmly established at Rome by the crushing of the insurrection of Claudius +Civilis. + +Probably the general consonance of my answer with the facts made my +utterance of it more convincing. Certainly it appealed to Falco. + +"Just about what I conjectured," he said, smiling. "And will you tell me +in what part of Italy and on what estate you were born and how you came by +your air of aristocratic culture and by your marvellous dilettantism?" + +"I know what I know and am what I am," I replied, "because I was, from +childhood, treated just as if a son instead of a slave; pampered, indulged +and made much of. That lasted till I was more than full-grown. + +"The misfortunes of the family to which I belonged came so suddenly that I +was not manumitted, as I should have been had my master had so much as a +day's warning of his downfall. I was sold to a fool and a brute, as you +have probably inferred from my back. The marks of his barbarity which I +bear, and my lasting grief for the calamity of the household in which I +was born, make me unwilling to tell you anything of my past previous to my +purchase from Olynthides by Nonius Libo." + +"Well," he said, "your feeling is natural and I shall not urge my +curiosity on you. I mean to indulge you and even pamper you; mean to +endeavor to indulge you and pamper you so you will feel more indulged and +pampered than ever in your life, I'll make a new will, at once, leaving +you your freedom and a handsome property. I expect to live out a long +life, all my kin have been healthy and long-lived. But one can never be +certain of living and I mean to run no risks of your having any more +troubles. You deserve ease and comfort. And you shall have them if I can +arrange it. I love you like a born brother and mean to treat you as well +as if you were my twin." + +The year in which Commodus killed the two lions, each with one blow of his +trifling-looking little palm-wood club, in which year I was sold out of +the Choragium, and purchased by Nonius, in which I crossed the sea, was +wrecked and saved and resold to Falco, was the nine hundred and forty- +first year of the City [Footnote: 188 A.D.] and the ninth of the reign of +Commodus, the year in which the consuls were Allius Fuscianus and Duillius +Silanus, each for the second time. In Africa, with Falco, I spent that and +the following year very comfortably and happily, for I was as well +clothed, fed, lodged and tended as Falco himself. I liked him, even loved +him, and I felt perfectly safe. + +The climate of Africa agreed with me, and I liked the fare, especially the +many kinds of fruit which we seldom see in Rome and then not in their best +condition, and some of which we never see in Italy at all. I admired the +scenery, and I delighted in the cities, not only Carthage and Utica, but +both Hippo Regius and Hippo Diarrhytus, and also Hadrumetum, Tacape, Cirta +and Theveste, and even such mere towns as Lambaesis and Thysdrus, which +last has an amphitheater second only to the Colosseum itself. They all had +fine amphitheaters, magnificent circuses, gorgeous theaters and sumptuous +public hot baths. Not one but had a fine library, a creditable public +picture-gallery, and many noble groups of statuary, with countless fine +statues adorning the public buildings, streets and parks. The society of +all these places was delightfully cultured, easy and unaffected. I +revelled in it and could not have been happier except that I never heard +from Vedia or Tanno, let alone had a letter from either. And I wrote to +both and sent off letter after letter to one or the other. For it seemed +to me that a letter in this form could not excite any suspicion. + + "Phorbas gives greeting to Opsitius, and informs him that after he had + been sold by Olynthides to Nonius Libo, he survived the sinking of his + owner's yacht and was sold by Libo's heir to Pomponius Falco, in whose + retinue he now is. Farewell." + +I sent off, at least once a season, a letter like this to both Tanno and +Vedia. No word from either ever reached me. I could but conjecture that +all my letters had miscarried. + +Meanwhile, besides being reminded of it each time I wrote to Tanno or +Vedia, I did not forget that I was a proscribed fugitive, my life forfeit +if I were detected. I conceived that my best disguise was to dress, act +and talk as much as possible in the character of dilettante art expert and +music-lover, which I had assumed. Falco treated me, as he had prophesied, +almost as a brother. I had a luxurious apartment in each of his town +residences and country villas, and a retinue of servants: valet, bath- +attendant, room-keeper, masseur, reader, messenger, runner and a litter +with three shifts of powerful bearers. Everything Falco could think of in +the way of clothing, furniture and art objects was showered on me and my +slightest hint of a wish was quickly gratified. Also Falco supplied me a +lavish allowance of cash. Therefore I could gratify any whim. Besides, my +amulet-bag was intact and had in it all the gems which Agathemer had +originally placed there, except only the emerald Bulla had sold for me. + +I thought up everything I could do to make myself look completely a Greek +virtuoso and as un-Roman-looking as possible. I patronized every +complexion-specialist, friseur, perukier, manicurist and fashionable +barber in that part of the world. I bought every hair tonic for sale in +the colony. Between lotions and expert manipulation I succeeded in growing +a thick curly beard, covering my chest as far as the lower end of my +breast-bone and a thick head of hair so long that, even when elaborately +frizzed and curled, my oiled and scented locks fell as far down my back as +my beard spread on my bosom. Nothing could have made me look more +Corinthian and less Roman. + +I wore the gaudiest clothing I could find; tunics and cloaks of pure silk +and of the brightest or most effeminate hues; crimson, emerald-green, +peacock-green, grass-green, apple-green, sea-green, sapphire-blue, sky- +blue, turquoise-blue, saffron, orange, amethystine, violet and any and +every unusual tint; boots of glazed kidskin or of dull finish soft skin, +of hues like my silk garments, always with the edges of the soles heavily +gilded. And, for my shoes as well as for my garments, I chose particolored +materials with the most startling or languorous combinations of unusual +dyes. All my boots and shoes were embroidered in silver thread or gold +thread, all my outer garments embroidered in crimson, deep green, deep +blue, gold or silver, in big, striking, conspicuous patterns. I had +elephants, lions, antelopes, horses, cattle, sheep, stags, goats, storks, +cranes, even fish embroidered on my outer garments amid trees, vines, and +flowers; roses, lilies, violets, poppies and others uncountable. I spent +on such gewgaws a considerable part of my allowance, yet never exhausted +Falco's lavish provision for me. + +I also went in for jewelry, loading my fingers with flashy rings, wearing +bracelets on both wrists, two or three on each, always two necklaces and +even earrings, for which I had my ears pierced, like a Lydian. + +When I conned myself in my dressing-room mirror, arrayed in such a +superfluity of decorations and fripperies, I felt sure that no one would +take me for a Roman. + +In these apparently natural vanities and vagaries Falco humored me, +enquiring of his friends concerning friseurs of acclaimed reputation, +buying me any gaudy fabrics he saw, also presenting me with caskets of +necklaces, amulets, bracelets, finger-rings and earrings. He rallied me on +my oriental tastes, but aided me to gratify them. + +He even came to feel his interest in jewelry and gems enhanced by my fad +for them. He took to purchasing antiques in jewelry and rare and unusual +gems and his hoard grew into a notable collection. + +By the end of my second winter with Falco I had come to know intimately +all his town and country palaces and all his dilettanti friends and had +enjoyed to the full the many delights of the colony, not only its climate +and fruits, its scenery and cities, its statuary and pictures, its +libraries and public-baths, but its excellent performances of tragedies +and comedies, and its spectacles creditable, not only as to chariot-racing +but also as to beast-fights and exhibitions of gladiators. I found life in +Africa extremely agreeable and looked forward to any length of it with +contentment. + +I may remark that during this time Cleander came to the end of his period +of unlimited wealth, power and misrule. I was thus out of Rome at the time +of his downfall and death and while the Praetorium had a score of Prefects +in rapid succession. + +In the spring of the nine hundred and forty-third year of the city, +[Footnote: A.D. 190.] and the eleventh of the reign of Commodus, the year +in which he was nominally consul for the sixth time, along with Petronius +Septimianus, Falco startled me, while we were dining alone together, as +Agathemer and I had used to dine together, by saying: + +"Phorbas, you talk of Rome differently from any other man I ever heard +talk of it. I have meditated over the quality of what you say of Rome, but +I cannot analyze it or describe it accurately. Yet I may say that others +talk of Rome as holy ground, but you alone make me feel that the soil +inside the Pomoerium is holy ground: others talk of the grandeur of Rome; +you make me realize its grandeur: others prate of their love for Rome: +you, saying little, make me tingle with a subtly communicated sense of how +you love Rome: others babble of how life away from Rome is not life, but +merely existence; of how any dwelling out of Rome is exile, of how they +long for Rome; you, by some sorcery, make me not only feel how you long +for Rome, but have awakened in me a longing for Rome. I have never been +out of this colony of Africa, not even into Mauretania. A man as rich as I +and of equestrian rank can afford to travel, to visit all the interesting +parts of the Empire, to live where he likes, anywhere in Italy or even in +Rome. + +"I have never wanted to leave this colony: I love every bit of it and +especially my residences and estates. I have been satisfied here. When my +friends argued with me and tried to persuade me to travel and especially +to visit Rome, I never was convinced by their arguments. I have a dread of +sea-voyaging, a dread accentuated by the death of poor Libo. who was an +enthusiastic voyager and had a yacht as staunch and a crew as capable as +skill could produce, money buy and judgment collect. Yet he perished. I +did not need the warning of his fate to keep me ashore. Then again, I +prefer to be a big frog in a small pond to being a small frog in a big +pond, I am one of the most important men in this colony and, here in +Africa, I am always somebody. In Rome I should be nobody. + +"Yet, without my realizing it and later against my will, your +conversation, in some subtle way, has so infected me with the desire to +see Rome that I am going to brave the terrors of the seas, am going to +sink myself into insignificance among the scores of richer and more +influential men who cluster about Caesar. I am even going to put at the +mercy of the sea my precious collection of gems, which I now value more +than you and myself together and twice over. + +"I have made all my arrangements. I have put my affairs in order, made +sure that my estates will be properly managed in my absence, bought the +best yacht to be had in the harbor of Carthage, and that is saying a great +deal for its excellence, and I have ordered coffers in which to pack my +beloved gems. + +"Prepare to accompany me; within ten days we set off for Rome." + +I knew Falco. Easy-going as he was, when he had taken a notion to buy and +indulge a connoisseur-slave, collect gems or visit Rome, opposition, +arguments, artfulness or stratagems were alike useless. I resigned myself +to my fate. + +I meditated over this fifth fulfillment of the prophecy of the Aemilian +Sibyl. + +Since I had been with Falco and practically a free and rich man, I had +made handsome sacrifices at Mercury's Temples in all the cities we visited +which had temples to Mercury. The morning after Falco announced his +intentions to go to Rome I went out alone and unattended; myself, in the +market place of Carthage, bought two white hens; myself carried them to +the Temple of Mercury and myself had them offered to the god. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +IMPOSTURE + + +We had no bad weather on our voyage to Rome nor any adventure. The day +before we sailed I had conned my image in the mirror in my dressing-room +and had comforted myself with the decision that no human creature could +conceivably suspect of being a Roman this full-bearded, longhaired, long- +nailed, frizzed, curled, oiled, perfumed, gaudy, tawdry, bedizened, +bejeweled, powdered, rouged, painted popinjay. + +I laid in an extra supply of nail-polish, nail-tint, rouge, face-paint, +blackening for painting eyebrows and eyelashes, and of perfumery, +cosmetics, unguents and such like. If I were sufficiently whitened, +reddened, rouged, and painted I hoped I should be well enough disguised to +face Gratillus or even Flavius Clemens without a qualm. Actually my +bizarre and fantastic appearance was an almost complete protection to me. + +And I needed protection. For Falco was related to many prominent families +and men in Rome; for instance, he was a cousin of Senator Sosius Falco, +who was consul two years later. He was introduced widely and at once and +invited everywhere. I was constantly in attendance on him. + +My experiences during my long stay at Rome with Falco were, in truth, +amazing. He bought a fine palace on the Esquiline, near the Baths of +Titus, furnished it lavishly, entertained magnificently and revelled in +the life of Rome. At first I was busy showing him the chief sights of the +City, then the minor sights, then coaching him in the niceties of social +usages, then convoying him on the round of all notable sculptures, picture +galleries, private collections of pictures or statuary, famous museums, +repositories of all kinds of art objects and, especially, the gem +collections, both private and public, particularly the large exhibit in +the temple of Venus Genetrix, placed there by the Divine Julius, and the +smaller exhibit in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, donated by +Octavia's son, Marcellus. + +Later he divided his time between giving dinners and going out to dinners +and haunting the houses of gem collectors and the shops of jewelers. + +He began visiting jewelers' shops, to be sure, within a few days of our +arrival in Rome. We had not been there ten days, in fact, when he made me +conduct him to the Porticus Margaritaria, on the Via Sacra, near the great +Forum, which was and is the focus of pearl dealers and gem dealers in +general in Rome. + +There we entered several shops and, at last, I could not keep him out of +that of Orontides, who had known me perfectly. His was unique among shops +in Rome and probably was the largest and most splendid jewelry shop in all +the world: more like a small temple of Hercules or a temple-treasury than +a shop. It was not in the Pearl-Dealers' Arcade, where only small, square, +usual shops were possible, but adjacent to it and entered from the Via +Sacra. It was circular, with a door of cast bronze, beautifully ornamented +with reliefs of pearl-divers, tritons, nereids and other marine subjects. +Inside its dome-shaped roof was lined with an intricate mosaic of bits of +glass as brilliant as rubies, emeralds and sapphires, or as gold and +silver. The roof rested on a circular entablature with a very ornate +cornice, under which was a frieze ornamented with reliefs, representing +winged cupids working as gem-cutters and polishers, as chasers of salvers +and goblets, and as goldsmiths and silversmiths. The architrave was as +ornate as the cornice. The entablature was supported by eight Ionic +columns of the slenderest and most delicate type, of dark yellow Numidian +marble, while the lining of the wall-spaces was of the lighter yellow +Mauretanian marble. Of the eight wall-spaces one was occupied by the +doorway, over which was a bronze group representing a combat of two +centaurs. On either side of the door was a wall-space ennobled by a niche +with a life-size, bronze statue, one of Orontides' father, the other of +his grandfather, both of whom had been distinguished gem-dealers at +Antioch. Two more wall-spaces were occupied by ample windows, not of open +lattices, but glazed with almost crystalline glass set in bronze, a form +of window seldom seen except in great temples, the Imperial Palace, and +the residences of the most opulent senators and noblemen. + +The three wall-spaces behind the counter were filled from column to column +with tiers of superposed recesses, in size like the urn niches of a burial +columbarium, but each closed with a door of cornel-wood carved and +polished, behind which doors Orontides kept his precious merchandise. + +The counter divided the shop across from window to window. It had in the +middle a narrow wicket through which Orontides and his assistants could +crawl in and out. Otherwise the outer face of the counter was of two +blocks of Numidian marble, carved in patterns of twining vines; its top +was of one long slab of the exquisitely delicate white marble from Luna. +On it lay always squares of velvet, in color dark blue, black, dark green, +and crimson, on which were admirably displayed his goldsmith work and +jewelries. + +Below the panels about each statued niche was a curved seat of Numidian +marble amply large for four persons at once, so that eight prospective +customers could sit and wait while as many stood at the counter; and, +according to my recollection of the shop in the days of my prosperity, a +shop crowded with customers was the rule rather than the exception with +Orontides. + +It was crowded when we entered. I, endeavoring to conserve a natural +demeanor, felt my sight blur. I saw, as we entered, only a row of backs of +customers standing at the counter: three in noblemen's togas, one in the +toga of a senator, their fulldress boots conspicuously red beneath their +robes; four in the silken garments of wealthy ladies, all in pale soft +hues of exquisite Coan dyes. + +Of these eight backs two, one of the lady midway of the counter, the other +of her escort, appeared terrifyingly familiar. + +In fact, when we entered I had three distinct shocks in quick succession. +Flashy, painted and rouged as I was I dreaded Orontides' eyes. There he +was behind his counter, visible through a rift in the press of handsomely +dressed customers of both sexes. + +Instinctively I glanced at the only other interval in the line of absorbed +opulent backs. + +Through it I recognized Agathemer smiling at me! + +I saw that _he_, at least, recognized me at once and my dread of Orontides +intensified tenfold. I knew Agathemer would be discreet, loyal and trusty. +I dreaded to lose countenance if I kept my eyes on his face and I looked +elsewhere. + +I recognized the back of Flavius Clemens! + +If he turned round I felt I was lost. Yet I could not flee. Falco was +certain to linger in the shop. I must keep my self-control and prepare to +brazen out anything. + +The next instant I recognized the back of the lady next Flavius Clemens. + +Vedia! + +As I recognized her she turned, saw me, knew me through my disguise, +flushed, and turned back. + +I should not have been surprised if she had fainted and crumpled up on the +white and brown mosaic floor in front of the counter. She kept her feet +and her outward self-possession. + +Clemens spoke to her in an undertone. + +"No," she answered him, in a choked voice, "I have changed my mind. I +won't take these." + +She was handling an unsurpassable necklace of big pearls. + +He whispered to her. + +"No," she said, curtly. "I won't look at any others. I think I'll go +home." + +He was so amazed that he never saw me or, I think, anything or anybody +else in that shop just then. He escorted her out. + +When I regained my self-possession enough to feel that I appeared at ease +and could trust myself to glance at the other customers as I should have +done had I been in fact what I was trying to appear, I was relieved to +find that not one of them was more than distantly known to me. + +The idlers on the benches showed no inclination to rise and approach the +counter. Falco and I occupied the interval vacated by Clemens and Vedia. +Agathemer, of all men on earth, asked what he could do for us. Falco stood +there a long time, saw a goodly fraction of the finest jewels in +Orontides' possession and, manifestly, made as favorable impression of +connoisseurship on Agathemer as Agathemer made on him. They eyed each +other as fellow-adepts. Falco asked that he reserve an antique Babylonian +seal cut in sardonyx and promised to send a messenger with its price +before dark. Agathemer, who was passing under the name of Eucleides, +blandly replied that Orontides would prefer to send the seal to Falco's +residence. Falco agreed, of course, and to my unutterable relief we +finally departed. + +Agathemer--Eucleides--brought the seal; and timed his arrival neatly as +Falco returned from the Baths of Titus just before dinner time. He was +giving a big formal dinner and my dinner was to be served in my apartment, +which had a tiny _triclinium_; being as lavishly appointed, and one in +which I was as luxuriously lodged and served, as those I had had in +Carthage and Utica. + +I asked Agathemer if he could stay and dine with me and he accepted. We +had a wonderful dinner. The food, of course, was unsurpassable and our +appetites keyed up by our mutual emotions. When the dessert and wine were +brought in I dismissed the waiters, made sure that no man or boy of my +retinue was in my apartment and bolted its door. + +Then we fell into each other's arms. + +After we had expressed our mutual affection I told him my story from the +morning after the massacre and he told me his, which was commonplace. + +He had easily escaped from the slave-convoy between Narnia and Interamnia, +had made his way to Ameria and found shelter there with slaves as an +ordinary runaway slave. After a discreet interval he had travelled to +Rome. There he had found old acquaintances to protect and shield him. I +was presumed to be dead and any fellow-slave would help him in his +situation, he being presumed to be legally a slave of the _fiscus_. He had +no difficulty in disposing of a gem out of his amulet-bag and then rented +lodgings, passed as a freedman, by the name of Eucleides, and gradually +made himself known to various gem-experts who gave him as much protection +as had his fellow-slaves, his former acquaintances. Orontides perfectly +knew who he was, yet engaged him as an assistant by the name of Eucleides +and as being a freedman. Ever since then he had lived safe in his +lodgings, and spent his days at Orontides' shop or about Rome at gem- +dealers. He declared that he was, if possible, more of a gem-expert than +before our adventures began, which was saying a great deal. + +He laughed heartily and often at my disguise, acclaimed it a work of art +in every detail and in its total effect and vowed that he believed that I +could spend years in Rome in Falco's retinue and encounter all my old +acquaintances and be in little danger from any and in no danger except +from such professional physiognomists as Galen and Gratillus. + +I told him of what Galen had said to Tanno. Agathemer said he had had only +two interviews with Tanno, at which they had deplored my death, I having +been believed to have perished with Nonius Libo. They had also agreed to +avoid each other, for fear of attracting the notice of some secret-service +agent or volunteer spy. Tanno had not mentioned Galen. + +We agreed that we, also, must avoid each other and not meet oftener than +say four times a year, for fear of leading to my detection. + +He told me of Marcia's unlimited power over Commodus, the whole Palace and +the entire social and governmental world of Rome. He also said that he was +convinced that Ducconius Furfur was domiciled in the Palace and that +Commodus used him as dummy ceremonial Emperor, when he himself was +masquerading as Palus, the Gladiator, for he was now developing for public +exhibitions of his swordsmanship a mania as insensate as those he had had +for charioteering and beast-fighting. + +Next day, naturally, I had a visit from Tanno, who even sacrificed his +afternoon bath and came to see me while Falco was at the Baths of Titus. + +He embraced me heartily, when we were alone, and talked with his habitual +mask of jocularity. + +"Three times dead, Caius," he said, "and still alive and fit. Dying seems +to agree with you, whether it is military execution, rural assassination, +or drowning at sea. I am still incredulous that you are really alive; we +had the most circumstantial accounts of the loss of poor Libo's yacht with +all on board." + +"That is odd," I said, "Rufius Libo survived and succeeded to his uncle's +property." + +"I knew he inherited all Nonius left," Tanno stated, "but I had no idea +that Nonius had Rufius with him here in Rome and that he was on the yacht; +I thought he was in Carthage all the while. Certainly every account we had +specified that no one was rescued from that yacht." + +I told him that Rufius had promised me to write him of my survival and +that I had despatched at least a score of letters to him and as many to +Vedia. He was as puzzled as I that not one had reached either of them. + +I gave him an account of my life since he had seen me and he approved of +my disguise as much as had Agathemer and laughed at it even more heartily. + +He said: + +"Poor Flavius Clemens is in a daze. He cannot conjecture what has gone +wrong with his wooing again a second time. He behaved very tactfully after +his first rebuff ensuing on Galen's tip to me and mine to Vedia. He was so +cautious about not thrusting himself on Vedia that their acquaintance, +quite naturally, warmed again gradually into mutual interest and romantic +affection and was ripening into love when the sight of you yesterday +annihilated his excellent chances of marrying her. He was just about to +buy for her a two-million-sesterce pearl necklace. If she had accepted the +gift it would have been tantamount to a public pledge to marry him. Poor +fellow!" + +When he left he gave me a letter from Vedia, a letter as loving as a lover +could wish for. She declared that she would not marry Flavius Clemens nor +anybody except me and would wait for me as long as might be necessary or +stay unmarried until the end of her days, if, by any misfortune, the end +came to her before she and I were free to marry. + +She said that we must avoid each other as much as possible and that I must +not spoil my chances of safety either by relying too recklessly on my +disguise or through risking arousing suspicion in Falco by any attempt at +confining myself to my apartment, which would have been altogether +incongruous with the character I had assumed. + +The rest of that year and all the winter I passed living the normal life +of an indulged and pampered favorite of an opulent bachelor dilettante +noble. It was a life almost as enjoyable as the life of a wealthy nobleman +to which I had been born and brought up. + +I had but one anxiety and that was not small and it steadily increased. It +was caused by a progressive alteration and deterioration in the character +of my master. In all other respects he remained the man he had been when +he first bought me, but as a gem-fancier his hobby became a passion which +deepened into a mania and colored, or discolored, all he did. He had, as +he always had had, a very large surplus of income over and above what was +needful to maintain his huge estates in Africa, his many luxurious villas +and town-palaces there, his yacht and his palaces in Italy at Baiae and at +Rome. The normal accumulation of this surplus had taxed his sagacity as an +investor, for it was always harder for him to find advantageous +investments for his redundant cash than to find cash for tempting +investments. Certainly his excess income more than sufficed for any +reasonable indulgence in gem-collecting. + +Yet his outlay for rare gems ran up to and outran and far outran his +resources. The strange result was that he, who had huge revenues from +estates and safe investments, desired a still greater income. He began to +embark in risky ventures which promised large and quick returns. He went +into partnership with two different nobles, who made a practice of bidding +on the taxes of frontier provinces exposed to enemy raids. Bidders were +shy of investing their cash in the problematical returns of such regions +and those who had the hardihood to enter into contracts with the +government made huge profits if lucky. Falco was lucky each time. He +plunged again and again. + +He also embarked similarly in bidding for unpromising contracts and in +buying up estates thrown unexpectedly on the market. All his ventures +turned out successfully, he gained great resources for indulging his fad +for gems and rare curios, his collection grew and became one of the most +famous private collections in Rome. + +Also his mania for speculation grew as fast as his mania for collecting +gems. + +This led to my exposure to the oddest and most alarming peril which I had +run since Agathemer and I crawled through the drain-pipe at Villa Andivia; +greater I think, than the risk I ran when I nearly encountered Gratillus +at Placentia. This happened about eleven months after I came to Rome with +Falco, in the spring of the year when Pedo Apronianus and Valerius Bradua +were consuls. + +This occurrence and the circumstances which led up to it I cannot forbear +narrating, but I shall not go into details, for it involves at least +allusion to behavior not at all creditable to my owner and I am unwilling +to disparage or seem to disparage one who was to me a dear friend and a +generous benefactor. The truth is that his passion for gem-collecting had +not only undermined his character but had, in a way, sapped the +foundations of his native uprightness. If he had remained the man he was +when he bought me he would not have been capable of entertaining, let +alone of acting on, the considerations which actuated him. + +He thought he saw a chance to make vast profits quickly with no risks. But +to achieve this he needed the presence and the countenance of another +wealthy nobleman of the African province, who, like him when he purchased +me, had never been in Rome or, indeed, out of the colony. The name of this +man, whom I had met while in Thysdrus, was Salsonius Salinator. His +wealth, inherited by his father and grandfather from a long line of +wealthy ancestors, came from many vast salt works along the coast, which, +by the custom of the province, remained private property and merely paid +the government a lease-tax or rent. The family had been, many generations +before, named from these works and was very proud of its names. + +Now Falco had so far progressed with his negotiations that the other +parties to the proposed bargain were unwilling to close the deal and sign +a contract with Falco and his associates unless Salsonius Salinator, in +person, appeared to make some necessary statements, and were willing and +eager to sign and seal, the projected agreement if he did appear in person +and did make those required statements. I am averse to smirching Falco's +memory by going more minutely into detail. + +Now Salinator had written Falco that he was coming to Rome and later, when +he received a letter from Falco outlining the pending negotiations and +their object, he had written promising to be in Rome by a specified date. +He was most enthusiastic as to Falco's project and thought as well of it +as did Falco. Falco told his associates of Salinator's letter and promise +and they adjusted their outstanding investments so as to be able to close +the contract as soon as Salinator appeared. + +He did not appear on the date specified. Naturally Falco was perturbed, +his associates vexed and the men with whom they were dealing increasingly +restive. They threatened to break off the negotiations and close a +contract with other bidders. Falco begged for an extension of the time and +they grudgingly granted it. Still no signs of or word from Salinator. The +negotiations appeared likely to fall through. + +In his distress Falco conceived and set about putting into practice a +scheme such as he would never have thought of or entertained if he had +been the man he was when he bought me. When he was himself he had been the +reverse of dishonorable. He came to me and said: + +"We are at the end of our tether, Pullanius and his gang will break off +negotiations tomorrow if I can't get hold of Salinator. I have no hope of +his arrival, he may have not yet sailed from Carthage; he may have changed +his mind about coming at all. I am not willing to lose so brilliant a +chance. I have thought of just what to do. + +"You would look like a Roman if you had your beard trimmed and your hair +cut and all that powder and paint and rouge washed off your face: I took +you for a full-blooded Roman when I first set eyes on you. What is more +you would look so utterly unlike what you look like in your fantastic +fripperies that no one would even suspect you of being the same man. +Anyhow, Pullanius and his crowd have never set eyes on you, not one of +them. + +"All you have to do is to have your beard cut to about the fashionable +length and your hair trimmed to conform similarly with current fashions +for Roman noblemen and get into full-dress shoes, a nobleman's tunic and +toga, and you'll pass anywhere for a genuine, free-born, full-blooded +Roman. + +"I'll take you to Pullanius tomorrow and introduce you as Salsonius +Salinator. I'll coach you carefully as to how to behave and what to say. +You are clever enough to assume the natural Roman demeanor to a nicety: +also to rise to any unexpected situations and act and talk precisely as +would Salinator himself. + +"It will be sharp practice, in a sense. But I know Salinator would say all +I want him to say, all Pullanius requires him to say, and more, if he were +actually here. He is as keen on closing this contract as I am. So I am not +asking you to be a party to an actual fraud. You will only be bringing +about what would come about without you if something unforeseen had not +prevented Salinator from getting here in time." + +Now I had often differed with Falco, argued with him, opposed him, refused +requests of his, and he had acquiesced and had acted as if I were not his +property, but a free man and his complete social equal. But this was a +situation wholly different from any I had encountered before. When it came +to gem-collecting or to anything which gave him or would give him or was +expected to yield him surplus cash for buying more gems for his +collection, Falco was a monomaniac. I dared not refuse, or oppose him or +argue or show any hesitation. A master can change in a twinkling from an +indulgent friend to an infuriated despot. In spite of the laws passed by +Hadrian and his successors limiting the authority of masters over their +slaves and giving slaves certain rights before magistrates, in practice an +angry master can go to any length to coerce a recalcitrant slave. I saw +not only privations, discomforts, hunger, confinement and chains +threatening me, but scourging and torture. + +I acquiesced. + +Now I am not going into any details as to what I did and said to induce +Pullanius and his associates to execute the desired contract. I acted the +part of Salinator to perfection and my imposture succeeded completely. + +But the negotiations dragged, for all that, and I had to impersonate +Salsonius Salinator not only before Pullanius and his partners but +generally all over Rome: had to submit to being shown the sights in my +character of a provincial magnate in Rome for the first time; had to allow +myself to be dragged to morning receptions of senators and wealthy +noblemen and introduced to them; had to accept invitations to dinners +given by noblemen and senators; even had to attend a public morning +reception in the Audience Hall of the Palace. That I escaped undetected +was more than miraculous; I could not believe it myself. But I did escape. + +I escaped unsuspected the ordeal of being haled to a morning reception of +Vedius Vedianus and presented to him as Salsonius Salinator of Carthage, +Nepte and Putea. I should have been lost had he had at his elbow to jog +his memory if he forgot a visitor's name the slave he had had in that +capacity seven years before, since that alert _nomenclator_ would have +recognized me at once. But he had died of the plague and his successor had +never set eyes on me. Vedius himself would certainly have known me for my +true self but for his inveterate selfishness, and self-absorption and his +incapacity for being diverted from whatever thought or idea happened to be +uppermost in his narrow mind. He was, for some reason, eager to be done +with his reception and had no eyes for any visitors except those from whom +he expected immediate and positive advantage to himself. I escaped, but I +went out sweating and limp with excitement. + +I was even more faint and weak after having to attend a Palace levee. +Fortunately Commodus had wearied of his father's methods of holding +receptions and had reverted to the regulations in vogue under Trajan and +Hadrian, according to which only such senators as were summoned approached +the throne and were personally greeted by the Prince; the rest of the +senators and all the lesser noblemen merely passed before the Emperor as +he stood in front of the throne, passing four abreast along the main +pavement at the foot of the steps of the dais and saluting him as they +passed. Amid this crush of mediocrities I passed unnoticed, unremarked, +unscathed. + +But I marvelled at my luck, for I knew many eyes of secret-service experts +scanned that slow-moving column of togaed noblemen and such adepts have a +marvellous memory for the shape of an ear, a nose, a chin, or any such +feature. After my hair and beard had been trimmed to suit Falco's notions +and my face was innocent of powder, rouge and paint and I was habited in a +tunic and toga with stripes of the width belonging to Salinator's rank and +dress-boots of the cut and color proper for him I conned my reflection in +the mirror in my dressing-room and was certain that anyone who had known +me as myself must recognize me at first glance. + +My two worst ordeals came when I went out with Falco to my second and +fourth formal dinner in Rome in my character of provincial magnate. I went +with him, altogether, to eight different dinners at the houses of +capitalists associated with or supposed to have influence with Pullanius. +Not once, in any of these eight perilous expeditions, did it occur to +Falco to inform me beforehand where I was to dine. And I thought it best +not to ask him, since I reflected that his complete ignorance of my past +was an important factor in my chances of continued concealment and safety; +and since I felt that some word, tone or look of mine might put him on the +road to suspecting the truth about me. Therefore I set out to each of +these eight dinners totally ignorant of our destination. + +The first time I knew I was to dine with Appellasius Clavviger, a Syrian +capitalist who had been in Rome not much longer than Falco himself. Judge +of my feelings when, in the mellow light which bathes Rome just after the +sun has set from a clear sky and before day has begun to fade, I perceived +that my litter-bearers, following Falco's, were turning into the street +where I had lived before my ruin! Imagine my sensations when we halted +before the palatial dwelling which had been my uncle's abode and mine! I +was even more perturbed and overwhelmed by my emotions when on entering +behind Falco I found nothing changed, scarcely anything altered from what +had been there on the fatal morning on which, without any premonition of +disaster, I had set off to the Palace levee and had, on my way, been saved +by Vedia's intervention and letter. The appointments of the vestibule, of +the porter's lodge, were as I had known them in my uncle's lifetime. So +were the furnishings of the atrium and _tablinum_. Scarcely a statue had +been added or so much as moved, most of the pictures being where my uncle +had had them hung. Appellasius, a fat, jovial, jolly man, did not see my +confusion. We were the last guests to arrive and he was hungry. We passed +at once into the _triclinium_. There also the wall-decorations were +precisely as I had last seen them; but the square table and three square +sofas had vanished and, in their place, was a new C-shaped sofa and a +circular table covered with a magnificent embroidered cloth. In the +course of the dinner, the company, as was natural with vulgarians newly +enriched, fell to talking of their residences, of their size, convenience, +and cost. I took the opportunity to compliment Appellasius on his abode +and, as he warmed to the subject, I inquired whether he had inherited it +or bought it. + +"Neither," said he. "I have merely leased it, and leased it furnished. It +belongs to the _fiscus_; it was confiscated some years ago when its owner +was proscribed for joining in one of the conspiracies against, the +Emperor. It is a pearl. I am told that the father of its last owner was an +art connoisseur. Anyhow I could not improve on its decorations or +furnishings. I have made few changes, chiefly installing this up-to-date +dining-outfit. The fittings of this room were all of one hundred years +old, very fine in material and ornamentation, but unbearably +inconvenient." + +I had learned all I hoped for or dared attempt, and for the rest of the +entertainment I kept to subjects as far as possible from anything likely +to compromise me. + +My second and far my severest ordeal was when a few evenings later I was +dazed to realize that my litter, behind Falco's, was halting before the +well-known residence of that booby, Faltonius Bambilio. But I was not +afraid of him. I rated him such a dolt, such an ass, that even if he +exclaimed that I was the image of Andivius Hedulio I had no doubt I could +convince him that I was what I pretended to be and could even expunge from +his mind any recollections of his having noticed such a striking +resemblance. In fact he did not make any remark on my appearance or seem +to have any inkling that he had ever seen me before, but accepted me as an +interesting stranger. + +I dreaded what guests he might have and the actuality surpassed my +capacities to forecast possibilities. + + I found the middle sofa at his table, for he adhered to the old-fashioned +furnishings for a _triclinium_, occupied by his wife, Nemestronia and +Vedia! Vedia, after one tense moment of incredulous numb staring, +regained her composure. + +Evidently she had not confided in anyone the fact of my survival and +existence. For, if she had, she would have taken dear old Nemestronia into +her confidence, since she was as able to keep a secret as any woman who +ever lived and had loved me as if I had been her own and only grandson. +For Nemestronia manifestly had believed me dead. At sight of me she was as +thunderstruck as if she had seen an indubitable specter. She was smitten +dumb and rigid and her discomposure was remarked by all present. But she +recovered herself in time, passed off her agitation as having been due to +one of her sudden attacks of pain in the chest. After that she did as much +as Vedia to dispel any tendency to suspicions which she might have +aroused. She was plainly, to my eyes, overjoyed at the sight of me in the +flesh. + +I have branded on my memory for life the picture I saw as I entered the +_triclinium_. Its wall decorations expressed old Bambilio's enthusiasm for +Alexandrian art and literature. The ceiling was adorned with a copy of +Apellides' Dance of the Loves; and the walls were decorated with copies of +equally celebrated paintings by masters of similar fame. The wall niches +were filled with statues of the Alexandrian poets, the two opposite the +entrance door with those of Euphorion and Philetas, the brilliant hues of +the paint on them depicting garments as gaudy as I myself had been wearing +a few days before. From the pink faces of the bedizened poets their +jeweled eyes sparkled as if they were chuckling at the situation. Under +the mellow light shed by the numerous hanging lamps, against the intricate +particolored patterns of the wall between the statue-niches, I saw the +vacuous baby face of Asellia, Bambilio's pretty doll of a wife, between +Vedia's countenance cleverly assuming a normal social expression after her +brief glare at me, and Nemestronia's mask of horror, accentuated by the +agony of the gripping spasm which throttled her, for the pain in her chest +was induced by anything which startled her, and was not assumed. + +Once we were composed on the sofas the dinner passed off almost +comfortably. For Nemestronia played her part in my behalf fully as well as +did Vedia, who conversed with me easily, her demeanor precisely as if I +had been Salsonius Salinator, a stranger whom she had just met, our talk +mostly about Carthage, salt-works, the lagoons of the edge of the desert, +date palms, local fruits, gazelles and such like topics, Nemestronia +seconding her with questions about temple libraries, the cult of Isis in +Hippo, and such matters. I became almost gay, I was enjoying myself. + +The enjoyment, toward the close of the banquet, was marred by Bambilio, +who, inevitably, had told Falco of his capture by brigands on the +Flaminian Highway and, after his tale was told at great length, insisted +on Vedia telling hers. + +Worst of all, when she came to her night in her travelling carriage, alone +(as of course all supposed) and surrounded by escaped beasts, hyenas, +leopards, panthers, tigers and lions, Bambilio must needs remark: + +"I'll wager you wished that the ghost of your old lover, Hedulio, had come +to your assistance. He could wrestle with leopards; perhaps even his ghost +might be able to control wild beasts." + +"Perhaps," Vedia rejoined, unruffled, "maybe he was there to help me and +maybe that was why I never felt really afraid that any beast would burst +into my coach and seize me, though several snuffed at its panels and I +could see them plain in the clear moonlight. Perhaps, in spirit, he was +close to me to keep off the ravenous beasts and to strengthen my heart." + +After she also had ended her story Bambilio eyed me: + +"Did you ever hear a story excel hers and mine, Salsonius?" he queried. + +"Never," I admitted, my gaze full on his. + +The booby showed not a gleam of suspicion! + +Inwardly I could not but remark that whereas I despised and loathed +Bambilio for his pomposity and self-esteem, he made and kept friends. +Plainly both Nemestronia and Vedia liked him, esteemed him and respected +him. + +After we left, I felt positively exhilarated at having had an evening in +Vedia's company and having talked with her. Her escort, fortunately for +me, had not been Flavius Clemens but young Duillius Silanus, son of the +consul, who had never met me before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +PALUS THE INCOMPARABLE + + +Within a very few days after my encounter with Vedia at Bambilio's dinner +Falco and I had just ascended the stair of his residence after returning +from a conference with Pullanius and his partners at which both sides had +finally agreed on terms to the last detail and the contracts had been +drawn up, executed, signed and sealed. He said: + +"Phorbas, I am pleased with you. Such imposture as I have enticed you into +cannot have been palatable to a man of your character. You have manifestly +disrelished it, but you have valiantly stomached it for my sake. Actually +you may be comforted, for it has not really been dishonest or +dishonorable; you have only acted and spoken vicariously for Salinator: to +a certainty he would have done and said just what you have, had he been +present in person. + +"You are a wonderful actor. No Greek or part Greek or half Greek or +quarter Greek or thirty-second Greek I ever knew or heard of, clever as +Greeks are at histrionics, could so perfectly act a Roman noble in every +detail of demeanor, manner and word: down to the most trifling expression +of every prejudice inherent in a Roman born. I admire you. Also I thank +you. + +"And I am as relieved as you will be to be able to tell you that your +masquerade is at an end, successful and unsuspected. + +"Now the important thing is for Salsonius Salinator to vanish from Rome at +once. + +"I suppose you have the wigs and false-beards you said you would buy or +have made?" + +"They are in my dressing-room," I replied. + +"Then," he continued, "have yourself waked early, have your valet paint +you and powder you and rouge you and fit you out with a wig like the head +of hair you had before I made you impersonate Salinator, and with a false +beard no one will suspect; have him rig you up in your favorite attire and +load you with jewelry, then set off in my travelling-carriage for Baiae. +Be out of Rome by sunrise. Travel straight to Baiae as rapidly as you find +practicable without fatiguing yourself. At Baiae you will have the Villa +and servants all to yourself. Stay there until you have grown your hair +and beard as it was before your masquerade. Then return to Rome as +Phorbas." + +He paused, gazed at me and added: + +"And I mean to make a new will. Besides leaving you your freedom and the +legacy specified in my last will I mean to leave you my gem-collection and +a full fourth of all my other estate. You deserve a lavish reward and I +believe I love you better than any living human being." + +I thanked him with my best imitation of the manner of a Greek, but with +genuine feeling and from a full heart. + +Actually I was glad to get out of Rome, glad to linger at Baiae. I made my +time as long as I could and resisted several importunities from Falco +before I finally returned to the city more than a year after I had left +it. Thus I was out of Rome during the great fire, which destroyed, along +with the Temple and Altar of Peace, the Temples of the Divine Julius and +the Divine Augustus, the Temple of Vesta, the Atrium of Vesta and most of +the other buildings about the great Forum, also the Porticus Margaritaria +and the shop of Orontides. Strangely enough, when, at Baiae, I read +letters from Falco, Tanno and Agathemer describing the devastation, my +mind dwelt more on the annihilation of the shop where I had encountered +Vedia than on the destruction of the Palace records and most of the public +records, or of the many revered temples which had vanished in the flames. + +When I returned to Rome the ruins were already largely cleared, and +rebuilding, especially of the Temple of Vesta, was vigorously under way. + +In Falco's household and manner of life I found few changes, except that +Falco, really in excellent health, had become concerned about his trifling +ailments, and, after trying one and another physician, had enrolled +himself among the patients of the most distinguished exponent of the +healing arts. Galen therefore, was a frequent visitor at my home and I saw +him not infrequently. When I had some minor discomfort, Falco, always +pampering me, called Galen in and enrolled me also among his charges. + +After my return to the City the chief topic of conversation among persons +of all grades of society and the pivot, so to speak, on which the +spectacles of the amphitheater revolved was Palus the Gladiator. + +I may set down here that I, personally, am now, as I was when I saw him +appear as a charioteer for the last time, certain that Palus was Commodus +in person. And I set this down as a fact. It will be seen later that I had +more opportunity than any man in Rome, outside of the Palace, to know the +facts. + +Many people then believed and not a few still maintain that Palus was +merely a crony of Commodus. Some whispered that he was a half-brother of +Commodus, a son of Faustina and a favorite gladiator, brought up by the +connivance of her too-indulgent husband; which wild tale suits neither +with Faustina's actual deportment, as contrasted with the lies told of her +by her detractors, nor with the character of Aurelius. Others even hinted +that Palus was a half-brother of Commodus on the other side, off-spring of +Aurelius and a concubine. This invention consorts still worse with the +nature of Aurelius, who was one of the most uxorious of men and by nature +monogamic and austere, almost ascetic. Some contented themselves with +conjecturing that Palus accidentally resembled Commodus, which was not so +far from the truth. + +For I knew Ducconius Furfur from our boyhood and I solemnly assert that +Palus was Commodus and that, whenever Palus appeared in the circus and, +later, in the amphitheater, while the Imperial Pavilion was filled by the +Imperial retinue, with the throne occupied apparently by the Emperor, the +throne was occupied by a dummy emperor, Ducconius Furfur, in the Imperial +attire, and Commodus was in the arena as Palus. Anyone who chooses may, +from this pronouncement, set me down as a credulous ninny, if it suits his +notions. + +When Palus drove a chariot in the circus he never appeared with his face +fully exposed, but invariably wore over its upper portion the half-mask of +gauze, which is designed to protect a charioteer's eyes from dust and +flying grains of sand. Similarly, when Palus entered the arena as a +gladiator he never fought in any of those equipments in which gladiators +appear bareheaded or with faces exposed: as a _retiarius_, for instance. +He always fought as a _secutor_ or _murmillo_, or in the armor proper to a +Samnite, Thracian, or heavy-armed Greek or Gaul; all of which equipments +include a heavy helmet with a vizor. Palus always fought with his vizor +down. + +It seems to me that the plain inference from these facts corroborates my +opinions concerning Palus: certainly it strengthens my belief in my views. +And these facts were and are known to be facts by all who, as spectators +in the circus or in the amphitheater, beheld Palus as charioteer or as +gladiator. + +As a gladiator he was more than marvellous, he was miraculous. I was +present at all his public appearances from the time of my return from +Baiae. Also I had seen him closer, from the senatorial boxes in the +amphitheater, three several times during my impersonation of Salsonius +Salinator. Moreover I had seen him as a gladiator not a few times before +that, since Falco, soon after we came to Rome from Africa, because of his +affection for me and his tendency to indulge me in every imaginable way +and to arrange for me every conceivable pleasure, had contrived to use the +influence of some new-found friends to make possible my presence at shows +in the Colosseum, and that in as good a seat as was accessible to any +free-born Roman not a noble or senator. + +The very first time I saw Palus in the arena I felt sure he was Commodus +in person, for he had to a marvel every one of his characteristics of +height, build, outline, agility, grace, quickness and deftness and all his +tricks of attitude and movement. The two were too identical to be anything +except the very same man. + +It will occur to any reader of these memoirs that Palus was a left-handed +fighter, and that Commodus not only fought left-handed, but wrote, by +preference, with his left hand and with it more easily, rapidly and +legibly than with his right. But I do not lay much stress on this for +about one gladiator in fifty fights left-handed, so that the fact that +Palus was left-handed, while it accords with my views, does not, in my +opinion, help to prove them. + +What, to my mind, much more tends to confirm my views, is the well-known +fact that Palus was always equipped with armor and weapons more +magnificent and more expensive than any ever seen on other gladiators. +Everything he used or wore was of gold or heavily gilt; even his spear +heads and sword blades were brilliantly gilded; so were his helmets, +shields, bucklers, corselets, breastplates, the scales of his kilt-straps +when he fought as a Greek, and his greaves, whether of Greek pattern or of +some other fashion. If he appeared in an armament calling for arm-rings, +leg-rings, or leg-wrappings, these were always also heavily gilt. So was +his footgear, whether he wore thigh-boots, full-boots, half-boots, +soldiers' brogues, half-sandals or sandals. His shoulder-guards (called +"wigs" in the slang of the prize-ring) were, apparently, of pure cloth of +gold, which also appeared to be the material of his aprons when his +accoutrements did not include a kilt. + +Now it may be said that this merely indicates that his equipment was the +most extravagant instance of the manner in which opulent enthusiasts +lavished their cash on the outfitting of their favorites in the arena. To +me it seems too prodigal for the profusion of any or all of such +spendthrifts: it appears to me more like the self-indulgence of the +vainglorious master of the world. Palus often wore a helmet so bejeweled +that its cost would have overtaxed the wealth of Didius Julianus. + +I consider that my opinions are corroborated by the well-known fact that +whenever Palus appeared as a gladiator in the amphitheater, Galen was +present in the arena as chief of the surgeons always at hand to dress the +wounds of victors or of vanquished men who had won the approbation or +favor of the spectators or of the Imperial party. True, Galen was often +there when Palus was not in the arena, for he was always on the watch for +anatomical knowledge to be had from observation of dying men badly +wounded. But, on the other hand, while he was often in the arena when +Palus was not there, he was never absent when Palus was fighting. + +Similarly, after Aemilius Laetus was appointed Prefect of the Palace, he +was always present in person in the arena whenever Palus appeared in it. +This, too, makes for my contentions. + +The first fight in which I saw Palus revealed to me, and brought home to +me with great force, the reason for his nickname, its origin and its +astonishing appropriateness. The word "_palus_" has a number of very +different meanings: manifestly its fitness as a pet name for the most +perfect swordsman ever seen in any arena came from its use to denote the +paling of a palisade, or any stake or post. Palus, in a fight, always +appeared to stand still: metaphorically he might be said to seem as +immobile as the post upon which beginners in the gladiatorial art practice +their first attempts at strokes, cuts, thrusts and lunges. So little did +he impress beholders as mobile, so emphatically did he impress them as +stationary, that he might almost as well have been an upright stake, +planted permanently deep in the sand. + +I first saw him fight as a _secutor_, matched against a _retiarius_. This +kind of combat is, surely, the most popular of all the many varieties of +gladiatorial fights; and justly, for such fights are by far the most +exciting to watch and their incidents perpetually varied, novel and +unpredictable. It is exciting because the _retiarius_, nude except for one +small shoulder-guard and a scanty apron, appears to have no chance +whatever against the _secutor_ with his big vizored helmet, his complete +body-armor, his kilt of lapped leather straps plated with polished metal +scales, his greaves or leg-rings or boots and his full-length, curved +shield and Spanish sword. The _secutor_, always the bigger man and fully +armed and armored, appears invincible against the little manikin of a +_retiarius_ skipping about bareheaded and almost naked and armed only with +his trident, a fisherman's three-tined spear, with a light handle and +short prongs, his little dagger and his cord net, which, when spread, is +indeed large enough to entangle any man, but which he carries crumpled up +to an inconspicuous bunch of rope no bigger than his head. + +Yet the fact is the reverse of the appearance. No one not reckless or +drunk ever bet even money on an ordinary _secutor_. The odds on the +_retiarius_ are customarily between five to three and two to one. And most +_secutors_ manifestly feel their disadvantage. As the two men face each +other and the _lanista_ gives the signal anyone can see, usually, that the +_retiarius_ is confident of victory and the _secutor_ wary and cautious or +even afraid. Dreading the certain cast of the almost unescapable net, the +_secutor_ keeps always on the move, and continually alters the direction +and speed and manner of his movement, taking one short step and two long, +then three short and one long, breaking into a dogtrot, slowing to a +snail's-pace, leaping, twisting, curving, zigzagging, ducking and in every +way attempting to make it impossible for the _retiarius_ to foretell from +the movement he watches what the next movement will be. + +Palus behaved unlike any other _secutor_ ever seen in the arena. He +availed himself of none of the usual devices, which _lanistae_ taught with +such care, in the invention of which they gloried and in which they +drilled their pupils unceasingly. He merely stood still and watched his +adversary. The cunning cast of the deadly net he avoided by a very slight +movement of his head or body or both. No _retiarius_ ever netted him, yet +the net seldom missed him more than half a hand's breadth. When the +disappointed _retiarius_ skipped back to the length of his net-cord and +retrieved his net by means of it, Palus let him gather it up, never dashed +at him, but merely stepped sedately towards him. If the _retiarius_ ran +away, Palus followed, but never in haste, always at a slow, even walk. No +matter how often his adversary cast his net at him, Palus never altered +his demeanor. The upshot was always the same. The spectators began to jeer +at the baffled _retiarius_, he became flustered, he ventured a bit too +near his immobile opponent, Palus made an almost imperceptible movement +and the _retiarius_ fell, mortally wounded. + +I was never close enough to Palus to see clearly the details of his +lunges, thrusts and strokes. I saw him best when I was a spectator in the +Colosseum while impersonating Salsonius Salinator, for in my guise as +colonial magnate I sat well forward. Even then I was not close enough to +him to descry the finer points of his incomparable swordsmanship. Yet what +I saw makes me regard as fairly adequate the current praises of him +emanating from those wealthy enthusiasts who were reckoned the best judges +of such matters. By the reports I heard they said that Palus never cut a +throat, he merely nicked it, but the tiny nick invariably and accurately +severed the carotid artery, jugular vein or windpipe. + +I can testify, from my own observation, to his having displayed comparable +skill in an equally effective stab in a different part of his adversary's +body. As is well known, a deep slash of the midthigh, inside, causes death +nearly as quickly as a cut throat; if the femoral artery is divided the +blood pours out of the victim almost as from an inverted pail, a horrible +cascade. Most of the acclaimed gladiators use often this deadly stroke +against the inside midthigh, slashing it to the bone, leaving a long, +deep, gaping wound. Palus never slashed an adversary's thigh; in killing +by a thigh wound he always delivered a lunge which left a small puncture, +but invariably also left the femoral artery completely severed, so that +the life-blood gushed out in a jet astonishingly violent, the victim +collapsing and dying very quickly. Such a parade requires altogether +transcendant powers of accuracy from eye and hand. + +Besides fighting as a _secutor_ against a _retiarius_ Palus in the same +accoutrements fought with men similarly equipped, or accoutred as Greeks, +Gauls, Thracians, Samnites, or _murmillos;_ also he appeared in the +equipment of each of these sorts of gladiators against antagonists +equipped like himself or in any of the other fashions. + +In all these countless fights he was never once wounded by any adversary +nor did he ever deliver a second stroke, thrust or lunge against any: his +defence was always impregnable, his attack always unerring; when he lunged +his lunge never missed and was always fatal, unless he purposely spared a +gallant foe. + +Besides the exhibitions of bravado and self-confidence traditional with +gladiators, all of which he displayed again and again, Palus devised more +than one wholly original with himself. + +For instance, he would take his stand in the arena equipped as a +_secutor_, the _lanista_ would have in charge not one _retiarius_, but +ten, or even a dozen. One would attack Palus and when, after a longer or +shorter contest, he was killed, the _lanista_, would, without any respite, +allow a second to rush at Palus; then a third; and so on till everyone had +perished by the _secutor's_ unerring sword. No other secutor ever killed +more than one _retiarius_ without a good rest between the first fight and +the second. Palus, as was and is well known, killed more than, a thousand +adversaries, of whom more than three hundred wore the accoutrements of a +_retiarius_. + +Palus was even more spectacular as a _dimachaerus_, so called from having +two sabers, for a _dimachaerus_ is a gladiator accoutred as a Thracian, +but without any shield and carrying a naked saber in each hand. Such a +fighter is customarily matched against an adversary in ordinary Thracian +equipment. He has to essay the unnatural feat of guarding himself with one +sword while attacking with the other. Such a feat is akin to those of +jugglers and acrobats, for a sword is essentially an instrument of assault +and cannot, by its very nature, take the place of a shield as a +protection. Everybody, of course, knows that showy and startling ruse said +to have been invented by the Divine Julius, which consists in surprising +one's antagonist by parrying a stroke with the sword instead of with the +shield and simultaneously using the shield as a weapon, striking its upper +rim against the adversary's chin. But this can succeed only against an +opponent dull-witted, unwary, clumsy and slow, and then as a surprise. A +_dimachaerus_ has to depend on parrying and his antagonist knows what to +expect. + +Palus was the most perfect _dimachaerus_ ever seen in the Colosseum. +Without a shield he fought and killed many Thracians, Greeks, Gauls, +_murmillos_, Samnites and _secutors_. He even, many times, fought two +Thracians at once, killing both and coming off unscathed. I saw two of +these exhibitions of insane self-confidence and I must say that Palus made +good his reliance on his incredible skill. He pivoted about between his +adversaries, giving them, apparently, every chance to attack +simultaneously, distract him and kill him. Yet he so managed that, even if +their thrusts appeared simultaneous, there was between them an interval, +brief as a heart-beat, but long enough for him to dispose of one and turn +on the other, or escape one and pierce the other. I could not credit my +own eyes. With my belief as to the identity of Palus I marvelled that a +man whose life was dominated by the dread of assassination, who feared +poison in his wine and food, who hedged himself about with guards and then +feared the guards themselves, who distrusted everybody, who dreaded every +outing, who was uneasy even inside his Palace, felt perfectly at ease and +serenely safe in the arena with no defence but two sabers, and he between +two hulking ruffians, as fond of life as any men, and knowing that they +must kill him or be killed by him. In this deadly game he felt no qualms, +only certitude of easy victory. + +The controversies over the identity of Palus have produced a whole +literature of pamphlets, some maintaining that he was Commodus, others +professing to prove that he was not, of which some rehearse every possible +theory of his relationship to Aurelius or Faustina. Among these the most +amazing are those which set forth the view that Palus was Commodus, but no +skillful swordsman, rather a brazen sham, killing ingloriously helpless +adversaries who could oppose to his edged steel only swords of lath or +lead. + +This absurdity is in conflict with all the facts. Manifestly the +antagonists of Palus were as well armed as he, both for defence and +attack. + +And, what is much more, the populace clamored for Palus, booed and cat- +called if Palus did not appear in the arena; cheered him to the echo when +he did appear; yelled with delight and appreciation at each exhibition of +his prophetic intuition as to what his adversary was about to do, of his +preternaturally perfect judgment as to what to do himself, of the +instantaneous execution of whatever movement he purposed, of its complete +success; and applauded him while he went off as no other gladiator ever +was applauded. It was the popular demand for him which made possible and +justified the unexampled fee paid Palus for each of his appearances in the +arena. The managers of the games were obliged to include Palus in each +exhibition or risk a riot of the indignant populace. + +Now no sham fighter could fool the Roman populace. A make-believe +swordsman, such as the pamphlets which I have cited allege Commodus to +have been, might, if Emperor, have overawed the senators and nobles of +equestrian rank and compelled their unwilling applause of sham feats. But +no man, not even an Emperor, could coerce the Roman proletariat into +applauding a fighter unworthy of applause. Our populace, once seated to +view a show of any kind, cannot be controlled, cannot even be swayed. No +fame of any charioteer, beast-fighter or gladiator can win from them +tolerance of the smallest error of judgment, defect of action, attempt at +foul play or hint of fear: they boo anything of which they disapprove and +not Jupiter himself could elicit from them applause of anything except +exhibitions of courage, skill, artistry and quickness fine enough to rouse +their admiration. They admired Palus, they adored him. + +This is well known to all men and proves Palus a consummate artist as a +gladiator. Not only would the populace howl a bungler or coward off the +sand, they know every shade of excellence; only a superlatively perfect +swordsman could kindle their enthusiasm and keep it at white heat year +after year as did Palus. + +Palus, I may remark, was always a gallant fighter, and a combination of +skill and gallantry in an adversary so won his goodwill that he never +killed or seriously wounded such an opponent. If his antagonist had an +unusually perfect guard and a notably dangerous attack, was handsome, +moved gracefully, displayed courage and fought with impeccable fairness +Palus felt a liking for him, showed it by the way in which he stood on the +defensive and mitigated the deadliness of his attacks, played him longer +than usual to demonstrate to all the spectators the qualities he discerned +in him, and, when he was convinced that the onlookers felt as he felt, +disabled his admired match with some effective but trifling wound. + +Then, when his victim collapsed, Palus would leap back from him, sheath +his sword, and saw the air with his empty left hand, fingers extended and +pressed together, thumb flat against the crack between the roots of the +index finger and big finger, twisting his hand about and varying the angle +at which he sawed the air, so that all might see that he wished his fallen +adversary spared and was suggesting that the spectators nearest him +imitate his gesture and give the signal for mercy by extending their arms +thumbs flat to fingers. + +Except Murmex Lucro I never saw any other gladiator presume to suggest to +the spectators which signal he would like them to display; and Murmex had +the air of a man taking a liberty with his betters and not very sure +whether they would condone his presumption or resent his insolence; +whereas Palus waved his arm much as Commodus raised his from the Imperial +throne when, as Editor of the games, he decided the fate of a fallen +gladiator concerning whom the populace were so evenly divided between +disfavorers and favorers that neither the victor nor his _lanista_ dared +to interpret so doubtful a mandate. + +The most amazing fact concerning Palus was that his audiences never +wearied of watching him fence. It is notorious that the spectators in the +Colosseum always have been and are, in general, impatient of any +noticeable prolongation of a fight. Only a very small minority of the +populace and a larger, but still small, minority of the gentry and +nobility, take delight in the fine points of swordsmanship for themselves. +Most spectators, while acclaiming skilled fence and expecting it, look +upon it merely as a means for adding interest to the preliminaries of what +they desire to behold. Even senators and nobles admit that the pleasure of +viewing gladiatorial shows comes from seeing men killed. Contests are +thrilling chiefly because of their suggestion of the approach of the +moment which brings the supreme thrill. + +The populace, quite frankly, rate the fighting as a bore; they do not come +to watch skilled swordsmen fence; they want to see two men face each other +and one kill the other at once. It is the killing which they enjoy. The +upper tiers of spectators in the amphitheater seldom give the signal for +mercy when a defeated man is down and helpless, even though he be handsome +and graceful and has fought bravely, skillfully and gallantly. One seldom +sees an outstretched arm, with the hand extended, fingers close together +and thumb flat against them, raised anywhere from the back seats; their +occupants habitually, in such cases, wave their upraised arms with the +hands clenched and thumbs extended, waggling their thumbs by half rotating +their wrists, to make the thumb more conspicuous, yelling the while, so +that the amphitheater is full of their insistent roar and the upper tiers +aflash with flickering thumbs. They weigh no fine points as to the worth +of the vanquished man, they do not value a good fighter enough to want him +saved to fight again, they come to see men die and they want the defeated +man slaughtered at once. + +They are habituated to acquiescing if the Emperor--or the Editor, if the +Prince is not present--or the nobility contravene their wishes and give +the signal for mercy when a gallant fighter is down by accident, +misadventure or because he was outmatched. But there is often a burst of +howls if the signal for mercy comes not from the Imperial Pavilion or the +whole _podium_, but merely from some part of the nobility or senators. +Generally, if the Emperor has not given or participated in the signal for +mercy, scattered individuals among the proletariat proclaim their +disappointment by booing, cat-calls, or strident whistlings. + +Now Palus was so popular, so beloved by the slum-dwellers, that whenever +he showed a disposition to spare an opponent, the whole mass of the +populace were quick with the mercy-signal: the moment they saw Palus +sheathe his blade their arms went up with his, almost before his, thumbs +as flat as his, never a thumb out nor any fingers clenched. + +More than this, no spectator, while Palus played an adversary, ever yelled +for a prompt finish to the bout, as almost always happened at the first +sign of delay in the case of any other fighter. So comprehensible, so +unmistakable, so manifest, so fascinating were the fine points of the +swordsmanship displayed by Palus that even the rearmost spectator, even +the most brutish lout could and did relish them and enjoy them and crave +the continuance of that pleasure. + +Most of all the Colosseum audiences not only insisted on Palus appearing +in each exhibition, not only longed for his entrance, not merely came to +regard all the previous fights of the day as unwelcome postponements of +the pleasure of watching Palus fence, but were manifestly impatient for +the crowning delight of each day, the ecstacy of beholding a bout between +Palus and Murmex Lucro, which contests were always bloodless. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +MURMEX + + +Customarily, while Palus flourished, each day began with beast-fights, the +noon pause was filled in by exhibitions of athletes, acrobats, jugglers, +trained animals and such like, and the surprise; then the gladiatorial +shows lasted from early afternoon till an hour before sunset. Palus and +Murmex appeared about mid-afternoon and were matched against the victors +in the earlier fights. Each located himself at one focus of the ellipse of +the arena, at which points two simultaneous fights were best seen by the +entire audience. There they began each fight, not simultaneously, but +alternately, till all their antagonists were disposed of, most killed and +some spared. The spectators seldom hurried Murmex to end a fight; they +never hurried Palus. His longest delay in finishing with an adversary, +even his manifest intention to exhaust an opponent rather than to wound +him, never elicited any protest from any onlooker. All, breathless, +fascinated, craned to watch the perfection of his method, every movement +of his body, all eyes intent on the point of his matchless blade. + +Last of the day's exhibitions, came the fencing match between Palus and +Murmex, at the center of the arena, empty save for those two and their two +_lanistae_. All others in the arena, including the surgeons, their helpers +and the guards, drew off to positions close under the _podium_ wall. + +Murmex and Palus fenced in all sorts of outfits, except that neither ever +fought as a _retiarius_. Mostly both were equipped as _secutors_, but they +fought also as _murmillos_, Greeks, Gauls, Thracians, Samnites and +_dimachaeri_, or one in any of these equipments against the other in any +other. + +Sometimes they delighted the populace by donning padded suits liberally +whitened with flour or white clay, their _murmillos'_ helmets similarly +whitened, and then attacking each other with quarter-staffs of ash, +cornel-wood or holly. A hit, of course, showed plainly on the whitened +suits. As neither could injure the other in this sort of fight, and as +they were willing to humor the populace, each was careless about his guard +and reckless in his attack. Even so hits were infrequent, since each, even +when most lax, had an instinctive guard superior to that of the most +expert and cautious fencer among all other contemporary fighters. Even +when, very occasionally, if Palus happened to be in a rollicking mood, +each substituted a second quarter-staff for his shield and, as it were, +travestied a _dimachaerus_, as what might be called a two-staff-man or a +double-staff-man, hits were still not frequent. Each had a marvellously +impregnable defence and they were very evenly matched in the use of the +quarter-staff in place of a shield as they were in everything else. Palus +fought better with his left hand attacking and his right defending, Murmex +better the other way, but each was genuinely ambidextrous and used either +hand at will, shifting at pleasure. When, amid the flash of their staffs, +either scored, the hit brought a roar of delight from the upper tiers, +even from the front rows, for the most dignified senators caught the +infection of the general enthusiasm and so far forgot themselves as to +yell like street urchins in their ecstasy. + +Except in this farcical sort of burlesque fight neither ever scored a hit +on the other, in all the years throughout which their combats finished +each day of every gladiatorial exhibition. Yet the audience never tired of +their bloodless bouts and, while the nobility and gentry never joined in, +the populace invariably roared a protest if they saw the _lanistae_ make a +move to separate them, and yelled for them to go on and fence longer. + +The interest of the populace was caused by the fact, manifest and plain to +all, that, while Murmex and Palus loved each other and had no intention of +hurting each other, their matches had no appearance whatever of being sham +fights. From the first parade until they separated every stroke, feint, +lunge and thrust appeared to be in deadly, venomous earnest and each +unhurt merely because, mortal as was his adversary's attack, his guard was +perfect. + +It seemed, in fact, as if each man felt so completely safe, felt so +certain that his guard would never fail him, and at the same time felt so +sure that his crony's guard was equally faultless, that there was no +danger of his injuring his chum, that each attacked the other precisely as +he attacked any other adversary. It was commonly declared among expert +swordsmen and connoisseurs of sword-play, as among recent spectators, +when, talking over the features of an exhibition after it was over, that +practically every thrust, lunge or stroke of either in these bouts would +have killed or disabled any other adversary; certainly it appeared so to +me every time I saw them fence and especially while watching their bouts +after I returned from my year at Baiae, for after that I never missed a +gladiatorial exhibition in the Colosseum. To my mind Palus and Murmex were +manifestly playing with each other, like fox-cubs or Molossian puppies or +wolf-cubs; yet the sport so much resembled actual attack and defence, as +with nearly grown wolf-cubs, that it gave less the impression of play +between friends than that of deadly combat between envenomed foes. Many a +time I have heard or overheard some expert or connoisseur or enthusiast or +provincial visitor, prophesy somewhat in this fashion: + +"Some day one of those two is going to kill the other unexpectedly and +unintentionally and by mistake. Each thinks the other will never land on +him; each thinks the other has a guard so impregnable that it will never +be pierced; each uses on the other attacks so unexpected, so sudden, so +subtle, so swift, so powerful, so sustained, so varied that no third man +alive could escape any one of them. It is almost a certainty that that +sort of thing cannot go on forever. One or the other of them may age +sufficiently to retire from the arena, as did Murmex Frugi, safe and +unscarred, as he was not. But it is far more likely, since both are full +of vitality and vigor, that neither will notice the very gradual approach +of age, so that they will go on fighting with eyes undimmed, muscles +supple and minds quick, yet not so quick, supple and keen as now: but the +preternatural powers of one will wane a bit sooner than those of the +other. And sooner or later one will err in his guard and be wounded or +killed." + +Most spectators agreed with such forecasts. What is more, most of the +spectators admitted that, as they watched, each attack seemed certain to +succeed; every time either man guarded it seemed as if he must fail to +protect himself. + +This, I think, explains the unflagging zest with which the entire +audience, senators, nobles and commonality, watched their bouts, revelled +in them, gloated over the memory of them and longed for more and more. +Consciously or unconsciously, every onlooker felt that sometime, some bout +would end in the wounding, disabling or death of one of the two. And so +perfect was their sword-play, so unfeigned their unmitigated fury of +attack, so genuine the impeccable dexterity of their defence that every +spectator felt that the supreme thrill, even while so long postponed, was +certain to arrive. More, each felt, against his judgment, that it was +likely to arrive the next moment. It was this illogical but unescapable +sensation which kept the interest of the whole audience, of the whole of +every audience, at a white heat over the bouts of Murmex and Palus. I +myself experienced this condition of mind and became infected with the +common ardor. I found myself rehearsing to myself the incidents of their +last-seen bout, anticipating the next, longing for it: though I never had +rated myself as ardent over gladiatorial games, but rather as lukewarm +towards them, and considered myself much more interested in paintings, +statuary, reliefs, ornaments, bric-a-brac, furniture, fine fabrics and all +artistries and artisanries. Yet I confessed to myself that, from the time +I saw first a bout between them, anticipation of seeing them fence, or +enjoyment of it, came very high among my interests and my pleasures. + +To some extent, I think, the long and unequaled vogue of their popularity +was due to the great variety of their methods and almost complete absence +of monotony in their bouts. + +Palus was left-handed, but for something like every third bout or a third +of each bout he fought right-handed, merely for bravado, as if to +advertise that he could do almost as well with the hand less convenient. +Murmex was right-handed, but he too fought often left-handed, perhaps one- +fifth of the time. So, in whatever equipment, one saw each of them fight +both ways. Therefore as _murmillos_ they fought both right-handed, both +left-handed, and each right-handed against the other fighting left-handed. +This gave a perpetually shifting effect of novelty, surprise and interest +to every bout between them. They similarly had four ways of appearing as +Greeks, Gauls, Samnites, Thracians, _secutors_ or _dimachaeri_. + +Their bouts as _dimachaeri_ were breathlessly exciting, for it was +impossible, from moment to moment, to forecast with which saber either +would attack, with which he would guard; and, not infrequently, one +attacked and the other guarded with both. When they fought in this fashion +Galen, it always appeared to me, looked uneasy, keyed up and apprehensive. +Yet neither ever so much as nicked, flicked or scratched the other in +their more than sixty bouts with two sabers apiece. + +More than a dozen times they appeared as Achilles and Hector, with the +old-fashioned, full-length, man-protecting shield, the short Argive sword +and the heavy lance, half-pike, half-javelin, of Trojan tradition. Murmex +threw a lance almost as far and true as Palus and the emotion of the +audience was unmistakably akin to horror when both, simultaneously, hurled +their deadly spears so swiftly and so true that it seemed as if neither +could avoid the flying death. Palus, true to his nickname, never visibly +dodged, though Murmex's aim was as accurate as his own; he escaped the +glittering, needle-pointed, razor-edged spear-head by half a hand's-breath +or less by an almost imperceptible inclination of his body, made at the +last possible instant, when it seemed as if the lance had already pierced +him. It was indescribably thrilling to behold this. + +Besides fencing equipped as Gauls, Samnites, Thracians and _secutors_ they +appeared in every combination of any of these and of Greeks and +_murmillos_ with every other. Palus as a _dimachaerus_ against Murmex as a +_murmillo_ made a particularly delectable kind of bout. Almost as much so +Murmex as a Gaul against Palus as a Thracian. And so without end. + +After my return from Baiae Falco pampered me more than ever and, in +particular, arranged to take me with him to all amphitheater shows and +have me sit beside him in the front row of the nobles immediately behind +the boxes of the senators on the _podium_. This does not sound possible in +our later days, when amphitheater regulations are strictly enforced, as +they had been under the Divine Aurelius and his predecessors. But, while +Commodus was Prince much laxity was rife in all branches of the +government. After the orgies of bribe-taking, favoritism and such like in +the heyday of Perennis and of Cleander, all classes of our society became +habituated to ignoring contraventions of rules. Under Perennis and later +under Cleander not a few senators took with them into their boxes +favorites who were not only not of senatorial rank, nor even nobles, but +not Romans at all: foreign visitors, alien residents of Rome, freedmen or +even slaves, and the other senators, as a class exquisitely sensitive to +any invasion of their privileges by outsiders, winked at the practice +partly because some of them participated in it, much more because they +feared to suffer out-and-out ruin, if, by word or look, they incurred the +disfavor of Perennis while he was all-powerful or, later, of the more +omnipotent Cleander. When a senator saw another so violate propriety, +privilege and law, he assumed that the acting Prefect of the Palace had +been bribed and so dared not protest or whisper disapprobation. + +Much more than the senators the nobles obtained secret license to ignore +the rules, or ignored them without license, since, when so many violated +the regulations, no one was conspicuous or likely to be brought to book. +Falco, being vastly wealthy, probably bribed somebody, but I never knew: +when I hinted a query he merely smiled and vowed that we were perfectly +safe. + +So I sat beside him through that unforgettable December day, at the end of +which came the culmination of what I have been describing. + +The day was perfect, clear, crisp, mild and windless. It was not cold +enough to be chilling, but was cold enough to make completely comfortable +a pipe-clayed ceremonial toga over the full daily garments of a noble or +senator, so that the entire audience enjoyed the temperature and basked in +the brilliant sunrays; for, so late in the year, as the warmth of the sun +was sure to be welcome, the awning had not been spread. I, in my bizarre +oriental attire, wore my thickest garments and my fullest curled wig and +felt neither too cold nor too warm. + +I never saw the Colosseum so brilliant a spectacle. It was full to the +upper colonnade under the awning-rope poles, not a seat vacant. Spectators +were sitting on the steps all up and down every visible stair; two or even +three rows on each side of each stair, leaving free only a narrow alley up +the middle of each for the passage in or out of attendants or others. +Spectators filled the openings of the entrance-stairs, all but jamming +each. In each of the cross-aisles spectators stood or crouched against its +back-wall, ducking their heads to avoid protests from the luckier +spectators in the seats behind them. The upper colonnade was packed to its +full capacity with standees. + +The program was unusual, gladiatorial exhibitions from the beginning of +the show; and nothing else. The morning was full of brisk fights between +young men; provincials, foreigners and some Italians, volunteer +enthusiasts. The noon pause was filled in by routine fights of old or +aging gladiators nearly approaching the completion of their covenanted +term of service. It ended with a novelty, the encounter of two tight-rope +walkers on a taut rope stretched fully thirty feet in the air. It was +proclaimed that they were rivals for the favor of a pretty freedwoman and +that they had agreed on this contest as a settlement of their rivalry. +Certainly the two, naked save for breech-clouts and each armed with a +light lance in one hand and a thin-bladed Gallic sword in the other, +neared each other with every sign of caution, enmity and courage. Their +sparring for an opening lasted some time, but was breathlessly +interesting. The victor kept his feet on the rope and pierced his rival, +who fell and died from the spear-wound or the fall or both. + +During the noon pause the Emperor had left his pavilion. When he returned +I, from my nearby location, was certain that Commodus himself had presided +all the morning, but that now Furfur was taking his place. Certainly Palus +and Murmex entered the arena soon after the noon pause and gave an +exhibition almost twice as long as usual, killing many adversaries. Before +the sun was half way down the sky, as Palus finished an opponent with one +of his all but invisible punctures of the thigh-artery, the upper tiers +first and then all ranks acclaimed this as the death of the twelve- +hundredth antagonist who had perished by his unerring steel. + +The daylight had not begun to dim when Murmex and Palus faced each other +for the fencing bout which was to end the day. Each was equipped as a +_secutor_, Murmex in silvered armor, Palus all in gold or gilded arms. +Their swords were not regulation army swords, such a _secutors_ normally +carried, but long-bladed Gallic swords, the longest-bladed swords ever +used by any gladiators. + +They made a wonderful picture as the _lanistae_ placed them and stepped +back: Murmex, burly, stocky, heavy of build, thick-set, massive, with vast +girth of chest and bull-neck, his neatly-fitting plated gauntlet, huge on +his big right hand, his big plated boots planted solidly on the sand, his +polished helmet, the great expanse of his silvered shield, his silvered +kilt-strap-scales and silvered greave-boots brilliant in the cool late +light; opposite him Palus, tall, lithe, graceful, slim, agile, all in +gleaming gold, helmet, corselet, shield, kilt, greave-boots and all. They +shone like a composite jewel set in the arena as a cameo in the bezel of a +ring. And the picture they made was framed in the hoop of spectators +crowding the slopes of the amphitheater, all silent after the gusts of +cheers which had acclaimed the two as they took their places. + +If possible, their feints and assaults were more thrilling than ever, +unexpected, sudden, swift, all but successful. As always neither capered +or pranced, Murmex not built for such antics, Palus by nature steady on +his feet. But, except that their feet moved cannily, every bit of the rest +of either's body was in constant motion and moved swiftly. The gleam and +flicker of thrust and parry were inexpressibly rapid. Even the upper tiers +craned, breathless and fascinated; and we, further forward, were numb and +quivering with excitement. + +I have heard a hundred eye-witnesses describe what occurred. There was +close agreement with what I seemed to see as I watched. + +Palus lunged just as Murmex made a brilliantly unpredictable shift of his +position. The shift and lunge came so simultaneously that neither had, in +his calculated, predetermined movement, time to alter his intention; +Murmex, you might say, threw his throat at the spot at which Palus had +aimed his lunge. The sword-point ripped his throat from beside the gullet +to against the spine, all one side of it. He collapsed, the blood +spouting. + +Palus cast the dripping sword violently from him, the gleaming blade +flying up into the air and falling far off on the sand. The big shield +fell from his right arm. Both his hands caught his big helmet, lifted it +and threw it behind him. On one knee he sank by Murmex and, with his left +hand, strove to staunch the gushing blood. + +Before Galen, before even the _lanistae_ could reach the two, Murmex died. + +Palus staggered to his feet and put up his gory hand to his yellow curls, +with a convincingly agonized gesture of grief and horror. + +He uttered some words, I heard his voice, but not the words. Folk say he +said: + +"I have killed the only match I had on earth, the second-best fighter +earth ever saw." + +The audience, I among them, stared, awe-struck and fascinated, at Commodus +laying a bloody hand on his own head; we shuddered: I saw many look back +and forth from Palus in the arena to the figure on the Imperial throne. + +The guards ran, the surgeons' helpers ran, even Galen ran, but Aemilius +Laetus reached Palus first, and, between the dazed and stunned _lanistae_, +picked up the big golden helmet and replaced it on his head, hiding his +features. The distance from the _podium_ wall to the center of the arena +is so great, the distance from any other part of the audience so much +greater, that, while many of the spectators were astounded, suspicious or +curious, not one could be certain that Palus was, beyond peradventure, the +Prince of the Republic in person. Palus stood there, alternately staring +at his dead crony and talking to Laetus and Galen. + +The heralds had run up with the guards. Laetus, without any pretense of +consultation with the dummy Emperor on the throne, spoke to the heralds +and each stalked off to one focus of the ellipse of the arena. Thence each +bellowed for silence, their deep-toned, resonant, loud, practiced voices +carrying to the upper colonnade everywhere. Silence, deep already since +Murmex received his death-wound and broken only by whispers, deepened. The +amphitheater became almost still. Into the stillness the heralds +proclaimed that next day the funeral games of Murmex Lucro would be +celebrated in the Colosseum where he had died; that all persons entitled +to seats in the Colosseum were thereby enjoined to attend, unless too ill +to leave their homes: that all should come without togas, but, in sign of +mourning for Murmex, wearing over their garments full-length, all- +enveloping rain-cloaks of undyed black wool and similarly colored umbrella +hats; that any person failing to attend so habited would be severely +punished; that the show would be worth seeing, for, in honor of the Manes +of Murmex, to placate his ghost, no defeated fighter would be spared and +all the victors of the morning would fight each other in the afternoon. + +Surely the tenth day before the Kalends of January, in December of the +nine hundred and forty-fourth year of the City, [Footnote: 191 A.D.] the +year in which Commodus was nominally consul for the seventh time, and +Pertinax consul for the second time, saw the strangest audience ever +assembled in the amphitheater of the Colosseum. I was there, seated, as on +the day before, next my master, my gaudy Asiatic garments, like his garb +of a noble of equestrian rank, hidden under a great raincoat and my face +shaded by the broad brim of an umbrella hat. + +The universal material conventional for mourners' attire is certainly +appropriate and proper for mourning garb. For the undyed wool of black +sheep, when spun and woven, results in a cloth dingy in the extreme. The +wearing of garments made of it suits admirably with grief and gloom of +spirit, deepens sadness, accentuates woe, almost produces melancholy. And +the sight of it, when one is surrounded by persons so habited, conduces to +dejection and depression. This equally was felt by the whole audience. +Instead of being a space glaring in the sunlight shining on an expanse of +white togas, the hollow of the amphitheater was a dingy area of brownish +black under a lowering canopy of sullen cloud, for the sky was heavily +overcast and threatened rain all day, though not a drop fell. The windless +air was damp and penetratingly chilly, so that we almost shivered under +our swathings. The discomfort of not being warm enough and the dispiriting +effect of the grim sky and gloomy interior of the amphitheater was +manifest in a sort of general impression of melancholy and apprehension. + +Apprehension, or, certainly, uneasiness, pervaded the audience and, as it +were, seemed to diffuse itself from the Imperial Pavilion, crowded, not, +as usual, with jaunty figures in gaudy apparel, all crimson, blue, and +green, picked out and set off by edgings of silver and gold, but with a +solemn retinue, all hidden under dingy umbrella hats and swathed in rain- +cloaks. To see the throne occupied by a human shape so obscured by its +habiliments gave all beholders an uncanny feeling in which foreboding +deepened into alarm. The appearance of the whole audience, still more of +the Imperial retinue, was one to cause all beholders to interpret the garb +of the spectators as ill-omened, almost as inviting disaster. + +In the center of the arena was built up the pyre which was to consume all +that was left of Murmex. It was constructed of thirty-foot logs, each tier +laid across the one below it, the lower tiers of linden, willow, elm and +other quick-burning woods, their interstices filled with fat pine-knots; +the upper tiers of oak and maple, at which last I heard not a few +whispered protests, for old-fashioned folk felt it almost a sacrilege that +holy wood should be used to burn a gladiator, a man of blood. The pyre was +thus a square structure thirty feet on a side and fully twenty feet high; +each side showing silvered log-butts or log-ends, with gilded pine-knots +all between; its top covered with laurel boughs, over which was laid a +crimson rug with golden fringe, setting off the corpse of Murmex, which +lay in the silver armor he had worn in his last fight, high on the mound +of laurel boughs. + +At each focus of the arena was placed a round marble altar, one to Venus +Libitina, one to Pluto. By these the heralds took their stands and +proclaimed that no offerings would be made at the altars except one black +lamb at each, that every man slain in the day's fighting would be an +offering to the Manes of Murmex, since the day would be occupied solely +with the celebration of funeral games for the solace of his ghost. + +The games began with a set-to of sixteen pairs of gladiators fighting +simultaneously. After this was over the sixteen victors drew off towards +one end of the arena and sixteen other pairs fought simultaneously. After +them the victors of the first set paired off as the _lanistae_ arranged +and the eight pairs fought. The eight victors again rested while the +survivors of the second set simultaneously fought as eight pairs. So they +alternated till only two men survived. A third batch of thirty-two +gladiators then fought in sixteen pairs: then the two survivors of the +first and second batches fought. The heralds proclaimed that the sole +survivor of the first sixty-four would fight again in the afternoon. So +with the sole survivor of the third and fourth batches. This grim butchery +gave a savage tone to the whole day. All the morning many pairs fought, +till one of each pair was killed. But, after the fourth batch, every +victor in any fight was reserved to fight again in the afternoon. + +To my eyesight the figure on the throne, even under that broad hat-brim +and enveloped in that thick rain-cloak, was manifestly Commodus in person. +Unmistakably his was every Imperial gesture as he presided as Editor of +the games. + +During the noon interval, as usual, the Emperor retired to his robing-room +under the upper tiers of the amphitheater. When again, after the noon +interval, the throne was reoccupied, I felt certain that its occupant was +Ducconius Furfur. + +At any rate Palus appeared at once after the noon interval and the first +fight was between him and the survivor of the sixty-four wretches, who had +begun the day's butchery. Palus, of course, killed his man, but with more +appearance of effort and less easily than any adversary he had ever faced +under my observation. The people cheered his victory, but not so +enthusiastically as usual. He did not appear again till the last event of +the day, which was a series of duels between champions in two-horse +chariots, driven by expert charioteers, they and the fighters equipped +with arms and armor such as was used by both sides at the siege of Troy. +Horses are seldom seen in the Colosseum and these pairs, frantic at the +smell of blood, taxed to the utmost the skill and strength of their +drivers, particularly as they were controlled by the old-fashioned reins +of the Heroic period, the manipulation of which calls for methods +different from those effective with our improved modern reins. + +The charioteers were capable and their dexterous maneuvering for every +advantage of approach and relative position won many cheers. Eight pairs +fought, then the eight victors paired off, then the four victors, then the +two. The sole survivor then retired and while he was out of the arena +there entered a superb pair of bay horses, drawing a chariot of Greek +pattern, in which, to the amazement of all beholders, was Narcissus, the +wrestler, himself, habited as Automedon and acting as charioteer; while +beside him, magnificent in a triple crested crimson-plumed helmet of the +Thessalian type, in a gilded corselet of the style of the Heroic age, with +gilded scales on its kilt-straps, with gilded greaves, with a big gilded +Argive shield embossed with reliefs, and holding two spears, manifestly +habited as Achilles, stood Palus. + +When his refreshed antagonist reentered in a Trojan chariot and armored +and armed as Hector of Troy, Palus handed his two spears to his Automedon, +leapt from his chariot, walked over to Hector's, and spoke to him. I heard +it reported afterwards that he said: + +"It would spoil the program for Hector to slay Achilles, but you have as +much chance of killing me as I of killing you. I am so shaken by Murmex's +death that I am not the man I was yesterday morning and up till then. I +never felt so nearly matched as by you, not even by Murmex. Attack and +spare not. I have given orders that, if you kill me, you shall not suffer +for it in any way. I don't want to live, anyhow, now Murmex is dead." + +Whether he said this or something else, he spoke earnestly and walked back +to his chariot nearby, without any elasticity in his tread. + +Narcissus, the wrestler, to the astonishment of the spectators, proved +himself a paragon horse jockey. Everyone knew him as a wrestler, as +reported the strongest man alive, as claimed by his admirers to have a +more powerful hand-grasp than any rival, as the favorite wrestling-mate of +the Emperor; all the notabilities had seen him and Commodus wrestle in the +Stadium of the Palace; all Rome knew him for a crony of the Prince; yet no +one had ever heard him praised or even mentioned as a charioteer. Yet he +showed himself a matchless horseman. Hector's charioteer was a master, yet +Narcissus outmaneuvered him, gained the advantage of angle of approach +and, after many turns, gave Palus his chance. The two great lances flew +almost simultaneously; but, as Achilles dodged, Hector fell dying of a +mortal wound in the throat. + +What followed was, apparently, according to the prearranged program and +was indubitably in keeping with the equipment of the two champions and +their charioteers; yet it horrified me, and I think all the senators and +nobles as well as most of the audience. As Hector sprawled horridly on the +sand Narcissus veered his pair and, as they passed the fallen man, +Achilles leapt from his chariot. Drawing his Argive sword he slashed the +dying man across his abdomen; then, sheathing his blade, he stood, one +foot on his adversary's neck and, raising his lance and shield, shouted: +"Enalie! Enalie! Enalie!" the old Greek invocation to the war-god. Then he +threw aside his lance and shield and stripped off the armor from the dead. +Arena-slaves carried it to the pyre and placed it upon it, by Murmex. + +Narcissus had wheeled the chariot in a short circle and halted it as near +Palus as he could keep it and control the frantic horse. Palus took from +one of the hand-holds at the back of the chariot-rail a long leathern +thong. With his dirk he slit each foot of the corpse between the leg-bone +and the heel-tendon; through the slit he passed the thong, knotting it to +his liking. The doubled thong he tied securely to the rear rim of the +chariot-bed. Retrieving his lance and shield he posed an instant, every +inch Achilles, stepped over Hector's naked corpse and mounted the chariot. +From Automedon he took the reins and the whip, passing him his lance, yet +retaining his great circular shield, nowise hampered by which he drove the +chariot round and round the pyre, the picture, as all could see, he felt, +of Achilles placating the ghost of Patroclus. + +This exhibition shocked the whole audience, upper tiers and all. The ghost +of a hiss breathed under the tense hush of the silent beholders. A shudder +ran over the hollow of the amphitheater, as the dragged corpse, mauled by +the sand and turning over, became a mere lump of pounded meat. The chill +of the onlookers appeared to reach Palus. He halted his team near the +pyre, arena-slaves dragged away Hector's corpse, one brought a lighted +torch and Palus himself kindled the pyre at each of its four corners, +walking twice round it. When it was enveloped in crackling flames, he +mounted the chariot and Narcissus drove him out; drove him out, to the +horror of all beholders by the Gate of Ill-omen. + +After he vanished through that gate no amphitheater ever again beheld +Palus the Gladiator. + +When he was gone all eyes were fixed on the kindling pyre. The flames +blazed up all round it and above it, the smoke mounted skyward in a thick +column, the crackle and roar of the flames was audible all over the +amphitheater; so deep was the solemn stillness. I shall carry to my last +living hour the vivid recollection of that picture: under the grim gray +sky, framed in by the sable hangings which draped the upper colonnade, and +by the clingy audience, against the yellow sand, that column of sooty +smoke and below it the red glare of the blazing pyre. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +ANXIETY + + +After my seclusion at Baiae, up to the terrible events which I am about to +narrate, by far the most important of my experiences had been my personal +observations of the fights of Palus the Gladiator and what I had heard and +thought about him. Therefore I have narrated those at length and first. +Now I approach the story of my most dreadful miseries. + +From my return to Rome my life had gone on much as it had before my master +had compelled me to impersonate Salsonius Salinator and, in so doing, to +resume my natural appearance as I had looked while my genuine self, and +thus, undisguised, to mingle with the associates of my normal early life. +After my hair and beard had regained their previous luxuriance and I was +again painted, rouged, frizzed, bejeweled, and bedizened, I felt safe and, +was in fact, almost entirely safe. In this guise I enjoyed life. Falco was +indulgent to me and I had every luxury at my command. + +Falco's mania for gem-collecting did not wane, but, if possible, grew on +him. His ventures all prospered, his profits from risky speculations +poured in, his normal income from his heritage increased; and, of all this +opulence, every surplus denarius was paid out for gems and curios. Yet he +never was so much a faddist as to lose a day from the games of the circus +and the amphitheater. He viewed every show of gladiators, every day of +racing, almost every combat and every race. + +The day after the spectacular games for Murmex and his more spectacular +cremation, the eighth day before the Kalends of January, was nominally the +last racing day of the year. The weather was fair and mild. The Circus +Maximus was crowded, the Imperial Pavilion blazed with the retinue about +the Emperor, he and all of us enjoyed the thirty races of four four-horsed +chariots to each. I mention this because it was his last public +appearance. + +The festivities of the Saturnalia, which I had prepared for according to +Falco's orders with lavish prodigality, left me more than a little weary. +I spent some days mostly in resting and dozing, being drowsy all day, even +with long nights of sound sleep. + +On the fatal last day of the year I did not go out, but read or dozed and +went early to bed. I slept heavily, knowing nothing from composing myself +in bed until I wakened suddenly in the almost complete darkness of the +first hint of light at the dawn of a cloudy, windless winter day, I woke +with a sense of having been roused, of something unusual; and, vaguely +descrying a human figure by my bed asked, sleepily: + +"Is that you, Dromo?" + +"No," said Agathemer's voice, "it is I." + +I raised myself on one elbow, shot through with foreboding. But my +apprehensions were mastered by an idle curiosity. I knew he had some +imperative reason for coming to me, yet I did not ask his errand, but +queried: + +"How on earth did you get in?" + +"The house-door was open," he said simply. + +"But," I marvelled, "I am surprised that the janitor was awake so early." + +"He was not," said Agathemer with deliberate emphasis, "he was as fast +asleep in his cell on the right of the vestibule as was the watch-dog in +his on the left." + +"And you walked past both unnoticed?" I hazarded. + +"I did," said he, "and you had best warn Falco somehow or induce him to +sell his janitor and buy one he can trust or to put in his place some +trusty home-slave. That is no sort of a janitor for the house containing +the second-largest private gem-collection in all Rome. Nor any sort of +watch-dog." + +"How came the door unbarred?" I wondered, "who showed you up here?" + +"I came up alone," said Agathemer, significantly. "I have not seen a human +being except the snoring janitor. This house is at the mercy of any sneak- +thief. But you can return to that later. I have come to tell you good +news. Commodus is dead!" + +"Really?" I quavered. + +Oddly enough I felt no sense of relief. Before my eyes arose the picture +of Commodus as I had seen him facing the mutineers from Britain before he +condemned Perennis: I recalled how often I had heard said of him that he +was the noblest born of all our Emperors from the Divine Julius down; that +he was the handsomest and the strongest man in any assembly about him, +however large; that in his Imperial Regalia he looked more imperial than +any man ever had: I contrasted his possession of these qualities with his +pitiful squandering of his boundless opportunities, with his frittering +away his life on horse-racing, sword-play and such like frivolities. I +could not think of myself, only of what Commodus might have been and had +not been. I mourned for him and Rome. + +Agathemer sat down on the edge of my bed and told his story. + +"You know," he said, "that, as gem-expert and as salesman for Orontides, I +have many friends in the Palace. I have carefully kept out of it myself +and Orontides has acquiesced, for I told him I had good reason to avoid +going in there, as you well know I have. If Marcia had seen me she would +have recognized me and I should not have lived many hours, for she, +believing you dead, would regard me as, of all men, the most likely to see +through the utilization of Ducconius Furfur as a dummy Emperor to free +Commodus for masquerading as Palus. She would want me out of the way as +the only man in Rome who had known Furfur in Sabinum. Therefore I kept +away from the Palace. + +"But my good friends among the valets and chamberlains and secretaries, +and even higher officials have not only kept me posted as to the most +interesting happenings, intrigues and rumors, but one or two close to the +Emperor have regularly communicated to me many details of Palace gossip." + +Daily, since the death of Murmex, Agathemer had been informed of long, +heated and ever longer and more violent discussions between Commodus and +Marcia, often, with Eclectus also present and participating, for he had +been acting towards Commodus more as an equal toward a crony than as Head +Chamberlain of the Palace towards his master. Laetus, too had also +participated, sometimes in place of Eclectus, sometimes along with him, +for he also had been comporting himself more as a chum of Commodus than as +Prefect of the Praetorium towards his Emperor. + +The substance of the discussions had been always the same. Commodus, at +once after the death of Murmex, announced his intention of turning his +Imperial duties and dignities over to Ducconius Furfur and of going to the +Choragium, there and thenceforward to live and to die as Palus the +Gladiator. He declared that as Emperor he never had an hour free from +anxiety, always in dread of assassination by poison or otherwise, whereas, +as a gladiator among gladiators, he felt perfectly safe and carefree, +beloved and watched over by all his companions and certain to win all his +fights. + +"As Emperor," he said, "I'll not live a year; as Palus I'll most likely +die of old age, forty years or more from now. Furfur and I are so alike +that no one can tell us apart, so no one will ever suspect that the man +acting as Emperor is not the same man who has filled that place ever since +Father died." + +Marcia had talked to him of his duty and he had rejoined that he had +always known that he was unfit to be the Emperor, had feared his +responsibilities, had undertaken them unwillingly, had mostly bungled +them, and the world would be far better off with anybody else as Emperor, +that everybody knew it and that he was despised by the whole Senate and +nobility and for that reason more unhappy although he was unhappy enough +so anyhow, without the covert jeers of the magistrates; whereas he was the +best gladiator ever and all gladiators and experts acknowledged and +acclaimed him peerless; as a gladiator he would be happy and enjoy life up +to whatever end came to him, preferably an unexpected accidental sudden +death such as had befallen Murmex. Ducconius Furfur had not only sat in +his throne at shows, but had received embassies, read better than he the +addresses composed for him by his Prefects of the Praetorium and +Secretaries, knew all the tricks of the office and could and would be a +better Emperor than ever he had been. + +When Eclectus and Laetus argued with him the results were similar. + +Then Marcia admonished him that while Furfur had escaped detection in mere +routine matters he was certain to be detected within a few days if he +essayed all the Imperial duties before all sorts of people. In that case +some sort of revolt would abolish him and put a new Emperor in place of +him and any such chosen autocrat would quickly order the death of Palus +the Gladiator to assure himself the throne. To this line of argument +Commodus had been as deaf as to all other lines. + +"Why," he had said, "if I change clothes with Furfur you wouldn't know the +difference yourself. If we both were garbed as Emperor, Laetus wouldn't +know which to obey. And if my wife and most loyal servant cannot tell +which is which when we are side by side and habited alike, who will ever +suspect that Furfur is not I when I am out of the way, far off, living as +Palus the Swordsman, never alongside the Emperor or in sight at the same +time? The plan cannot miscarry." + +He had announced that he meant on the Kalends of January to take up his +abode in the Choragium and leave the Palace and its adjuncts and all his +prerogatives to Ducconius Furfur. He had Furfur in and the five had a +heated wrangle. Furfur, after the discussion, had another with Marcia, +Eclectus and Laetus, declaring that he thought the scheme as insane as +they thought it, but dared not show reluctance for fear of being put to +death at once: as an impostor Emperor he would, at least, have a chance, +if a faint chance, of success and survival. + +Then they all had a long altercation on the last day of the year, during +which Commodus cursed Marcia and Eclectus and Laetus and vowed he would +have them all executed if they mentioned the subject again. He imperiously +bade them acquiesce and so silenced them. + +Then he made Furfur, who pretended to him that he was delighted, remain to +drink with him. They drank till both were dead drunk and snoring. + +Marcia, finding them so, held a consultation with Eclectus and Laetus and +proposed to have Narcissus strangle Furfur, saying that with Furfur out of +the way Commodus might come to his senses: she would risk his wrath and be +resigned to death if she failed to placate him; for, with Furfur dead, he +could not carry out his crazy intentions. She said she loved Commodus so +much that she was willing to save him even at the cost of her own life. + +Eclectus and Laetus acclaimed her plan and were overjoyed at their +opportunity, for all three hated Furfur. Yet, all three shrank from going +into the room with Narcissus. He, entering alone, mistook the two +sleepers, who had changed clothes, and by mistake for Furfur, strangled +Commodus. After his victim was indubitably dead and past any possibility +of reviving he summoned his accomplices and, when Marcia shrieked and +fainted, for the first time realized his blunder. + +Then, frantic, he seized Furfur and strangled him to death long before +Eclectus had revived Marcia from her swoon. + +As Agathemer told it to me all this came out in a haphazard tangle of +unfinished sentences, interruptions, fresh starts, questions, answers, +repetitions and explanations. + +Meanwhile the day had dawned gray and lowering. Of all my strange +experiences none were more eery than that talk with Agathemer, beginning +in the dark and, with his form and features and expressions effaced, +gradually becoming more and more visible. And towards the end of his +disclosures he checked himself in the middle of a word and, raising his +hand, whispered: + +"Hark!" + +Silent and tense, we listened. Even in my bedroom, opening on the side +gallery of the peristyle, we heard, from over the roofs, cries of: + +"The tyrant is dead! The despot is dead! The prize-fighter is dead! The +murderer is dead!" + +"The news is out!" Agathemer ejaculated, and he breathed a prayer to +Mercury, in which I joined. When finally he had told all he had to tell I +marvelled: + +"Can it be possible that the most intimate and secret conversations of the +Prince of the Republic, of the most sedulously guarded man on earth, are +thus overheard by underlings and so promptly communicated even to +outsiders presumably to be reckoned among his enemies?" + +"I conjecture," Agathemer rejoined, "that I am not the only outsider in +receipt of information of this kind." + +"If you have been, all along," I asked, "in receipt of such information, +why have you always talked of Furfur's presence in the Palace and his +utilization as a dummy Emperor while Commodus masqueraded as Palus, as a +conjecture of yours which you believed, but of which you could not be +certain? Why have you not frankly spoken of it as a fact, which many knew +of and of which some in a position to know, repeatedly informed you?" + +"Because no one ever did so inform me," Agathemer answered, "they merely +dropped hints, mostly hints, unnoticed by themselves, unintentionally +dropped by them, and uncertainly pieced together by me. While Commodus was +alive each of my informants, however fond of me, however under obligations +to me, however anticipative of profit from me, however eager to curry +favor with me, yet had vividly before him the dread of death, of death +with torture, if any disloyalty of his, any dereliction in deed, word or +thought, came to the notice of Commodus or Laetus or Eclectus, or if any +one of them came to harbor any suspicion of him. All were vague, guarded, +indefinite, cautious. + +"Since midnight all that has changed. None fears any retribution for +blabbing; all feel an overmastering urge towards confiding in some one. +The three who, each unknown to the others, have resorted to me, told me +unreckonably more than I previously conjectured. I comprehend the entire +situation, now." + +"If so," I said, "make me comprehend it. I do not. How could Furfur be +coerced or persuaded to such an imposture? How could he be domiciled in +the Palace along with Marcia and Commodus and the deception maintained? +How could the three personally endure or even sustain the difficulties of +the situation?" + +"It all hinged," Agathemer explained, "on the fact that Furfur was +insanely in love with Marcia, that Marcia hated and loathed him and that +Commodus realized how each felt to the other. He was so sure of Marcia's +detestation of Furfur that he was never jealous of him, so sure of +Furfur's complete subserviency to Marcia that he never feared betrayal by +him. Actually, from what I hear, Furfur complied as he did partly from +loyalty to Commodus, partly from fear of him, partly, perhaps, from a sort +of relish for his risky impersonation, but chiefly because he was wax in +Marcia's hands; as, indeed, was every man who came within reach of her +fascinations. Does that explain it?" + +"Enough," I agreed. "Perhaps as far as it can or could be explained." + +"The main thing," said Agathemer, "is that Commodus is dead." + +"I should be pleased to hear that," I said, "and I am and I thank you. +But, somehow, I am unable to think of myself. Uppermost in my mind is the +thought of the dead autocrat, of his unlimited power, of his inability to +surround himself with trustworthy dependents, and of all you have had +hinted to you and, even to-night, told you. In such a world, who can +consider himself safe?" + +Agathemer looked piqued. + +"I reckoned," he said, "that you would feel, if not safe, at least less +unsafe upon hearing my announcement." + +"I do," said I, "for, under any other Prince, I should be less in danger, +and, when we learn who is chosen Emperor, it may turn out that I have some +chance of rehabilitation." + +"Laetus and Eclectus," said Agathemer, "have decided to make Pertinax +Emperor. When my informer left the Palace they had already set off to find +Pertinax, presumably at his home, and offer him the Principate." + +"That," I gloried, "is truly good news. I knew him as a young noble knows +many an older senator: he may remember me. He should have nothing against +me. You raise my hopes high!" + +"By all means be hopeful and cheerful," said Agathemer, "but stick to your +present disguise and continue your present way of life until we are sure. +Do not be rash." + +We consulted further and he said: + +"I'll keep away from you except when it seems imperative to talk with you. +I shall not send any more letters than I must. Do not write to me. If you +must see me, it will be safe to come to Orontides' shop, as Falco is +continually sending you there about gems. You can nod to me without any +uttered word and I'll then come here as soon as may be." + +He left just as dawn brightened into full day. + +Among the first proclamations of our new Emperor was one expressly +abolishing the court for prosecuting accusations for infringement of the +Imperial Majesty by incautious words or inadvertent acts and at the same +time decreeing the recall of every living exile banished for such +transgressions; also specifically rehabilitating the memory of all persons +who had been under Commodus, put to death on the pretext of this sort of +guilt. Before the end of the day on which this decree was promulgated I +received a letter from Agathemer in which he wrote: + + "Beware! Keep close. Already it is rumored that exceptions to this + decree have been made. Marcia is still alive, is married to Eclectus, + and Eclectus is confirmed as Palace Chamberlain. With Marcia close to + the Emperor you are not safe, no matter who is Emperor. Keep close!" + +I followed his advice, which was easy for me to do, as I was very +comfortable and well habituated to my life. Moreover I was buoyed up with +hope of early rehabilitation and of then marrying Vedia, who sent me one +cautiously worded note, congratulating me on the disappearance of my most +dangerous foeman, warning me that I still had formidable enemies alive and +in high places, and begging me to be prudent. She reiterated her +expressions of love, devotion and fidelity. + +From Tanno also I received a letter warning me to be on guard and to +efface myself as much as possible. + +Falco, who had loathed Commodus, but had been careful to keep a still +tongue on all matters except horse-racing, sword-play, social pleasures +and gem-collecting, was much relieved at his death, and heartily delighted +with his successor. He took pains to be present among the auditors of +Pertinax whenever nobles were admitted along with the senators to listen +to his addresses, which was almost always. He took to heart the new +Emperor's adjurations as to economy and his invectives against the evils +of speculative enterprises of all kinds. Over our wine after dinner, when +we two dined alone together, much as Agathemer and I had when I was my +former self, he unbosomed himself to me. + +"Pertinax is right," he averred, "there is a real difference between +enterprises which enrich only the participants and those which, while +profiting their promoters, also add to the wealth of the Republic. I +applaud his distinction between the two. I agree with him that wealthy men +like me should invest their capital in nothing which does not benefit +mankind as well as themselves. I have realized with a shock of shame that +my greed for cash to spend on jewels has led me to embark in ventures +which merely divert into my coffers the proceeds of other men's efforts, +without adding anything to the sum-total of usable wealth. I mean to +withdraw from all such monetary acrobatics and utilize my surplus in +extending my estates, in buying others, in cattle-breeding, sheep-raising, +goat-herding, and in the cultivation of olives, vines, and other such +remunerative growths, along with wheat-farming. Thus I will add to the +resources of the Republic, while increasing my own cash income. + +"Our conscientious Prince is equally correct in exhorting us to eschew all +frivolities. I'll buy no more gems. Nay, I'll auction my collection, as +soon as Rome recovers its calm and purchasers are as eager as last year. +I'll invest the proceeds in productive enterprise. Thus, as Pertinax says, +I shall be a more useful citizen and an even happier man." + +Actually he at once initiated his arrangements for closing out the +speculative ventures which he controlled and for withdrawing from those in +which he participated. And he bought no more gems, though he talked gems +as much as previously, or even more, and took great pride in showing +visitors over his collection or in conning his treasures in company with +me or even entirely alone by himself. + +His enthusiasm for Pertinax grew warmer day by day and he talked of him, +praising him, lauded him, prophesied for him great things and from him +great benefits to the Republic and the Empire. + +The alleged conspiracy against Pertinax of Consul Sosius Falco and his +disgrace and relegation to his estates was a great shock to my master. +That his cousin should plot against the Prince of our Republic, or lay +himself open to accusation of such plotting, appeared to him hideous and +shameful. He felt disgraced himself, as bearing the same family name. He +gloomed and mourned over the matter. + +The murder of Pertinax, by his own guards, on the fifth day before the +Kalends of April, when he had been less than three months Emperor, was +even a more violent shock to Falco, who was crushed with horror at such a +crime. He was even more horrified at the arrogance of the guilty +Praetorians and at their shameless effrontery in offering the Imperial +Purple to the highest bidder and in, practically, selling the Principiate +to so bestial a Midas as Didius Julianus, who, of all the senators, seemed +most to misbecome the Imperial Dignity and who had nothing to recommend +him except his opulence. + +During the days of rioting which followed the murder of Pertinax we, +naturally, kept indoors. When the disorders abated and the streets of Rome +resumed their normal activities, Falco continued to remain at home. I +expostulated with him, but he appeared, suddenly, a changed man, as if +dazed and stunned by recent events. He, who had been continually on the +go, living in a round of social pleasures, became averse to much of what +he had before revelled in. My most ingenious pleadings were required to +induce him to go to the Public Baths, which fashionable clubhouses he had +frequented every afternoon from his first arrival at Rome. Until the death +of Pertinax he had only very occasionally dined alone with me: nearly +every day he went out to a formal dinner or entertained a large batch of +guests at a lavish banquet. After Pertinax's murder he began to refuse +invitations to dine and he gave fewer dinners. He spent a great deal of +his time with his lawyers and accountants and went over the affairs of his +African estates, minutely, one by one and all of them. He made a new will +and told me of it. + +"Phorbas," he said, "I am troubled with forebodings. I have never thought +of death until recently, except as of something far off and to be +considered much later: since the murder of our good Emperor I think of it +continually. If I live long enough to see normal conditions restored I +shall follow the suggestions given to me by the addresses of Pertinax and +shall auction my gems. Meanwhile I dread that I may not live to do so. +Therefore I have made a will leaving my entire collection to you. I hereby +enjoin you, should you come into possession of them, to sell the gems at +auction, as soon as you see fit, and to invest the proceeds in enterprises +which shall add to the wealth of the Republic. This bequest is a trust. +Besides I have, as in former wills, bequeathed to you your freedom, and a +legacy sufficient to make you comfortable for life. Moreover I have made +you the heir of one-fourth of my estate, what remains of it after the gem +collections is yours and all specific legacies are paid. I do not love my +nephews and cousins and have bequeathed to them more than they deserve; as +to the toadies who have hung about me and fawned on me in the hope of +legacies, I despise them all. You are my best friend and chief heir." + +I thanked him effusively and was so much affected that I myself began to +have uncomfortable, vague forebodings. Agathemer happened to visit me and +I confided to him the contents of my old leather amulet-bag. Of course I +had not worn it since I began life with Falco, as a greasy old amulet-bag +of the meanest material and pattern was wholly out of keeping with the +character I had assumed. I wore instead a flat locket of pure gold, +containing a talisman from the Pontic fastnesses. I had kept my share of +our mountain trove of stolen jewels, not needing to part with any after +Falco bought me and unconcerned for the gems, as I now needed no such +store of savings. Now, suddenly, I felt uneasy about myself, my future and +my possessions. These jewels I therefore placed in Agathemer's keeping, +sure that they would be safer with him than with me and certain that he +could realize on them quickly and transmit to me promptly whatever sums I +might need. + +I did all I could to rouse Falco from his lethargy and succeeded to some +extent. But, all through April and May, he went out little, accepted few +invitations and gave few dinners. Much of his time he spent among his +jewels, conning them, handling them, taking curios from their cases and, +as it were, caressing them. The rooms which held them were on the left +hand side of the peristyle on the upper floor, across the court from my +apartment and not precisely opposite it. There were three rooms; the +larger with a door on the gallery, and a smaller on either side of it, +opening from it and lit by windows towards the gallery. Each room had a +marble table in the middle, small and round in both side cabinets, +rectangular and large in the main room. Each of the three rooms was walled +with cases and shelves; on the shelves were displayed his larger curios, +vases, cameos, intaglios, plaques, murrhine bowls and such like; in the +cases were necklaces, bracelets, rings, seals and trays of unset gems of +all sorts and sizes. Here Falco spent hours each day, gloating over his +treasures. + +"Phorbas," he said, "I am resolute never to buy another gem, equally +resolute to auction all I have whenever conditions make a profitable sale +probable. Yet, although I feel that I shall never live to see them +auctioned, the very thought of parting with them cuts me to the quick. I +am almost in tears to think of it. I love every piece I own. I hate to +think I must either live to see them sold or die and leave them. I cannot +be with them enough of my time. I could spend all my waking hours enjoying +their loveliness and my luck in owning them." + +I thought this condition of mind positively unhealthy and consulted Galen. + +"You are right," he said, "and you are wrong too. Your master is badly +shaken by the horrors of this appalling year, but he is not deranged nor, +at this present time, in any more danger of derangement than most of the +senators and nobles with whom he associates. Yet you are correct in being +uneasy. Don't antagonize him, but do all you can, tactfully and +unobtrusively, to keep him away from those jewels and to get him out to +the Baths of Titus or to dinners. Do your utmost to induce him to +entertain. A jolly dinner with a bevy of jovial guests will be the very +medicine for him." + +Had I been a Greek I could not have been, more wily or more successful. He +spent less time with his gems, went out to the Baths oftener, accepted +some dinner invitations and gave a few dinners. He even took some interest +in preparing for these and in giving orders about them. He had five +complete sets of silverware for his _triclinium_ and had a fancy for using +this or that set, according to the characters of his prospective guests. + +Early in May he had invited a carefully selected company of concordant +guests, three senators and the rest nobles like himself, and was +anticipating a delightful evening. He had bidden me to see to the +selection of the flowers for decorating the _triclinium_, for the +garlands, and for sprinkling on the floor; to choose the wines I thought +would be most appropriate and to have brought out and used his most prized +set of silver, the work of Corinnos of Rhodes, embossed with scenes from +Ovid's Metamorphoses and acclaimed one of the finest services in Rome. +Besides the two tall mixing-bowls for tempering the wine before serving +it, the set had four smaller ones, about the size of well-buckets, and +much like them, for each was provided with two hinged handles, just like a +water-pail. I saw to the polishing of every piece in this magnificent +service, to their proper disposal, to the decoration of the _triclinium_ +with flowers, verified the wines I had chosen, inspected every detail of +the preparations for the feast, and, just before the first guest might be +expected to arrive, went out and back into the kitchen to make sure that +every dish of each course was being properly prepared and that nothing +would be lacking. + +When I returned to the _triclinium_ I found it swept clean of silver, +except the two big wine mixers. The four two-handled pails were gone and +with them the salt-cellars, the wine strainers, every soup-spoon, every +oyster-spoon, in fact every small piece, to the last. The thieves must +have been deft, agile and keen, for nothing was overset or disturbed and I +had heard no noise. + +I rushed to the house-door, found it ajar and, each sleeping in his cell, +on the one side the snoring janitor, on the other our fat, pursy, overfed +watchdog. + +I omit my hasty measures for pursuing the thieves and attempting their +capture or at least the recovery of their booty; and my urgent and +important efforts to arrange that our guests should be properly received +and the dinner should not be spoiled. Towards this last I did what could +be done and with fair success, Falco playing up to my suggestions and +dissimulating his chagrin. + +More important to record was his amazing indifference to his loss. Not +that he did not feel it acutely, but that he seemed to feel no proper +indignation against those at fault. + +He questioned the janitor and all the slaves concerned, but instead of +ordering scourged the two servitors whom I had left in the _triclinium_ +when I went out of it to visit the kitchen and who should have remained +there until my return, he merely reprimanded them mildly. He did not so +much as have the undutiful janitor flogged, let alone sent away for sale. +He even laughed at the luck, alertness, dexterity and swiftness of the +thieves; picturing their glance into the unshut door, their glances up and +down the street, their eyeings of the watchdog and janitor, their +noiseless dash into the atrium, their invasion of the _triclinium_, their +gathering of the smaller pieces into the four handled wine-mixers, and +their escape, each with two silver pails stuffed with goblets, salt- +cellars, and bowls and, brimming with strainers, spoons and other small +pieces. + +He commented on their luck in not encountering any of his approaching +guests. + +"Mercury," he said, "to whom you chiefly pray, must have been good to +them, as his votaries." + +I was horrified at the levity of his attitude of mind. When we were alone +I remonstrated with him, saying that such leniency was certain to +demoralize his household; would ruin any set of slaves. I told him that +his retention of the janitor after Agathemer's unnoticed entrance on the +first day of the year was bad enough, far worse was it to condone a second +lapse, and that having had consequences so serious. I expostulated that it +was madness to entrust his housedoor to a watchman already twice caught +asleep at his post. I reminded him of the cash value of his gem-collection +and of its value in his eyes, not to be reckoned in cash. He listened +indulgently and said: + +"I thank you, Phorbas. All you say is true. And, any time last year, I +should have sold that janitor without a thought, after your information +against him last January. But, somehow, since the murder of Commodus, yet +more since the murder of Pertinax, I seem less prone to severity and more +inclined to mercy. The waiter-boys deserve flogging, but I cannot harden +my heart and order it. The janitor merits being sold without a character, +after a severe scourging; yet I feel for him, too. I'll give him another +chance." + +I could not move him. + +I again consulted Galen: + +"You are right!" he exclaimed. "A Roman nobleman who hesitates to have his +slaves flogged or sold and merely reprimands them, is certainly deranged. +Any natural Roman would insist on scourgings and even severer punishments, +But his eccentricity is not dangerous to him or anybody as yet. Humor him, +do not oppose his worship of his treasures, but entice him away from them +all you can by devices he does not suspect. + +"And let me add, keep away from me, for your own sake. Keep away from +Vedia and Tanno and Agathemer. Do not write letters. True, Julianus has +put Marcia to death and you are rid of a pertinacious and alert enemy. But +he has recalled into favor most of the professional informers who +flourished under Commodus and they are on the watch for victims to win +them praise and rewards. Several of the exiles recalled by Pertinax have +been rearrested and re-banished or even executed since Julianus came into +power. Keep close and beware!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +ACCUSATION + + +The murder or assassination or execution of Julianus on the Kalends of +June shocked Falco even more than the deaths of Commodus and Pertinax. As +the June days passed I had to exercise my greatest adroitness to keep him +from spending all his waking hours indoors, chiefly in moping about his +collection of gems. I did pretty well with him, for I wheedled him into +going to the Baths of Titus three afternoons out of four, into going out +to dine one evening in three, and I even induced him to give several +formal dinners, each of which was a great success. + +But, if I left him to himself, I invariably found him glooming over the +gems which no longer gave him any real pleasure. And I could not blame +him. Indoors one felt reasonably safe in Rome that June, for no residences +had been broken into anywhere in the city, though many shops had been +looted and some burnt. But, in the streets, the insolence of the +Praetorians was unendurable and their unbridled license and arrogance +terrorized the entire population, especially the upper classes. Going +anywhere in broad daylight was dangerous, even going to the Baths of Titus +from the Esquiline was risky. Anyone like Falco was certain to feel safer +indoors. And the tense uncertainty of those twenty-four days made +everybody restless, feverish, fidgety and morose: civil war between +Severus and Pescennius Niger, lord of the East, was inevitable. How +Clodius Albinus, in control of Gaul, Spain and Britain, would act, was +problematical. We were all keyed-up, apprehensive and wretched. + +Our suspense was shorter since it turned out that Severus had made up his +mind and begun to make his rapid and effective arrangements as soon as he +heard of the murder of Pertinax. Pertinax was murdered on the fifth day +before the Kalends of April and so swiftly travelled the imperial couriers +who were his friends and who arranged to set out at once and carry Severus +the news, that the first of them rode more than eight hundred miles in +eight days and reached him at Caruntum in Pannonia on the Nones of April. +Severus was cautious, kept secret what he had heard and moved seventy-two +miles nearer Rome to Sabaria in Pannonia, where, after the news was +confirmed beyond question, he harangued the soldiers and was by them +saluted Emperor on the Ides of April. At once he assured himself of the +support or acquiescence of his officers and won over the local authorities +and garrisons all over Illyricum, Noricum and Rhaetia. Bands of his most +trusted soldiers set off towards Rome by every road. He gathered his +forces, made sure of their loyalty and began his march. He was already at +Aquileia when the news of the death of Julianus reached him there on the +Nones of June. He marched straight to Rome and on the tenth day before the +Kalends of July, the day of the summer solstice, was outside the city, +accompanied by the delegation of senators who had met him at Interamnia +and surrounded by the six hundred picked men who acted as his personal +guards, who, it was rumored, had not taken off their corselets day nor +night since they left Sabaria. + +The next day, the ninth day before the Kalends of July, we heard with +amazement that the Praetorians had been cowed, had surrendered their +standards to Severus and had been disarmed. Certainly knots of them hung +about the streets and squares, all in ordinary tunics and rain hats, shorn +of their uniforms as well as of their weapons, and looking not only +humbled but frightened. It was rumored that all of those directly +concerned with the murder of Pertinax had been not only disarmed and +stripped of their uniforms, but actually stripped naked and scourged out +of the camp by the Illyrian legionaries who had surrounded and cowed them, +and ordered to flee the neighborhood of Rome and never again to approach +within a hundred miles of the capitol. + +From noon of that day the whole city was in a ferment, preparing for the +entry on the morrow of our new Emperor. This was acclaimed the most +magnificent spectacle ever beheld in Rome; certainly I was never spectator +of anything so impressive. The day was fair, almost cloudless, mild and +warm, but pleasant with a gentle breeze. From where Falco and I viewed the +procession, nearer the Forum, we gazed about on a wondrous picture: the +blue sky above, under it a frame of roofs, mostly of red tiles, some of +green weathered bronze among them giving variety, and here and there a +temple roof of silver gleaming in the sun, not a few gilded and flashing. + +As far as we could see about us every balcony was hung with tapestries gay +with particolored patterns, every doorway and window was wreathed in +flowers, countless braziers sent up columns of scented smoke. The streets +were lined with throngs habited in togas newly whitened; spectators of +both sexes, the men in white togas, their women in the brightest silks, +crowded every window, loggia, balcony, roof, and other viewpoint. The +chattering of the crowds ceased when the head of the procession appeared, +and, in a breathless hush, we saw leading it on horseback, with two +mounted aides, Flavius Juvenalis, who had been third and last Prefect of +the Praetorium to Julianus and who, as an honorable gentleman and loyal +official, had been confirmed and continued in this post by Severus. Behind +him tramped, in serried ranks, an entire legion of the Pannonian troops, +in full armor with their great shields gleaming and the sun sparkling on +their gilded helmets and their spear-points. + +Behind them came ten of the elephants with which Julianus, in his futile, +bungling attempts at preparations for resistance, had had some of his men +drill. Each now carried in his tower eight Danubians, four tall Dacian +spearmen and four Scythian archers, bow in hand, leaning over the edge of +the howdah. + +Behind the elephants came Norican legionaries carrying the surrendered +standards of the disbanded Praetorian Guard; not held aloft, but trailed, +half inverted. + +Then, amid roars of cheers, came Severus himself, habited not in his +general's regalia, but in the gorgeous Imperial robes, as if already in +the Palace and about to give a public levee. Though thus clad as in time +of peace and walking all the way on foot, he was hedged about by his +faithful six hundred, every man stepping alertly, helmet-plumes waving, +helmets glittering, shields gleaming, spear-points asparkle, kilt-straps +flapping, scabbards clanking, a grim advertisement of irresistible power. + +After this guard walked our entire Senate, and, as the Emperor and Senate +acknowledged the acclamations of the onlookers, passing amid thunders of +cheering, behind we saw a long serpent ribbon of Illyrian legionaries, +every man fully armed and armored as for instant battle, their even tramp +sounding grim and monotonous when the cheerers paused for breath, their +resistless might manifest. Indubitably Rome belonged to Severus, he was +our master. + +Falco, hopeful, yet awed, said little. Once inside his housewalls he fled +to his beloved gems and solaced himself with them till it was time for his +bath, which he took in his private bathrooms. He and I dined alone and +talked chiefly of our hopes of the new Emperor. Falco particularly +remarked his appearance of hard commonsense, ruthless decision and flinty +resolve. + +Next day, soon after dawn, we heard many rumors of disorders by the +Illyrian troops, of their having used temples for barracks that night, of +cook-shops forced to feed them without payment, of shops plundered and +pedestrians robbed. Naturally the entire household kept indoors, except +such slaves as went out for fresh vegetables, fruits and fish. I solaced +myself by reading the Tragedies of Ennius. I read parts of his Hector, +Achilles, Neoptolemus, Ajax and Andromache, with much emotion, and +especially the Bellerophon, forgetting everything else. Then I slept until +late in the afternoon. + +Waking I bathed unhurriedly and then went to call Falco, who liked to +bathe at the last possible moment before dinner. I walked round the rear +gallery of the peristyle, sure of finding him among his jewels. The door +of the middle room was not shut, and barely ajar. Against the sill of the +door, on the brown and white mosaic pavement of the gallery, a glint of +color caught my eye. I stooped and picked up a fine uncut emerald, one of +Falco's chief treasures. + +A qualm of apprehension shot through me. I pushed the door, entered and +swept the room with a glance. A confusion of jewel-trays cluttered the +floor, no sign of Falco. Nor was he in the left-hand room, which had been +similarly rifled. + +But, when I turned and peered through the right-hand inner door I saw, +across the marble center-table, horridly sprawled, what I instantly knew +for his corpse, so unmistakably did the head hang loose, the arms dangle, +the legs trail: he was manifestly a corpse, even without sight of the +dagger-hilt projecting from his back. + +I rushed to him and touched him. + +He was yet warm, the blood still trickled from about the dagger, driven +deep under the left shoulder blade, slanting upwards, the very stroke +Agathemer had drilled me in early in our flight, the stroke with which I +had slaughtered two of the five bullies at Nona's hut! + +I plucked out the dagger, gazing at it in horror. + +As I did so I heard footsteps behind me and turned to face Casperius +Asellio, and Vespronius Lustralis, two of the most persistent of the +toadies who hung about Falco, both of whom hated me consumedly. + +In a flash I realized my situation. Had I been a freeman I should have +been commiserated by all as a gentleman who had had the misfortune to find +his best friend foully murdered; as a slave I would be assumed by all Rome +to have been caught in the act of assassinating my kind and indulgent +master; and, recalling Tanno's invectives against me at my last dinner at +Villa Andivia, I knew I was liable to be tortured until I confessed my +guilt! + +Asellio and Lustralis flung themselves on me with execrations and their +yells brought the entire household. My protestations were unheeded. No one +would listen to my valet's assertion that he had found the janitor asleep +in his cell and roused him just before Lustralis and Asellio reached the +entrance, that he had but just finished dressing me when he went down to +the vestibule. No one heeded my denials or my urgings that I could not +have rifled the collection, that the looters and the murderers must be the +same individuals, that I was clearly innocent. Asellio and Lustralis not +merely seized me, but rained blows on me. I knew I could knock both +senseless without half trying, but, in my character of effeminate oriental +exquisite, I must not advertise my real strength. I struggled, but half- +heartedly. + +The house-boys and any of Falco's retinue who could reach me, thumped me +and mauled me. I was horrified to realize all of a sudden that those who +had made most of me had always envied me in secret; that, to a man, they +hated me; that each and all would use every effort to ensure my ruin; that +I had to face perjury, unanimous perjury, gushing from an abundant well- +head of malignity, spite, and enmity. My valet alone seemed on my side, +and he could assist me not at all. + +I was bound with ropes knotted till my hands and feet swelled, till the +cords cut into my flesh. I was abused, my clothing torn till I was half +naked. I was whacked and clawed till I was bleeding in a dozen places; I +was reviled, jeered at and threatened. Trussed like a fowl to be roasted, +I was half hustled half dragged, almost carried, down into the courtyard. +From there, after no long wait, I was haled off to the slaves' prison in +the Slave-Dealers' Exchange next the Slave-Market. There I was released +from my bonds, heavy shackles were riveted on my ankles and I was cast +into the lower dungeon. + +I had had time to tell Dromo, my faithful valet, to inform Agathemer. I +knew he, in turn, would inform Tanno and Vedia. I was certain that they +would do all that they could. But I dreaded that they could do nothing. I +was despondent, despairing. Actually, Dromo must have been clever, prompt +and judicious, and Agathemer equally quick and resourceful, with the +fullest possible help from Tanno and Vedia, and they must have taxed to +the utmost their influence and their means. + +After a night almost sleepless I was visited at dawn by no less a person +than Galen himself. + +"My boy," he said, "you, are in a terrible situation and we were in a +quandary how to advise you. But, after much discussion, we are agreed that +you have some chance of life as Phorbas the slave, accused of murdering +his master, whereas you have no chance at all as Andivius Hedulio, +proscribed along with Egnatius Capito. Our new Emperor seems to feel that +all enemies of former Princes are foes of his; he seems to have ordered +his agents to be on the lookout for all living persons accused, relegated, +or banished under Julianus, Pertinax and Commodus. Those taken in Rome +have been promptly executed. By all means, whatever happens to you, +whatever threatens you, give no hint that you are Andivius Hedulio. Endure +what befalls and hope for life and safety and ultimate rehabilitation. + +"Of course I can see you as often as I please without exciting any +suspicion. You were, while yourself and prosperous, only one of my +countless patients, never among those I made much of. You, as Phorbas, +have been under my special care, as the darling of poor Falco, who was one +of my best friends, though I had known him so short a time. My visits here +cannot prejudice your welfare and may help you, even save you. + +"Cheer up! Agathemer says that the real murderers are certain to betray +themselves by attempting to dispose of some of the stolen gems. He is +right. And he had taken measures to ensnare them. He has warned or is +warning every gem-dealer in Rome, from Orontides himself down to the most +disreputable scoundrel who makes a living by exchanging his cash for +stolen gems. He has sent off despatches already along many postroads, by +the couriers who set out at dawn, notifying all gem-dealers in the towns +along these roads to be on the watch for the miscreants. He will continue +this until the warning is all over Italy from Rhegium and Brundisium to +the Alps, and that within a few days. Those precious gentry are certain to +be nabbed either in Rome or elsewhere. Whenever they are identified and in +durance it will be easy to clear you. + +"Meanwhile you will be tried as a slave accused of murdering his master +and the investigation will include the questioning of every slave in the +house at the time of the murder. I know you are aquiver with dread of +torture; there will be torture, but I assure you you will not be tortured. +As much can be done today by influence and bribery as could be done under +Perennis or Cleander, only it cannot be done so crudely and openly, and +much else can be done openly. + +"We have endeavored to arrange to have you tried by a bunch of jurymen +presided over by a praetor, just as if you were a freeman, according to +Hadrian's law. But Commodus had repealed all such laws mitigating the +rigors of procedure in the case of slaves and Severus has not had them +reenacted. So you will be tried by a magistrate, a deputy of the Prefect +of the City, as slaves were tried before Hadrian's time. + +"We shall have, at the trial, to cheer you up, to counsel you, and, if +necessary, to intervene in your behalf, as clever an advocate as any in +Rome. Keep up a good heart, and read these letters." + +And he went off. + +I had a proof of the truth of what he said of bribery within half an hour, +for I was bathed, my hurts dressed, and I was clothed in new, clean and +comfortable garments and served with abundant eatable food and good wine. + +I had promptly read the letters. + +Agathemer's Galen had anticipated, mostly. Besides briefly telling me of +his measures for detecting the murderers, and prophesying their success, +he assured me of his devotion and alertness to take advantage of any +chance to help me. + +Tanno pledged me his utmost efforts to assist me, and emphasized his hope +that the influences which he and Vedia could enlist in my behalf and the +cash at their disposal would protect me from the worst horrors of trial as +a slave and would ultimately clear me and free me from danger. + +Vedia wrote: + +"The Leopard-Tamer's bride gives greeting to the Leopard-Tamer. Keep up +your courage! Do not be despondent, but have a hopeful heart. All that +gold, all that influence can do for you, shall be done. Cheer up! You will +live to see yourself a free man, unsmirched by any accusation, you and I +will be married and live many years of happiness afterwards: Farewell." + +Investigations of murders are prompt in Rome and trials of accused slaves +quickly disposed of. Before the next morning was half way to noon, on the +fifth day before the Ides of July, I found myself, still shackled, but +well fed and well clad, in the Basilica Sempronia, before the magistrate +charged with deciding such cases. He turned out to be young Lollius +Corbulo, whom I had not set eyes on until he came to know me as Phorbas, +for he was an art amateur of high standing, considering his youth. + +I never have discovered how much he was influenced by his natural +kindliness of disposition, how much by personal regard for me, how much by +Tanno, acting for himself and Vedia, whether he had been bribed or not. +He, when I questioned him in after years, passed it off with a smile +saying that anyone would accept a gift on condition of doing what he meant +to do uninfluenced, that no one needed a gift to make him do the right +thing. From Agathemer, Tanno and Vedia I have never been able to extract +any admissions as to their activities in my behalf. Anyhow Corbulo gave a +demonstration of the great latitude which is permitted both by law and +custom to such a magistrate in such a case. He ordered my shackles +removed, and, while they were being filed through, sent off three of his +apparitors in charge of Dromo to fetch some of my own garments from my +apartments in Falco's house. + +He went about his investigation like a fair-minded man who meant to favor +no one and to ferret out the exact truth. + +Corbulo in his full senatorial attire, the broad crimson stripe more +conspicuous than the white of his toga, sat in his chair at the center of +the apse of the basilica, his apparitors behind him. In the nave of the +basilica, surrounded by guards, were herded those members of Falco's +retinue who had been in his house at the time of his murder. Further down +the nave were many outsiders, come to listen to the trial. In the aisles +were gathered hangers-on of the court. In the apse, to the left and right +of the tribunal, stood many of Falco's friends, among whom I recognized +Casperius Asellio and Vespronius Lustralis. Among those on the other side +of the magistrate were Tanno and Galen. + +The bare, bleak interior of the ancient, old-fashioned basilica, with its +blackened roof-beams, unadorned walls, Travertine columns of the severest +Tuscan pattern, and plain window-lattices, made an austere setting for the +trial. I saw nowhere any rack, winches, horse, or any other engine or +torture; but, while Dromo was gone, four muscular court-slaves came +tramping In, each supporting a pole end. The two long poles were passed +through the four ear-handles of a bronze brazier all of five feet square, +level full of glowing charcoal, the brilliant bed of coals radiating an +intense heat perceptible as they passed near me. When they had set it down +in full view of all and near the tribunal one of them shook out and folded +four-thick a thin Spanish blanket of harsh wiry wool and spread the square +of it by the brazier, squatting on it to tend the coals with a long- +handled five pronged altar-hook. + +When Dromo returned with my garments and I was clad as Phorbas, Corbulo +questioned me as to when Falco had bought me, where and from whom. To my +relief he did not ask me how Rufius Libo had acquired me. He did ask my +age, but nothing else concerning my past. As to my life with Falco in +Africa and at Rome, he questioned me closely. I told him all about Falco's +character, his gem-collecting, the effect on him of the murders of +Commodus and Pertinax, his forebodings and his utterances to me about his +will. When he felt that he knew all I had to tell along these lines, he +said: + +"Now tell me your version of your master's death." + +He heard me out and said: + +"I believe you. You speak like a truth-teller." + +He then questioned the janitor, who babbled and cringed, half +unintelligibly, but stoutly denying that he had slept at his post on the +seventh day before the Kalends of July. + +"I am of the opinion," said Corbulo, drily, "that you are lying." + +Then to his apparitors he said: + +"Strip him." + +The court-slave, the charcoal-tender, stood up off his folded blanket and +shook it out. The janitor, stripped and bound, ankles lashed, hands +trussed behind him, was haled towards the brazier. The blanket was flung +round him and four apparitors lifted him as if he had been a log and held +him near the brazier, the enveloping blanket drawn tight over his left +thigh and its outer underside nearest the coals, tilting him sideways to +bring the soft thickness of the thigh closest to the heat. They watched +the tight blanket over his thigh and moved him a little away from the +brazier when the wool began to smoke. + +I had never seen nor heard of this kind of torture, but it seemed +effectual. The fellow writhed, groaned, squalled and protested. After +Corbulo had him brought back before him he confessed that he had been +asleep in his cell from some time before Falco's murder until he was +aroused by Dromo, just before the arrival of Casperius and Vespronius. + +One by one the other slaves were questioned. Three declared that they had +seen the janitor asleep not long before they heard the alarm. + +Several more testified that the janitor had often been asleep. More than +half of them confirmed my story of the theft of the silver on the Nones of +May. Except the janitor not one was tortured, though Corbulo threatened +with torture several who hesitated in their testimony. + +After the slaves Corbulo questioned Asellio and Lustralis. + +Then, when they had stood aside, he gazed about at the spectators in the +nave, at the crowd behind them, interested in the next case or in others +to come up later, at the hangers-on in the side aisles; for a time, mute, +he stared at the glowing charcoal fire in the big brazier. + +When he spoke he said: + +"It is my opinion that Phorbas is innocent. I have inspected the house +where the murder took place. From the condition of the looted rooms it is +plain that more jewelry was stolen than any one man could carry off. +Manifestly two men participated in the robbery and murder and escaped +with their booty, very likely the same pair who robbed Falco's +_triclinium_ on the Nones of May. The janitor's confessed delinquency +explains how they entered and got away unhindered and unseen. The dead +man's heirs should punish the janitor. I hold no other slave at fault. Has +any man anything which he wishes to say before I pass formal judgment for +official record?' Lustralis asked permission to speak and amazed me by his +fluency, his ingratiating delivery, his vehemence, his ingenuity and the +fantastic malignity of his contentions. Corbulo heard him out to the end, +unmoving as a statue. + +"You do not look like a lunatic nor act like one, Lustralis," he said, +"but you talk like one. Phorbas has impressed me by every feature of his +tale. He appears to have told the truth. He seems to have been a sincere +friend to his late master. I cannot credit the wild suggestion that a man +of his character would plot his master's death, or that a man of his +intelligence, with a full knowledge of the terms of his master's will, +would expose himself to suspicion by so plotting; far less that such a man +as he would ignore the perils of such a crime and so desire his freedom +and the legacies promised him as to league himself with two criminals, +assist them to enter the house and to escape from it, and hope to come off +unscathed and unsuspected and forever unbetrayed. + +"But, suppose all you imagine and insinuate is true in fact. Prove it! +Produce the two robbers. Prove them the robbers by recovering their booty. +If they, so convicted of the robbery, are brought before me, if they +accuse Phorbas of being their accomplice, if they tell a consistent and +convincing tale, if any colorable motive for such association and such a +crime can be alleged against Phorbas, then I'll believe him guilty, and +not till then." + +He eyed Lustralis, who spoke further. + +"Torture Phorbas!" Corbulo cried. "Absurd! In my court I never torture men +like him, any more than if they were freemen. And though it might be +imperative to torture him for a confession if all the testimony pointed to +his guilt, it is ridiculous to suggest torturing him merely to corroborate +evidence demonstrating his innocence. + +"I, hereby, officially as the representative of the Commonwealth, +pronounce Phorbas cleared of all charges connected with this case. I +hereby enjoin all men to assist the Republic to detect and apprehend the +murderers who robbed Falco and killed him." + +Lustralis and Asellio looked baffled and sour. A murmur of approval ran +through the bystanders. My fellow-slaves congratulated each other and +rejoiced, save only the janitor. + +Galen approached me. + +"Phorbas," he said, "as you are now a freeman by your late master's will, +which will soon be read and its provisions put into effect, at which +reading I shall be present as one of the legatees, you may now go where +you like. I invite you to come with me." + +I thanked Corbulo, who said: + +"Don't thank me. I did just what any sane, clear-headed, fair-minded +magistrate must do, affirmed the manifest truth." + +Galen led me off to a modest apartment near the Carinae. I found +everything prepared for my comfort, slaves to wait on me and nothing +omitted. I thanked him. + +"Tanno," he said, "deputed me to hire this lodging for you. He has kept in +the background. These are my slaves, put at your disposal and enjoined to +obey you as they would obey me in person. Keep quiet here till I can +arrange for you to take possession of your legacies from Falco. I think he +left you all your personal belongings and the slaves who waited on you. As +soon as the necessary formalities are completed I'll send them to you. + +"Do not attempt to communicate with Vedia or Tanno. Do nothing which might +betray you as your actual self. Our new Emperor seems resolute to +exterminate, to the last individual, all persons implicated in any +conspiracy not only against Julianus or Pertinax, but against Commodus, +from the date of his accession. All such persons apprehended are promptly +executed. Keep quiet. Efface yourself till I give you the word. I can +communicate with you freely, can see you daily, if need be, since I am one +of poor Falco's heirs and was your physician during his life here in Rome. +I'll do all I can for you." + +He left and I bathed, ate, and slept the rest of that day and slept sound +all night. + +Next day passed similarly. But, early on the following day, the third day +before the Kalends of July, not long after sunrise, my new valet came to +me his face ashen. He babbled some unintelligible syllables and before I +could comprehend him, my bedroom was entered by a Pannonian sergeant, grim +as the centurions from Britain who had liberated Agathemer and me from the +_ergastulum_ at Placentia. Behind him were four legionary soldiers. I was +rearrested! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +TORTURE + + +I was promptly haled off to the same prison where Galen had visited me +three days before. There I was again deprived of my garments and clad in +others, new, but of cheap material, coarse and uncomfortable. Also +shackles, heavier shackles, were at once riveted on my ankles, and I was +again consigned to the lower dungeon. I was, to be sure, given good and +abundant food and wine not too unpalatable. Otherwise I had no indulgences +and there I spent the night. + +Next day, the last day of June, Galen again visited me. + +"My lad," he said, "the first rule of medicine is to cheer up the patient, +but I must say that your case looks grave and I have little cheer for you. +I shall do my best and so will Tanno, Vedia and Agathemer. But we are all +dazed. We cannot understand what has happened, nor who has brought it to +pass, nor what influences are working against us. + +"But someone has gotten the ear of Juvenalis or of Severus himself. It has +been represented plausibly to the Prefect of the Praetorium, or perhaps +even to the Emperor in person, that the courts here in Rome have fallen +into a shocking state of disrepute on account of decisions in scandalous +contravention of the evidence, brought about by favoritism and bribery. It +has also been plausibly represented that the slave-population has little +respect for the lives or property of their masters, less loyalty towards +them and very little dread of punishment. Your alleged murder of poor +Falco is held up as a flagrant example of the latter condition, your +acquittal as an even more flagrant instance of the degradation of the +courts. + +"Believing that a shocking miscarriage of justice has taken place +concerning an atrocious crime, the Prefect or the Prince has ordered you +rearrested and retried, tomorrow, this time before Cassius Ravillanus." + +I shuddered, not metaphorically, but actually. I felt cold all over, as if +plunged into an icy mountain stream. Ravillanus claimed as his ancestor +Cassius Ravilla and aimed at emulating him. Certainly, as a magistrate, he +quite frankly talked and acted as if acquittal were a disgrace to the +court, and the object of each trial not impartial justice but the +conviction of the accused. He was perfectly sincere, upright in every +intention, incorruptible, fanatical, self-opinionated, austere, ascetic, +stern and harsh. I shuddered again and again at the thought of him. + +"Ravillanus has the reputation of being unbribable," Galen went on, 'and +it is a question whether an attempt at bribery might not prejudice your +case more than letting matters be. Yet I have employed an agent far too +clever to bungle any approach, and something may be done for you. Vedia is +despondent, but resolute to keep her head and help you all she can, and +she has cash to spare and much influence. Tanno has even more of both. +Agathemer is hopeful of running down the real murderers, as they are +loaded with their booty. If they are caught we can clear you. + +"Keep up a brave heart." + +I tried to, but it was impossible. I ate little and slept hardly at all. + +The next day, the Kalends of July, saw me haled again to the Basilica +Sempronia. + +There I beheld a scene almost a duplicate of my first trial; a similar +throng of spectators, very similar bevies of expectant witnesses, +advocates and prosecutors; the same batch of my former fellow-slaves, +surrounded by the same guards; the very same charcoal-brazier tended by +the same slave squatting on the same folded blanket; similar knots of +notables in the apse, about and behind the magistrate's tribunal; the same +carved arm-chair; in it not Corbulo, but Cassius Ravillanus, lean, dry, +tanned, leathery, smooth-shaven, bald and stern. + +He glared at me when my guards halted me four yards or so in front of him; +then he beckoned to one of his apparitors and spoke to him in an +undertone. The fellow went off as if on an errand. + +Ravillanus then gave, even more positively than Corbulo, a demonstration +of the great latitude permitted such a magistrate in procedure, of how +completely it lies within his discretion what to do and how to do it. + +"Fellow!" he ranted, "you have plotted to rob and murder your master, you +have done both and you have, by favor and influence and perhaps even by +bribery, arranged for your easy acquittal. I am charged by the Prince of +the Republic to see to it, that the majesty of the law, the sacredness of +the lives of Roman noblemen, and the security of their property be +publicly vindicated: I am here to undo all that Lollius Corbulo supinely +allowed to be done. You shall perceive that I am wholly unlike any such +trifler. Of one feature only of his procedure do I approve. I highly +acclaim his notions as to the right kind of torture. Slaves like you, +however pampered, are property, like horses or cattle. Their value lies in +their usefulness. Any slave, after torture, should be as useful to his +owners as before. If a slave is placed upon the horse and weights hung to +his feet, his legs are often made helpless, he cannot ever walk again, he +is a cripple. Still oftener does the rack leave a slave utterly useless. +Our courts have always desired some form of torture by which the +recalcitrant could be made to suffer acute pain, but not in any way +injured. Lollius has introduced a torture which never injures anyone +subjected to it, but which causes extreme agony while in use. Only stretch +a hard-yarn Spanish blanket over a thigh, draw it tight and hold the thigh +at just the right distance from just the right size of brazier with its +coals properly tended, and the subject can be made to tell the truth; but +not broiled alive, for the blanket will singe before the flesh under it +cooks. You had best tell the truth, not such an ingenious string of lies +as you told before Lollius." + +Then he had all my fellow-slaves brought up and ranged before him. + +"Your master," he said, "has been foully done to death. If the guilt of +this hideous crime can be indubitably fastened upon one of you or two or +any few, the rest of you shall be held innocent and shall suffer no +penalties. If no facts can be ascertained limiting the guilt to some of +you, all of you, according to the ancient law concerning such cases, shall +be put to death by crucifixion or exposure to the beasts in the arena, as +our Prince may prefer. I have no desire to send to death any guiltless +man. I enjoin you all to tell the truth and to assist the law. The truth- +tellers will suffer less of the torture." + +He then, beginning with the scullions, had every boy and man tortured over +the brazier, asking no question of any till he had felt the heat of the +fire and had begun to yell for mercy. Then he would interrupt the torture, +question the victim, bid the torturers again hold their subject close to +the fire; and again suspend the torture and ask questions. Naturally the +victims, frantic with pain and terror, said whatever they thought would +get them off. + +Also, to my horror, I realized for the first time, what I had only vaguely +suspected before, how venomously they had envied me, how violently +embittered most of them were against me, how they had hated their master's +favorite. They were glad to slander me, they enjoyed assisting at my ruin, +they relished the prospect of my being tortured and executed. Moreover it +appeared that they had been carefully coached in what they were to say or +had agreed among themselves, without any outside hints, or after such +hints. + +The whole household made it appear that they had always suspected me of +desiring Falco's death in order that I might gain my freedom and enjoy his +promised legacies; that I had enticed and wheedled him into leaving me in +his will an absurdly large share of his property. + +They were also unanimous in declaring that they had been unable to bring +home to me the devising of the robbery of the _triclinium_, but they had +all felt certain from the first that I had arranged to have confederates +of mine steal the table silver. They were equally consistent in asserting +that they all believed that I had murdered Falco, after arranging for the +looting of the gem-collection as a blind. + +Hour after hour I had to stand and watch wretch after wretch held to the +glowing coals, had to listen to the shrieks of the victims, could not but +realize that Ravillanus was bent on my conviction, that nothing would +swerve him from his purpose. + +Dromo, alone of all the household, alone of my obsequious, indulged +personal servants, held out against the torture and though he writhed, +yelled, sobbed and even endured the pain until he fainted more than once, +refused to say anything against me. + +After Dromo my turn came. When I was stripped Ravillanus rubbed his hands +and remarked: + +"You have your character written on your back! How could Falco trust a +fellow so branded and scarred! Easy-going masters like Falco not only +bring on their own deaths, but sap the foundations of safety for all +slave-owners. Your back, in advance, advertises you guilty. Better own +up." + +I pass over the details. But I must confess that I was far from heroic. +Perhaps it is true, and not an invention, that Marcus Scaevola voluntarily +thrust his hand into the altar-fire and stood mute and smiling, and +watched it burn and char. If any man ever did that he had more self- +control than I ever had. I could repress every indication of my agonies. I +fainted so many times that I lost count. The afternoon was drawing on +towards evening before Ravillanus began to lose patience. + +Tanno and Galen had been from the first among those about the tribunal. +Now, in a pause, while I was being brought back to consciousness to be +again tortured, Galen succeeded in gaining the attention of Ravillanus +enough to induce him, though grudgingly, to permit the celebrated +advocate, Memmius Tuditanus, whom they had brought with them, to speak in +my behalf. I had regained consciousness before he began to speak and heard +most of what he said. He spoke well. + +His chief point was that a gem-expert and art-amateur like me, knowing +that he was to inherit one of the finest and most carefully chosen +collections of gems and art objects in all the world, would be the last +man on earth to allow it to be disturbed, let alone to plot its +ransacking, the pillage of its cases and the dispersal of their precious +contents. No man could better have exposed the absurdity of the whole +flimsy and preposterous fabrication that I had had two confederates, who +had, in my interest and at my suggestion, robbed first the _triclinium_ +and then the gem-collection, after which last I had myself murdered Falco. + +But his logic, his lucidity and his eloquence fell on deaf ears. +Ravillanus was unmoved. He permitted Lustralis to make a rambling and +incoherent harangue, setting forth his ridiculous contentions. + +Then he passed judgment: + +"I hold you all innocent save Phorbas alone. Dromo is manifestly devoted +to Phorbas and has lied in his behalf. But Dromo, apparently, was no +accomplice in the plot or in the murder. I acquit him with the rest. +Phorbas, who vilely plotted against his master, who foully murdered him, I +adjudge guilty of his death and I hereby condemn him to be kept chained in +the slaves' prison until the next day of beast-fighting in the Colosseum, +then, in the arena, to be exposed to the ferocity of the famished wild +beasts of the desert, wilderness and forest, by them to be lacerated and +torn to pieces, as he richly deserves." + +Tanno and Galen could indicate their grief and sympathy only by looks and +gestures, for they dared not attempt to approach me. + +Then Ravillanus called: + +"Where is that barber?" + +The apparitor who had gone off before the trial began produced a barber. + +"Trim his hair and beard!" Ravillanus ordered. And I had to submit to +having my long locks shorn and my beard clipped close, leaving me far too +like my true former self for my comfort, since I still had hopes of +Agathemer catching the real murderers in time to save me from the doom +impending over me because of the fanaticism of Ravillanus, while I +anticipated nothing but inescapable death should I be recognized as not +Phorbas, but as Andivius Hedulio. + +I was then, late in the afternoon of the Kalends of July, haled off to the +Colosseum and immured in one of the cells of the lowermost crypt, far +below the street level. To my amazement I found myself sharing the cell +with Narcissus, who had been similarly condemned to exposure to the +beasts, as the murderer of Commodus. + +Together we spent five dreadful days in the darkness, dampness, chill and +foulness of that tiny cell. I found that influence such as Tanno and Vedia +possessed and cash such as they had at their disposal, could do much even +for the occupant of such a cell, destined to such a doom. I was visited by +Galen, more than once, and he emphasized the still hopeful possibility, +nay probability, that Agathemer might, in time, save me, run down and +bring before a magistrate the real murderers. I was gloomy, I admit. But +his presence in that horrible hole and his words cheered me, by +brightening the hope I had never wholly lost. + +Also I was tended, massaged, rubbed, chafed, washed each day in warm water +brought in big pails and poured into a big, shallow pan; I was anointed; +clothed in a comfortable tunic, strengthened with plenty of good food and +strong wine and provided with a cot and bedding and blankets. I was able +to have Narcissus indulged also, in order that he might be a less +unpleasant cell-mate. + +He talked to me freely of life in the Palace, of Commodus, of Marcia, of +Ducconius Furfur, of his own fatal mistake, of the amazing likeness, even +apparent identity, between Furfur and Commodus, of the naturalness of his +inability to tell them apart. + +I drank and ate all the food and wine I could swallow, slept all I could, +and tried to be hopeful. + +Thus passed five horrible days and six hideous nights. + +After no more than twelve days, as I learned later, Severus felt himself +securely established as Prince of the Republic. By spending almost every +moment of daylight on official business, denying himself more than the +merest minimum of sleep and food, he had put every department of the +government sufficiently in order to feel assured of their smooth and +effective operation. His troops were now all outside the City, comfortably +camped, well supplied and content; the City was orderly and its life had +resumed its normal aspect and activities. He felt free to win the regard +of the populace by magnificent exhibitions in the amphitheater, on the +occasion of the eight days of the Games of Apollo, beginning the day +before the Nones of July. + +Early next day Narcissus and I were haled from our cell and led, by +passages only too well known to me since my service in the Choragium, to +the iron-gated doorway from which condemned criminals were thrust out into +the arena for the lions or other beasts to tear. From inside that doorway +I could look across the sand of the arena and could see not only the +herald on his tiny platform, elevated above the leap of the most agile +panther, not only the arena-wall opposite me, but also the faces of the +senators in their private boxes on the _podium_, even a portion of the +nobility behind them and of the populace higher up and further back. + +The day was hot, still and clear, and the July sunshine, still slant in +the early morning, struck under the awning and long shafts of the mellow +radiance brightened the sand. + +From that doorway, craning over the heads of the wretches in front of me, +I caught glimpses of the fury of several beasts as they vented their +ferocity upon some ordinary criminals and assuaged their ravenous hunger +on their blood and flesh. + +My time was not far off, yet I still hoped against hope that Agathemer +might, even yet, have caught the thieving murderers and would intervene +before it was too late. I did not at all fear the beasts; I knew that no +bear, panther, leopard, tiger or lion would hurt me, but I felt certain +that, when the beasts left me unharmed, I should be recognized as Festus +the Beast-Wizard: and then, as the scrutiny of the whole audience would be +riveted on me, identified as Andivius Hedulio. + +Narcissus was led out, stepping jauntily between his guards, treading +springily, with no sign of panic or dejection, a pattern Hercules, naked +save for a loin-cloth, his skin pink and fresh, in spite of his days in a +dungeon, his mighty muscles rippling all over his huge form. The herald +proclaimed to all that this was Narcissus, professional wrestler, for long +the crony of Commodus, who had strangled his master and was to be punished +for his treachery and crime by being torn to pieces in sight of all Rome. + +They let out on him a full-grown, young Mauretanian lion, starved and +ravenous. Narcissus was naked and empty-handed, his close-clipped hair, +standing like the bristles of a brush, yellow as gold wire, shining in the +sun. He stood almost as immobile as had Palus and faced the lion, which, +after a bound or two towards him, flattened down on the sand and began to +crawl nearer, preparing for a spring. + +When it sprang Narcissus performed one of the most miraculous feats ever +beheld in the amphitheater. He did not dodge but ducked slightly, the +wide-spread, taloned paws missing his head on each side. His arms shot out +as the lion sprang, and, though the brute came at him through the air like +a log-arrow from a catapult, his hands gripped each side of the wide-open +mouth and his thumbs pushed the inner corners of the lips between the +parted upper and lower cheek-teeth. Therefore to close his jaws on his +victim the lion had to crush a roll or fold of his own lips. This +incredibly difficult feat prolonged his life a few breaths. The whole +populace howled in ecstasy at the wretch's coolness, courage, strength, +swiftness and adroitness. + +The lion's momentum and weight bore Narcissus to the ground, but his +thumbs did not slip nor his hold loosen. On the sand lion and man rolled +and wrestled, for a brief time. Then the lion, lashing out with his hind +legs, caught with the claws of one the wrestler's belly and half +disemboweled him. Narcissus collapsed and the great fangs met in his +throat. + +The populace redoubled their yells. + +When silence fell, after the lion had been chased back into his cage and +the cage lowered down the lift-shaft, after the mangled corpse of +Narcissus had been dragged away and sand sprinkled to hide the red patches +where his blood had soaked it, I was haled forth and stood in the very +center of the arena. From his perch the herald proclaimed that I was +Phorbas, the slave of Pompeianus Falco of Carthage and Rome, who had +plotted his master's death in order sooner to gain freedom from his +testament, and had himself dealt Falco his deathblow. The populace jeered +and booed at me. + +I had, as Festus the Animal-Tender, often viewed the interior of the +Colosseum from the arena. But never when I was myself the cynosure of all +eyes. There I stood, naked except for a loin-cloth, empty-handed, my +shoulder-brand and scarred back visible to half the spectators, glared at +and reviled. From my viewpoint the spectacle was singularly magnificent: +the dark blue sky overhead, varied by some large, solid-looking, white +clouds; the fluttering banners waving from the awning poles; the +particolored, sagging awning, shading half the audience; the beauty of the +upper colonnade under the awning; the solidly packed throng of spectators +which crowded the colonnade, the aisles, the steps and every seat in the +hollow of the amphitheater; the dignified ease of the nobility in their +spaced chairs, of the senators in their ample armchairs; the gorgeousness +of the Imperial Pavilion, filled with a retinue brilliant in blue and +silver, in green and gold, in white and crimson, about the hard, spare, +soldierly figure on the throne. + +I was the only human being on the sand, eyed by all onlookers. + +From a door in the _podium_-wall a famished lion was loosed at me. He +bounded towards me, roaring; but, three or four lengths from me he paused, +stood still regarding me, circled about me and then turned his back on me +and loped off to the arena-wall, along which he rounded the arena, +apparently searching for a way out. The populace, at first mute with +astonishment, voiced their amazement in yells of a notably different +quality from those they had uttered while watching Narcissus. + +Another lion behaved similarly, except that he, after inspecting me, +merely walked in circles far out in the arena, ignoring me as if I were +not there at all. + +They loosed on me five more lions, four tigers, four leopards, four +panthers and four bears, of the fierce Alpine breed. Some of these animals +delighted the populace by attacking each other and affording entertainment +by savage and ferocious fighting. But not one showed any disposition to +attack me. + +As beast after beast approached me, conned me and spared me, the upper +tiers began to call: + +"He is innocent." + +"He is guiltless." + +"The beasts know." + +"He is not guilty." + +"The gods declare him clean of guilt!" and other such cries. + +Also they began to show signs of being restless and bored. Some yelled for +another criminal. + +A seventh lion was loosed at me. He paused like the others and eyed me; +then he strolled up to me, snuffed at me, and rubbed his mane against my +hip, emitting a rambling purr. I laid my hand on his mane. + +Instantly, from all sides at once, rang out cries of, + +"Festus!" + +"Festus the Beast-Wizard!" + +"He's no Phorbas, he's Festus come back!" + +I was not far from the Imperial Pavilion and one of the retinue leaned +over the _podium_-coping and called to me. I walked towards him. When I +was within earshot he called in Greek: + +"The King commands that you lead the beasts back to their cages." + +Elated and hoping for a reprieve, for vindication, for life, for +rehabilitation, for Imperial favor, I led beast after beast back to its +cage on a shaft-lift, or to a door in the wall. When the last one was +caged an officer of the Imperial retinue, a frontiersman only lately come +to Rome, stepped out of one of the postern doors, two arena-slaves with +him. They led me to the center of the arena, trussed my hands behind me, +bound my ankles and wrapped round my head an evil-smelling old quilt, +probably taken from the cot of some arena-slave housed in some cell under +the hollow of the amphitheater. Half suffocated by it, unable to shake it +off, for they tied it fast, I stood there, blind, realizing that the +Emperor still believed me guilty, was inexorable and meant me to be torn +to pieces then and there; believing, as I did, that my immunity from +attack was due to the effect of my gaze on the beasts I made mild. + +Now you, who read, know that I was not devoured. But I had no shred of +hope left. I thought that my end had come. I anticipated only the agony of +great fangs rending my flesh. + +I felt only the hot breath of a beast snuffing at my legs. Perhaps I +fainted. Certainly my next sensation was of lying on the sand, with +several unseen animals growling near me and one or more snuffing at my +feet and legs. + +The amphitheater was quiet, even hushed. + +Then, suddenly, a lion uttered a full-throated, coughing roar, jagged and +rumbling. When it died away a universal yell arose from the populace. I +heard cries of: + +"He is innocent!" + +"Set him free!" + +"We behold the justice of the gods!" + +"This proves him guiltless!" + +"Festus or Phorbas, he is not guilty!" + +And other such exclamations. + +Ridiculously, what passed through my mind, besides disgust at the foul +odor of the quilt about my head, was the thought that, if I had known that +ferocious beasts would avoid me even when they could not see my gaze, I +should, on that unforgettable moonlit evening in Sabinum, have gone off +home to my cottage, to Septima, and have missed my encounter with Vedia, +and our night in her traveling coach. + +Then I heard the voices of the animal-tenders essaying, with their long- +handled tridents, to chase back into their cages the beasts loose about +me. + +Soon someone cut my ankle-thongs and the cords about the quilt, also my +arm-thongs. The quilt was twitched from my face and I was assisted to my +feet. The amphitheater was full of the yells of the populace, affirming my +innocence and the manifest intervention of the gods in my behalf. I rolled +my gaze around the audience and sought to interpret the demeanor of the +Imperial retinue. + +Then, as I gazed at the Emperor, too far off for me to make out his +expression, the yells altered their quality. + +I turned round. + +I saw, running towards me across the sand, Agathemer! + +Behind him was an official in the robes of a magistrate! + +Behind him six more human shapes, four lictors convoying two bound +prisoners. + +Agathemer embraced me and I him. + +"Saved," he breathed, "we've got 'em and most of the loot. Enough to +convict 'em and clear you!" + +As we loosed our embrace I looked at the approaching magistrate. + +He was Flavius Clemens! + +Before the shock of recognizing him had passed I forgot him entirely. + +For I had recognized the two prisoners. + +Though I had seen them but once and that by moonlight, and that eight +years before, I recognized the two drunken robbers who had helped us to +our couriers' equipment and sent us off galloping to Marseilles. + +Indubitably they were Carex and Junco! + +While still numb with amazement I felt upon me the cold gaze of Flavius +Clemens. I looked him full in the face. He was no less astonished than I +and I could read in his expression both amazement and suspicion. I was +acutely aware that Ravillanus, by having my hair and beard clipped, had +made me readily recognizable to anyone and everyone who had known me in +the days of my prosperity. I was even more acutely aware of the keen +intuition which every lover feels toward any actual or potential rival. I +dreaded that Clemens not only recognized me for myself, but had a +glimmering inkling as to why his suit of Vedia had twice failed. But he +said nothing except: + +"You are cleared of every imputation in connection with the murder of +Pompeianus Falco. You are free to go where you please." + +Agathemer took off his robe, and threw it around me and led me to a +postern. In the vaulted corridor we were met by Tanno, who embraced me and +congratulated me, and Galen, who also embraced me and felicitated me. +Tanno said: + +"Vedia kept up till Agathemer nabbed the criminals, then she fainted; but +she declares the faint relieved her and that she is entirely herself." + +In one of the cells under the hollow of the amphitheater I was given +strong wine, all I wanted, and then washed with warm water already +prepared for me, and afterwards thoroughly massaged. Then I was clad in +garments of my own. + +"I feel like myself," I remarked. + +Just then Flavius Clemens entered, his expression entirely too +intelligible for me. Looking me full in the eyes he said: + +"You have been passing as an art-amateur of Greek ancestry, under the name +of Phorbas, with the status of a slave. Before that you were among the +helpers at the Choragium, held as a slave belonging to the _fiscus_, by +the name of Festus. It seems to me that you are no Greek, nor of Greek +blood, even to the smallest degree, I take you for a full-blooded Roman. I +think I recognize you. Are you not Andivius Hedulio?" + +"I am," I acknowledged. + +He saluted me courteously and bade me a polite farewell, without any other +word. + +Tanno and Galen made no comment, nor did Agathemer. They assisted me out +to Tanno's waiting litter. In it I was borne off to the lodgings which I +had occupied eight days before, between my two trials. There I found a +tempting meal ready for me and ate liberally. Then I was put to bed and at +once fell into the deep sleep of utter exhaustion and slept through till +long after daylight next day. + +When I woke I found that Dromo himself was by my bedside, as well as +Agathemer. They tended me, washed me, plied me with wine and fed me with +dainties, asserting that Galen had given orders that I was on no account +to stir from my bed or sit up in it. + +I slept again and, when I woke early in the afternoon, insisted on getting +up and being dressed. I was no sooner clad than there entered the +apartment a big, florid, youthful Pannonian sergeant and four legionaries. + +I was yet again rearrested! + +They led me away, forbidding Agathemer to exchange a word with me, or to +follow us. Through the brilliant July sunlight they led me, along its +northeast flank, up the Steps of Groaning, and to the Mamertine Prison! + +There I was handed over to four of the assistants to the Public +Executioner. They stripped me of my outer garments, leaving me naked +except for my tunic. Then they haled me to the trap-door, lifted the trap, +passed ropes under my armpits and lowered me into the dreaded lower +dungeon, the horrible Tullianum! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +THE TULLIANUM + + +Gloomy as is the upper cell of the Mamertine Prison there is light enough +there for my eyes to have been utterly blinded by it as I was lowered into +the black pit beneath. I saw nothing in the brief period while I was being +let down, while the ropes were being drawn up, while the trap-door was +shut down and fitted into place. Then I was in the pitchest darkness, into +which no ray, no glimmer of light could penetrate. I saw nothing whatever, +yet I seemed to feel a presence, seemed to hear a faint footfall, seemed +to be aware of another human being standing close to me. Then I heard a +deep, resonant, healthy, pleasant-sounding voice ask: + +"Brother in misfortune, who are you?" + +I was past any impulse towards dissimulation or any belief in its utility. + +"I am Andivius Hedulio." + +"You are?" the big, cheerful male voice exclaimed. "You really are? You +amaze me! I am Galvius Crispinillus, lately and for many a year King of +the Highwaymen! Give me your hand!" + +Now, whatever distaste I felt for giving my hand to such a criminal, +however great was my repugnance, however utterly I felt myself lost, +however certain I was of the inevitable doom hanging over me, however +short a respite I anticipated before my inescapable death, I was not fool +enough to antagonize my companion in misery, presumably a powerful and +ferocious brute. I held out my hand. His grasped it. Mine returned the +grip. + +"Come this way!" he said. "This pit is damp and chilly, but even here a +bed of stale straw is better than the rock floor or the patches of mud on +it or the heaps of filth. I know every inch of this hole and I know the +least uncomfortable place to sit. Come along!" + +He guided me in the utter blackness to a pile of damp straw. On it we sat +down, half reclining. + +"If you are thirsty," he said, "I can guide you to the well. There is a +spring in here and plenty of good water." + +"I thank you," I said. "I shall be thirsty enough before long. Just now I +am far more interested to hear how you came here. Nobody believed that you +would ever be caught." + +"No more did I!" he ejaculated. "I had so easily defied the utmost efforts +of the government and officials under Aurelius, of the incompetents under +Commodus, of his vaunted Highway Constabulary; had so prospered, had so +come and gone as I pleased and robbed whom I pleased from the Po to the +Straits, that I thought no man could lay for me any snare I could not +foresee, thought myself impeccably wary and prescient, though I had always +taken and would always take all necessary precautions. + +"But I was a fool. I comprehended Aurelius and Commodus and their +magistrates and officials and constabulary; I was right in fearing nothing +from Pertinax and Julianus; but I was an ass to think I could cope with +Septimius Severus. That man is deeper than the deepest abyss of mid-ocean! + +"I thought I was certain of months of disorder, confusion and laxity in +which I could go where I pleased, act as I pleased, garner a rich harvest +and escape unscathed. Do you know, before he had left Aquileia, perhaps +before he had passed the Alps, possibly before he had set out from +Sabaria, that man had despatched not one but a dozen detachments to +ascertain my whereabouts, consider how best to take me unawares, lie in +wait for me, nab me and hunt down my bands. I believe he had thought out, +far back in that head of his, long before Pertinax was murdered, perhaps +even long before Commodus died, every measure he would initiate if he +became Emperor, down to the smallest detail. He had all his plans framed +and thought out, I'll wager! + +"His emissaries were no fools! They, first among those despatched against +me, knew their business. I was trapped near Sentinum, on the Kalends of +this month. Never mind how; even in this plight I'm ashamed of it. They +just missed nabbing Felix Bulla along with me. But he got away that time. +And I prophesy that now he is warned of his danger and knows the +cleverness of the men on his trail, he'll show himself yet cleverer. He is +a marvel, is Felix Bulla, and promises to outdo even my record." + +He broke off, breathing audibly. + +"By the way," he went on, "are you hungry? I have part of a loaf of bread +in here, not yet stale and no damper than it must get in this foul air. It +hasn't fallen on the floor. It's eatable." + +"I'll be hungry enough before long," I replied, "but I am not hungry now. +I had eaten all I wanted and of the best just before I was haled here." + +"Speak when you want any," he said. "It will be share and share alike here +for us till they come to finish us. + +"And now, tell me about yourself. I have always been curious about you. I +heard all about you when you first got into trouble and I was told that +the official report of your death was fictitious, invented by underlings +too clumsy to capture you and fearful of the consequences of their +incompetence. Also I heard unimpeachable testimony that you were alive +later and had been seen in Rome with Maternus and outside Rome, the next +summer, with the mutineers from Britain. I have often wondered how you got +into such company. Tell me how you came to be with Maternus." + +I saw no utility in any further dissimulation of anything or in any +reticence; I began with our springtime stay at the farm in the mountains, +and told my story in detail, from that hour. + +When I came to my visit, along with Maternus, to the Temple of Mercury and +mentioned how Maternus had warned me that we were being watched, and how I +had shot one glance towards the watchers and had recognized one of them, +he interrupted me and, without enquiring where I had seen him before, +asked for a description of the watcher I had recognized. I gave it as well +as I could and he said: + +"That was my brother, Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, now dead. It was he who +told me that he had seen you with Maternus. Go on." + +Again, when I spoke of recognizing Crispinillus by the wayside as I passed +with the mutineers he interjected: + +"Yes, he told me he saw you there." + +And later, when I spoke of being found with Agathemer after the massacre, +separated from him and led off to the _ergastulum_ at Nuceria he remarked: + +"I can't conceive how my brother missed you. Nor could he. He looked for +you among the corpses and went over the survivors twice in search of you." + +"I did not see him after the massacre," I declared. + +"Mercury protected you," was his comment. + +When I finished the story of my giving warning of the plot in the +_ergastulum_ at Nuceria I paused. + +"Go on, lad!" he urged. "You have had adventures and you narrate them +tellingly." + +I hesitated and then, utterly reckless, I blurted out: + +"If I am to go on with my story you might as well know right now, that I +am not only Andivius Hedulio, but also Felix the Horse-Wrangler." + +He swore a great oath. + +"Boy!" he cried, "I love you! I have admired you since I listened to +Bulla's account of his one failure. At first I was furious at your having +spoiled the best plan I ever laid and the most brilliant chance I ever +had, at your preventing me from making the biggest haul of booty I ever +had hopes of. But, as years passed, my resentment has abated and my +admiration has warmed. I bear you no grudge. I have often thought I should +like to meet you and find out why on earth you desired to thwart me and +how you managed to do it. Go on! Tell me the rest." + +I resumed my tale. + +When I came to my outlook from the crag and explained my former +acquaintance with Vedia he interrupted. + +"Of course, if you knew the lady and she was an old flame of yours, I +don't wonder that you intervened to save her. My lads were so rough and +fierce-looking that they had a worse reputation than they deserved. When +they captured prisoners rich enough to pay any profitable ransom they +treated them with the most scrupulous deference. Business is business and +we were not brigands for fun, but for profit. Also they all dreaded me and +my orders were explicit and emphatic. Your sweetheart would have been as +respected with them as in her own home. But, of course, you couldn't feel +that way. Go on with your story." + +I demurred, asserting that I felt sleepy. He assented and we composed +ourselves on the straw. How long I slept or when I wakened I do not know: +I was roused by the opening of the trap-door and by the light which +entered from above. Food was lowered to us; pork-stew, still warm, in a +two-handled, wide-mouthed jug; bread; olives, not wholly spoiled; and a +small kidskin of thin, sour wine. Galvius received the dole and +safeguarded the containers: the ropes were drawn up, the trap-door reset +and we were again in utter darkness. + +To my astonishment I felt entirely myself and very hungry. We drank and +ate deliberately and again drank. Galvius was a careful husbander of the +wine, and we drank mostly water from the spring. + +Afterwards, nestled in the not unendurably damp straw, chilly, but not +shivering, we sat or lay side by side and he urged me to continue my +story. I began where I had left off, and, going into the smallest details, +brought my history down to the hour of my consignment to our dungeon. + +When I paused he sighed, but not gloomily. + +"You have had marvellous adventures," he said, "and marvellous luck, both +good and bad. I knew that Marcia had belonged to your uncle. I was +informed of the existence of Ducconius Furfur, of his likeness to +Commodus, of his presence in the Palace, of his utilization as a dummy +Emperor, to set Commodus free to masquerade as Palus, and I heard that he +had been your neighbor. + +"Now go back, begin your tale at the beginning. Tell me of your getting +into trouble at the first, of how you escaped in the first place. I have +often wondered how you managed it." + +"Give me a respite," I demurred, "my voice is tired. It is your turn to +talk. Tell me how you learned about Ducconius Furfur and about Commodus +masquerading as Palus and about Marcia." + +"Why," he said, "I had friends in one or more towns when I first took to +the woods. They gave me tips that helped me to make fine hauls on the +highways. As I prospered I made more friends; they helped me and my +growing success gained more, till I had friends in every town in Italy and +in Rome itself and an organized service of road-messengers. Why, Imperial +couriers often carried letters and packets, destined for me, from one town +to another, or even carried onward letters from me to distant friends or +parcels of my booty. + +"In Rome itself I had many agents and chiefly my sister, Galvia +Crispinilla, a professional procuress and poisoner, who knew the worst +secrets of the lives of all Rome's wealthy and noble debauchees, and our +brother, Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, a professional informer and a valued +member of the Imperial Secret Service. I never knew why he had a spite +against you, but he had and it was false information given by him that +caused your proscription and ruin and thrust you into your years of +misery. I always felt that you did not deserve what you have suffered, but +his grudges were none of my business. + +"He is dead, as is Galvia, for she kept poison about her and gave a supply +to him and to me to use in case of capture. I was caught without mine, for +I was certain that no danger threatened me. He and she took the poison +when they saw capture inevitable, as it will be for most evil-doers all +over the Empire under the sway of such a man as Septimius Severus." + +He paused and I meditated awhile, puzzling as to how I could have incurred +the vindictive rancor of any secret-service agent. + +Presently I said: + +"Tell me how you came to be King of the Highwaymen." + +"My boy," he said, "my case is far different from yours. You had an +honorable origin and an honorable past. Nor were any of your adventures +discreditable to you, even if some situations you have been in were +distressing then and are humiliating to remember. You have nothing to be +ashamed of unless it be such a trifling peccadillo as impersonating +Salsonius Salinator. + +"My origin I shall never disclose, not even to a brother in misfortune. My +life has been one long series of perjuries, murders, robberies, +debaucheries and ruthless cruelties. I have been deaf to all +considerations of decency, pity and mercy; as unmoved by such feelings as +will be the savage beasts which spared you but will rend me to shreds. I +am at the end of my crimes; let me hide them. My doom is at hand. Why +should I defile your ears with the tale of my atrocities? Let them remain +untold." + +"You slander yourself," I demurred. "You cannot make me believe that a man +capable of condoning my balking of your great coup on the Flaminian +Highway, capable of guiding me to this bed of straw and of offering me a +share of his bit of stale bread can be all bad. There must be much in your +past life less dark than you indicate." + +He ruminated. + +"Frankly," he said, "I cannot recall anything I ever did at which a man +like you would not shudder. I have been a good sport, that is why I could +not but chuckle, after my first wrath cooled, at your spoiling my great +coup, as you call it. But, all my life, I have gloried in my treacheries +and cruelties. I have hated all mankind and been merciless to foes, if +they came into my power, and have pretended friendliness I did not feel so +as to make use of those who thought me friendly. + +"I can well recall only one human being I really loved: my wife. She had +her weak points, for she was a despiser of the gods, mocking all religion +and addicted to some contemptible Syrian cult of superstition and +puerilities. But I loved her in spite of that failing, for, in every other +way, she was a paragon. She is dead now and spared the agonies she would +have suffered at my capture and fate. Our two daughters are safe; both +healthy, both with the full status of citizens of the Republic, both well +provided with possessions, each married to a good, reliable husband, +though the younger is almost too young to be a wife. I feel at peace about +them. + +"I really loved my wife and in a way, her two girls. But, except for them, +I have cheated, ensnared, robbed and killed without pity or remorse." + +"You have no regrets?" I queried. + +"No remorse," he corrected me. "I should do it all over again if I were +back as I was when I took to brigandage. + +"Of course, while my wife was alive and I hoped for an old age with her, I +had a dream of investing my savings in a house in some out-of-the-way town +and in an estate near it and living at ease on the proceeds of my +robberies. But that was always far off in the future; I laid up a hoard to +make it possible, but I was never anywhere near ready to make use of that +hoard. Now it has been divided between my daughters, for, after their +mother's death, I realized that no life but brigandage was possible for +me. If I had not been captured I should have gone on as I was, I should go +on now, could I escape and resume my old life. I feel no remorse. + +"But I confess to one regret. I have, all my life, requited every helper +and paid off every grudge. But one benefactor, my greatest benefactor, I +have not repaid, although, when I learned of his inestimable service to +me, I swore a great oath to requite him, if it ever was in my power. I +have never been able to learn who he was, or even whether he is yet +living. If he is, I hate to die without requiting him as he deserves, in +so far as I might. + +"And I own that I was and am keenly curious to learn who he was. The mere +curiosity gnaws at me. Perhaps you understand." + +"I do," I said. "I also am extremely curious about a mystery I encountered +in the earlier part of my adventures. That memory urges me to comply with +your request for the former half of my story." + +And, beginning with my uncle's death, I narrated all my earlier +adventures. When I told of the cloaked and hatted horseman by the roadside +in the rain, the day of the brawl in Vediamnum and the affray near Villa +Satronia, he cut in with: + +"That was my brother, Marcus. He was detailed to report on your local +feud. Whether he knew of you before that, whether his queer spite against +you originated then or earlier, I don't know. He took dislikes and likes +without any traceable reasons." + +Similarly, when I told of seeing Marcus Crispinillus peer through the +postern door of Nemestronia's water-garden he interjected some remarks. + +He uttered admiring ejaculations as I told of wrestling with the leopard +on the terrace at Nemestronia's and of how Agathemer and I crawled through +the drain at Villa Andivia, also at my tale of my branding and scourging +and of the loyalty of Chryseros Philargyrus. + +But, when I came to our discovery of the hut in the mountains, he stirred +uneasily in the rustling straw and muttered in his throat. As I described +our winter at the hut he became more and more excited, uttering +ejaculations, half suppressed at first, as if not to interrupt my +narrative, later louder and louder. + +When I told of our killing the five ruffians he sprang up. + +"Say no more!" he cried. "Come to my arms. Let me embrace you! Let me +clasp you close! You are he! You are my benefactor! The man who tells that +story in such detail cannot have heard it from another, he must have lived +it! To think that you are Felix the Horse-Master and also Andivius Hedulio +and that you saved my Nona! My gratitude cannot be expressed, any more +than your service to me can be requited. But I shall do all I can. The +gems you took were but a trifle and you were welcome to them. In fact, I +never missed them. In any case they were but an installment on what you +deserved and now deserve. It is not yet too late for me to save you. I can +cause your speedy release and probably your complete rehabilitation. They +have been keeping me here in the hope of extorting from me information +which would enable them to ferret out my confederates in the towns and +cities. They have wheedled and threatened, but have hesitated to torture +me, since no one doubts that I was, by origin, a freeman. I have held out +and should have held out, even if tortured. Now I'll make a voluntary +confession, enough to delight the magistrates. Chiefly I'll emphasize your +complete innocence and my brother's malignity. I'll have to save some +others along with you and I shall. But, to a certainty, I'll save you! + +"It seems to me there is a poplar-pole somewhere in this dungeon." + +He felt about and presently I heard a dull thumping, on the trap-door, in +a sort of rhythm, like the foot-beating of spectators at Oscan dances. +After no long interval the trapdoor was lifted; Crispinillus called up: + +"Tell them I have changed my mind. I'll confess. I'll make a full +confession. I'll tell the whole story!" + +The trap-door was replaced and we were again in complete darkness. + +He settled himself beside me in the straw. + +"No need to husband our provisions now," he said. "Neither of us will be +left long in this hole. Let's comfort ourselves with food and wine." + +I felt inclined the same way and we munched and passed the kidskin back +and forth. + +"Tell me," I said, "how it was that your thumping brought such a quick +response." + +"I signalled in the code of knocking known to all jailers," he said. + +I expressed my amazement and incredulity. + +"Don't you fool yourself," he said. "There is a certain sort of mutual +understanding between executioners and jailers on the one hand and +criminals on the other. There must be a give and take in all trades, even +between man-hunters and hunted men. They were on the watch for any signal +I might give, if it really meant anything. They were pleased to hear. +You'll see the results promptly." + +In fact, after no long interval, the trap-door was lifted again and a rope +lowered, up which Crispinillus was bidden to climb. + +He embraced me time after time, saying that we should never set eyes on +each other again and that, confession or no confession, he knew his doom +was not far off; but he wanted me, as long as I lived, to remember the +gratitude of Nona's husband, his thankfulness for my treatment of his +family and his efforts to requite the service. + +"Keep up a good heart, lad," he said. "You won't be long here alone in the +dark, and you'll soon be as coddled and pampered as a man can be. Long +life to you and good luck and may you be soon married and raise a fine +family. Peace of mind and prosperity to you and yours and a green old age +to you!" + +And he climbed the rope, hand over hand, like the best sailor on Libo's +yacht. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +SEVERUS + + +Not many hours later, I, sleeping soundly in the straw, was wakened by the +raising of the trap-door. Again a rope was let down. This time two of the +Executioner's helpers slid down the dangling rope. They addressed me most +deferentially and asked permission to prepare me to be hauled up, +thereupon adjusting the ropes about me. + +In the upper chamber of the prison I was rubbed down and clothed in the +best sort of tunic, shod with the ceremonial boots of a nobleman and +wrapped in a nobleman's outer garments. Then I was led off to the nearest +point to which a litter may approach the Mamertine Prison. The brilliant +sunrays blinded me and the sight of Rome in the glory of a mellow July +afternoon brought the tears to my eyes and made me gulp and swallow. But +the tears did not blind me too much to recognize Imperial liveries on the +litter-bearers and runners and intendant. I was obsequiously invited to +enter the litter, the panels were slid, the curtains drawn, and the +bearers set off. They carried me to the Palace! + +There I was received by the new Chamberlain in person, to be sure with +four armed guardsmen accompanying him, but himself as deferential as +possible. By him I was conducted to a luxurious apartment, consisting of a +large anteroom, a private library, a private _triclinium_, a private +bathroom, and two bedrooms, all furnished with the most lavish abundance +and in perfect taste. + +I found a small regiment of servants to minister to my wants: a valet, a +masseur, a cook, waiters, errand-pages, a reader and yet others. I could +have anything I asked for in that apartment, but a guard at its outer door +saw to it that I remained in it. + +There I was bathed, massaged, obsequiously asked what dainties and wines I +preferred, supplied with all I suggested and clothed in garments to my +liking; huge heaps of togas, mantles, wraps, tunics and shoes being +brought in for me to choose from. There I spent some comfortable days, +sleeping much, having myself read to, mostly from the private letters of +the Emperors, and from the Anticatones of the Divine Julius; and, from the +balcony of the ante-room enjoying the splendid view southwestwards, over +the Circus Maximus, the lower reaches of the Tiber and the Campagna, for +my apartment was on that side of the Palace and high up. + +When I asked if I might despatch letters to my friends I was told that the +Emperor had given orders that I was to communicate with no one and no one +with me. I worried over Vedia's anxiety and almost as much over the +probable disquiet of Agathemer, Tanno and even of Galen. But I was +helpless and endeavored to be calm. I was certainly comfortable and +hopeful, though impatient. + +At last, after six days of this luxurious imprisonment, on the day before +the Ides of July, sometime before noon, my apartment was entered by +Juvenalis himself in the full regalia of Prefect of the Palace. He greeted +me deferentially and was most respectful. He informed me that the Emperor +desired an interview with me and through him conveyed to me his regrets +that it had had to be postponed so long and that I had been so long kept +in confinement and seclusion. He had now come to conduct me to the +Emperor, who was at last free to spend with me an hour or more. When my +valet had made me comfortable and had prepared me for my private audience, +Juvenalis escorted me to the upper private audience-hall, a chamber +spacious and magnificent, though somewhat smaller than the lower private +audience-hall and far smaller than the great hall for public audiences or +the vast throne-room. + +I followed Juvenalis along the corridors, elated by my nobleman's attire, +but nervous at the prospect of coming face to face with the master of Rome +and Italy, with the prospective (as he turned out to be in fact) master of +the world. + +I was ushered in and Juvenalis withdrew, shutting the door and leaving me +alone with the great man. He rose from his chair, for it could not be +called a throne, took a step or two towards me and greeted me affably, as +one nobleman another. He bade me be seated, did not sit down himself until +I had taken the chair he indicated; then he settled himself deliberately. + +We eyed each other, in silence. I cannot conjecture what he thought of me, +but I can never forget the impression made on me by him. + +He wore the Imperial robes consciously. I had often noted how Commodus +wore his without thought, as any fisherman wears his rags. Severus was +aware of his regalia, and especially of the sky-blue shoes with the +Imperial Eagles embroidered on them in gold thread. He looked a man in the +best of health, completely fit for a frontier command, for open +campaigning, full of surplus energy, hard-muscled, spare and enduring. +Also he looked as competent, discerning, clear-headed and ruthless as a +man could be. Most of all I diagnosed him as economical of himself, of his +men and of his possessions, especially of cash; as swayed by self-interest +alone, as flinty-hearted; yet as capable of kindliness when it did not +interfere with his plans and was not too expensive. + +I waited in silence for him to speak. He said: + +"I am a very busy man, even far too busy. Commodus left the treasury empty +and every department of the government inefficient. Pertinax refilled the +treasury, but his attempts at reorganization merely disorganized +everything and prepared for the general confusion which came about under +Julianus. With insufficient funds I must fill the Treasury, reorganize the +whole governmental machinery, get it to working dependably and smoothly, +and at the same time prepare for a civil war which I hope to win, but of +which I can foretell the outcome no better than could the Divine Julius be +sure of the outcome of his when he crossed the Rubicon. Amid all these +cares and occupations I must keep fit and must do all I can to win the +confidence and respect of all classes by rectifying, as far as I may, the +consequences of the inattention of my predecessors and of the knavery and +venality of their subordinates. And I must hurry off to deal with +Pescennius Niger, who is no mean antagonist. Altogether I have no time for +trifles. + +"But I do not reckon your case as a trifle, though the safety of the +Republic by no means hinges on it. And I am more interested in you than in +any one individual outside of my family and connections. I have never +heard of a man brought so near death, so ruined, but for the singular +favor of the gods so utterly and so hopelessly ruined, subjected to such +dangers and miseries, so baselessly, by such malevolent misrepresentations +and fabrications. You deserve to be recompensed. You shall be. And besides +the merits of your case I am curious about you. + +"You must be curious yourself. + +"When I foresaw that I was likely to be acclaimed Emperor by my soldiers +and welcomed by the Senate as Prince of the Republic, I set on foot +various measures certain to benefit the Commonwealth and the Empire. +Especially I made an effort to abolish or at least curb the banditry, +brigandage and outlawry which corrupts the entire rural population of +Italy and is a national disgrace. I was successful in so far as that my +emissaries broke up most of the bands of outlaws and captured many of +them, particularly the most famous of all, known as the King of the +Highwaymen. + +"I had made sure to have secret agents watching all my emissaries, on +whatever errand I had sent them. These secret agents reported that +powerful influences were at work to bring about the escape of this arch- +criminal. I set reliable men to find out what those influences were. Their +investigations led straight to Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, a life-long +member of the Imperial secret service, universally known as a professional +informer, yet considered second to no man in the secret service as to +usefulness and reliability, the only man among the spies of Commodus who +had been trusted and retained by Pertinax and Julianus, the very man whom +my relations in Rome, who had kept me posted as to conditions here, had +represented as most likely to be dependable and serviceable. I ordered him +apprehended but he and his despicable sister, Galvia Crispinilla, escaped +arrest by taking some of her poison. Their papers were seized, but so huge +was the mass of them and so great their confusion that they could not be +put in order and their secrets utilized at once. So sluggishly did their +unravelling proceed that, although it was manifest at once that the +precious pair had been agents in Rome for the King of the Highwaymen, had +marketed for him his booty, had kept up an almost daily correspondence +with him, had warned him of all facts and rumors likely to affect him, had +maintained a highly organized and cleverly concealed system of secret +agents and road-messengers for his benefit and theirs; yet, until his +voluntary confession, neither I nor anyone else concerned had the +slightest inkling that the King of the Highwaymen was named Caius Galvius +Crispinillus and was a full brother to the procuress and poisoner and the +professional spy, who had committed suicide to escape retribution for +their villainies. Until his confession was brought to my attention I had +equally no inkling that all relevant aspersions upon you had originated +with or been transmitted by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus. + +"The case against you, on the basis of the papers filed at Secret Service +Headquarters, was most damnatory. You were represented to have been the +man who had suggested to Egnatius Capito the formation of his conspiracy +against Commodus; and to have planned for him the inclusion in it of all +undetected survivors of the members of Lucilla's abortive conspiracy of +the year before; to have offered yourself as the most likely man to +succeed in assassinating Commodus, as he held you in high regard for some +exploit in some roadside affray in Sabinum; to have pretended illness as a +cloak for your machinations. Then it was represented, circumstantially, +that, after the detection and foiling of Capito's conspiracy, you had +taken ship for Spain, made your way to the camp of the rebel, Maternus, +won his confidence, suggested to him the idea of a secret march on Rome, +of the assassination of Commodus during the Festival of Cybele, planned +for him the details of that secret march, managed it for him and come all +the way from Spain to Rome with him. + +"When his attempt failed, you, alone among his henchmen, escaped. You +then, according to the reports, went straight to Britain, visited every +important camp, infused into the garrisons the spirit of discontent, +engineered their mutiny, suggested to them the sending of a dangerously +large deputation to Rome, led that deputation and were its controlling +spirit all the way to Rome, vanishing successfully when the mutineers were +induced by Oleander to return to Britain and their associates, by his +device, were massacred or consigned to _ergastula_. + +"With such reports in my hands, with additions declaring that while +neither your presence nor your influence could be proved, you were +probably the guiding spirit in the assassination of Pertinax, it is no +wonder that I, crediting these apparently sincere and trustworthy +statements, considered you the most dangerous among all the survivors of +conspiracies against my predecessors, which conspirators, on principle, I +meant to exterminate as an obvious measure of mere sensible precaution. + +"No one seems to have recognized you as Andivius Hedulio while you were in +the service of Pompeianus Falco under the name of Phorbas, except only +Galen, who has explained and justified to me his reasons for protecting +you, of which I entirely approve. He did well. As Phorbas I heard of you +first, when it was represented to me that you had murdered your late +master and been cleared by that indulgent humanitarian, Lollius Corbulo; +that the case was a most flagrant miscarriage of justice and that such +slackness would breed a crop of such murders unless temptation was +counteracted by severity. I then directed Cassius Ravillanus to deal with +you, for I trusted him. + +"When, in the arena of the Colosseum, I saw the savage, ravening beasts +not only spare you but fawn on you, I felt sure that you had been falsely +convicted, that you were innocent and that the gods had intervened to save +you. Later, when I heard the cries of 'Festus' and they were explained to +me, I was doubly incensed against you. That no beast would touch you, even +when bound and your face covered, convinced me of your complete innocence. + +"Thereupon, after I had ordered you released, I had turned my attention +again to the spectacle of the games in the arena, promising myself an +interview with you later, for I was intensely curious about you. But, that +very day, before dark, Flavius Clemens craved a brief private audience +with me and informed me that he had recognized you as Andivius Hedulio and +that you had confessed your identity. I ordered you at once into the +Tullianum, pending my decision as to how to wring from you a complete +disclosure of your villainies and accomplices before putting you to death. + +"Then, to my amazement, the confession of the King of the Highwaymen +represented you as a wholly innocent man, incredibly slandered and +calumniated, and all by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, why and for what end +was unknown. + +"I at once ordered you released and brought to the Palace. Here I have +kept you in unmerited confinement until the papers of your traducer could +be sifted and I could go over those relevant to your case. Manifestly you +never had anything to do with inciting any conspiracy or any march on +Rome. All aspersions on you were invented by Crispinillus. I am +inexpressibly curious about you. I want you to tell me your story in your +own way, in detail, taking your time. In particular I want to learn how +you came to be with Maternus and later with the mutineers from Britain. I +am at leisure to harken." + +He had put me entirely at my ease. Manifestly he wanted to hear my story, +was in the mood to listen, and rather enjoyed the respite from care which +this carefully arranged interval of leisure gave him. I felt emboldened +and began with an explanation of the feud between the Satronians and the +Vedians, of the lawsuit between Ducconius Furfur and my uncle, and of his +purchase of Marcia from Ummidius Quadratus and his manumission of her. + +After these preliminaries I launched into my story. He listened +attentively and with every indication of lively interest, with few +interruptions. Once he clapped for his pages and had in snow-cooled wine +to refresh me and soothe my throat. Upon my account of my wrestle with +Nemestronia's leopard he cut in with a series of questions as to my power +over animals. When I came to my encounter with Pescennius Niger he was +keenly interested, as in my report of his reputation in Marseilles, +according to Doris, and uttered one or two remarks. Otherwise he was +apparently absorbed in my narrative. + +When it was over he said: + +"I believe you, your story sounds true; all of it. You have had amazing +adventures and have escaped alive manifestly by the special favor of the +immortal gods, particularly of Mercury. Like you, I pay special attention +to winning and keeping the favor of Mercury, though, of course, for me, as +for all soldiers, Mithras is the most important god. + +"You may be very sure that I shall, as far as may be, provide that no +informer or secret-service agent can ever again succeed in gaining +credence for baseless fabrications, such as those from which you have +suffered. I shall endeavor to have it arranged that reports of any one +agent be checked up by reports of another, the two being wholly unknown to +each other. Thus no man shall, if I can prevent it, again be persecuted as +you have been. I am shocked at such laxity and I shudder at the power +wielded by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, and at his misuse of it. I can +find no trace of any reasonable motive; he seems to have slandered you +from mere whim or the mere love of causing misery, or some spite or +perhaps to increase the impression of his own importance. + +"Now there looms before me the duty of seeing you restored to your rights, +as to both rank and property. + +"In respect to your standing as a Roman nobleman there has been, is and +will be no difficulty. I have had everything attended to and all necessary +formalities have been gone through, all official, public records made. You +are a Roman nobleman in good standing with every right which your birth +assured you. + +"As to your property matters are not so simple. I find that you will be +very wealthy, anyhow, as the heir of one-fourth of the estate of your late +master, Pompeianus Falco, and also as inheritor of his marvellous +collection of gems and curios, therefore, even without anything of your +confiscated property, you will be affluent. + +"But that does not absolve me from the duty of seeing justice done you; of +putting you in possession of your house here in Rome and of your estates +in Sabinum, and in Bruttium. I find that all these were held by the +_fiscus_ until after the death of Cleander. Owing to the destruction of a +large part of the Palace records in the great fire I cannot make sure +whether what I am told is true. I am told that your town house and country +estates were granted by the _fiscus_, under proper seal, ostensibly by the +command of Commodus, to the present owner. That present owner is in +possession of the official transfer deeds and they are properly made out. +Yet neither from the present owner nor from the deeds can it be +ascertained which Prefect of the Palace authorized the transfer. Between +Cleander and Aemilius Laetus, Commodus had thirty different Prefects of +the Palace, most of them for very brief terms, one for less than a full +day, for he was appointed after noon one day and put to death before noon +of the day following. To a certainty, I cannot ever get legal proof that +the grant was gotten by bribery or was in any way illegal. + +"Therefore I cannot command the present holder to return your former +property to the _fiscus_, in order that the _fiscus_ may turn it over to +you. Nor is there any precedent for one Prince revoking a grant made under +a predecessor. Nor is there anything in our law or customs enabling me to +bid the present holder to sell back to the _fiscus_ your entire former +property, even at a high valuation. + +"Moreover I do not feel that I ought, unless I must, take from the +treasury the cash necessary to repurchase your house and estates, so as to +be able to restore you to full possession of them; or to hand you a sum in +cash sufficient to recompense you for the confiscation of your heritage. + +"Yet, whatever straits the treasury may be in, I pledge you my word that, +if you cannot recover full possession of your estates in any other way, I +shall compel the present holder to release them to the _fiscus_ and shall +order the _fiscus_ to restore them to you, I, out of our depleted +treasury, paying the present holder, but I do not want to resort to this +unless all other means fail. + +"Hoping that the matter may be adjusted in another way, easier for all +three of us, I have arranged to have the present holder of your former +estates here in the Palace. + +"When this interview between you and me terminates, I shall have you +escorted to a room where you will find awaiting you the present holder of +your former estates. If you two cannot come to some agreement by which, +with full satisfaction to both of you, you become again possessed of your +patrimony, I shall then take the measures to which I have pledged myself. + +"To that end I have given orders that, if you formally make request for a +second private audience with me, you shall have it, although I must leave +Rome for the East within eight days and cannot despatch the imperative +business awaiting me, even if I could go without food, rest or sleep. I +mean what I say, you are to ask for a second audience if you really want +one and if you ask for one you shall have it. But do not ask for it unless +you must. + +"And now, is there anything else you desire to say, or to request or any +query you wish to put to me? If so, I authorize and command you to speak." + +Choking, I muttered that I had nothing further to say. + +"In that case," said the Emperor, standing up, "this interview is at an +end. You shall be conducted to your conference with the present owner of +your former estates, which I hope may turn out to your full satisfaction." + +And he clapped his hands for a page. + +The page conducted me through endless corridors, twisting and turning. +During that brief interval I did a great deal of very confused thinking. I +was dazed and puzzled. I had realized as he ended his harangue that it +would have been ridiculous to ask that man to change his mind or even +modify a decision. He was not that sort of Emperor. Yet he had pledged +himself to restore to me my estates or recompense me in cash. I felt that +he meant it; yet I knew that he would never have uttered that pledge if he +had felt that there was the remotest chance of his ever being called on to +fulfill it. He was too parsimonious to promise such generosity unless +absolutely certain that the occasion for it would never confront him. Yet +how could he escape it and why did he feel so sure? How could any +beneficiary from such a grant of confiscated property be induced to +disgorge except by Imperial order and that with full compensation? Why had +Severus so sedulously, yet so obviously, avoided naming the present holder +of my former property? The Emperor was an austere man, stern by habit, +almost grim by nature, certainly serious. He had spoken seriously. Yet I +sensed a jest somewhere in the background of his thoughts. I almost +believed I had caught the glint of a twinkle in his hard, gray eyes. Could +I be wrong? Could I be right? + +It seemed like a jest to send me to an interview with a beneficiary of a +grant of confiscated property, enriched thereby, and to imply, even to +suggest, that he might be induced to restore to me his acquisitions, +without pressure, merely by amicable converse. I conjured up before me the +probable appearance of the man I was to meet; perhaps gross and greedy +like Satronius Satro, perhaps dwarfish and mean like Vedius Vedianus, +probably like anyone of the avaricious magnates, associated with +Pullanius, whom I had met while impersonating Salsonius Salinator. + +I resented the possibility of an Imperial jest. I was more and more dazed +and puzzled the nearer I approached the inevitable interview and the +nearer I approached it the more futile and hopeless it seemed and the more +despondent I grew. + +The page paused at a door, opened it, waved me in and shut it. + +I was in a small parlor, and there was no other man in it; I saw only one +seated human figure, a woman, a lady, a graceful young woman, a charming +young woman. + +Then, suddenly, I saw through it all. + +My troubles were indeed at an end. + +I recognized Vedia! + + + + +EPILOGUE + + +I do not think it necessary to describe in detail my marriage to Vedia, +nor our dinners at Nemestronia's, at Tanno's, at Segontius Almo's; nor the +dinners we gave at my old home, after it had been fitted up to our liking, +all trace of its occupancy by tenants effaced and we had settled there. + +Why tell at length of my manumission of Agathemer, of my endowment of him +with a goodly share of my heritage from poor Falco, or of his disposition +of Falco's gems and his rapid acquisition of vast wealth and of his +continued prosperity? + +When my misfortunes began Nemestronia was past her eighty-fourth birthday. +After my rehabilitation Vedia and I helped at the celebration of her +ninety-fifth, and of three more. + +Nemestronia lived almost to her hundredth birthday, in full possession of +her faculties and, until near the end, in marvellously good health. She is +still remembered as having been the oldest noble matron ever known in +Rome. + +Like her, Chryseros Philargyrus, though long past the usual term of human +life when my disasters overtook us, survived my nine winters of adventures +and lived to greet me as a son rearisen from the dead, in the tenth summer +after he had sped me on my way in the midnight woods from Ducconius +Furfur's land. + +Enough to say that Vedia and I, from a second-floor balcony, watched pass +the triumphal procession of our great Prince of the Republic, Septimius +Severus, when he returned victorious over both his rivals and reentered +Rome, indubitably master of the world. + +As to my later life I cannot forbear remarking that I am the only man with +pierced ears who ever mingled as an equal with the bathers in the Baths of +Titus, the only man, certainly, with a brand mark on his shoulder and +scourge-scars on his back who ever habitually frequented that most +magnificent of our fashionable pleasure-resorts. My brand-marks and +scourge-scars have not diminished my enjoyment of life except that they +frequently give bores a pretext for insisting on my narrating my +adventures. + +Of course, as in my city mansion, so also at Villa Andivia, I have had +constructed and consecrated a handsome private chapel to Mercury. + + + + +NOTES TO ANDIVIUS HEDULIO + + +A. THE ROMAN ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM + +From the expulsion of the Kings, the people of Rome, assembled in their +voting-field outside their city, each year elected the magistrates for the +year: others, and especially quaestors, answering to our army-paymaster +and custom-house collectors; praetors (judges, generals and governors of +provinces), and two consuls, acting as chief-magistrates and generals-in- +chief. A man was generally first quaestor, later praetor and finally +consul, often holding other intermediary offices. + +Ex-officials, who had held the more important offices of the Republic, +became by immemorial custom life-members of the Senate, which was never an +elective, always a selective body, without legal authority but with great +influence. As the Republic's Empire spread the Senate was less and less +able to control provincial governors, until such self-confident geniuses +as Sulla, Caesar and Augustus became able to control it. The Roman +Republic was never abolished, and did not die till the Turks captured +Constantinople in 1453. It conquered a great Empire and when its Senate +could no longer control the magistrates who managed that Empire, its +solders who, by conquering and holding provinces to pay taxes maintained +the Empire and the Republic, wearied of the incompetence of the Senate's +appointees, of the squabbles and strife of their leaders, chose by +acclamation one commander whom they loved and trusted. The Senate, at his +mercy, legalized his sovereignty by conferring on him for life the powers +of a Tribune, an official who could initiate nothing, but had the legal +power to forbid anything and everything. + +The Senate continued to administer those provinces reckoned safe from +invasion or insurrection; always two governed by ex-consuls and about ten +governed each by an ex-praetor. It continued to dispose of the funds +derived from their taxes and to recruit itself from ex-magistrates and to +retain much of its influence, dignity and importance. + +The outer provinces and those prone to turbulence were governed not by ex- +consuls and ex-praetors acting in the name of the Senate, but each by a +deputy of the Emperor, styled propraetor, praeses, or procurator. These +were called imperial provinces. The magistrates of the senatorial +provinces were, under the Empire, no longer elected by the people, but +appointed by the Senate, with or without an indication of the Emperor's +wishes. + +The Romans never devised any method of choosing a chief magistrate other +than acclamation by an army and confirmation by the Senate, creating an +Emperor. If two commanders at about the same time were separately saluted +"Imperator," as were Septimius Severus and Pescennius Niger, there was no +method of adjudicating their conflicting claims except by Civil War and +the survival of one Imperator only. + + +B. THE FISCUS + +From this word comes our "confiscate," "to turn totally into the Fiscus." +A fiscus was a large basket, such is were used by all Roman financial +concerns to contain live vouchers. The fiscus was the organization +managing the pubic property, income and expenditures of the Roman Emperor. +It controlled the proceeds of the taxes of all the imperial provinces and +of the domains, mines, quarries, fisheries, factories, town property and +whatever else the fiscus held for the Emperors, impersonally. It gathered +in all moneys and possessions forfeited for suicide, crime or treason. + + +C. THE ROMAN CALENDAR + +All primitive calendars went by the moon. Moon and month are the same word +in English. No more than Hengist and Horsa could the early Romans have +conceived of a month not beginning with the day of the new moon, as all +months begin yet in the Jewish and Mohammedan calendars. + +The first day of each month the Romans called its Kalends (announcement +day). After that day they called each day so many before the Nones (half +moon), then so many before the Ides (full moon), then so many to the +Kalends of the next month. Julius Caesar, impatient with the difficulties +of fitting together the solar and lunar calendars, bade his experts ignore +the moon and divide the solar year into twelve months. They did, and his +calendar, with trifling improvements, has lasted till our days. The Romans +continued to reckon days before the Nones, Ides and Kalends. The Nones +fell on the seventh of March, May, July and October, on the fifth of the +other months; the Ides on the fifteenth of March, May, July and October +and on the thirteenth of the rest. + + +D. THE LEGION + +The legion, always the largest fighting unit of the Roman armies, +corresponded most nearly to our regiment, but had also features of our +brigade. It was always rostered as of 6,000 men, all told. But the causes +which operate in all armies brought it about that a legion in the field +had usually about 5,000 men. It was divided into sixty bodies resembling +our companies, called centuries, because nominally of 100 men, each +commanded by a centurion. The Roman army never, like ours, had tiering +grades of officers; it always, theoretically, consisted of soldiers, +centurions and the commander: other officers were additional and special. +Each centurion chose from among his men an _optio_, to assist him and to +take his place if killed. These _optiones_ corresponded most nearly to our +corporals, but their duties and authority were always very vague. The +centurions corresponded to our sergeants, in that they were picked men +from the ranks, but they had all the duties and powers of our lieutenants +and, some of them, of much higher officers. Three centuries made up a +maniple, more or less like one of our battalions, each commanded by its +senior centurion. Two maniples made up a cohort, also commanded by its +senior centurion, and the ten centurions commanding cohorts were the +actual officers of the legion, its head centurion an officer of great +importance. + +True, a _tribunus militum_ (tribune of the soldiers) was attached to each +cohort; but he did more advising than commanding, though, in theory, he +represented the general. The tribunes answered to our captains. Under the +Empire each legion was commanded by a _legatus_, who also represented the +general in his absence. Such an officer corresponded most nearly to our +colonel, but had many of the characteristics of a brigadier-general. + + +E. "_Ubi tu Caius, ego Caia._" + +These words, never varied whatever the names of the bride and groom, were +the kernel of the Roman wedding ritual and after their utterance the bride +was a wife. They correspond to the "I do" and "love, honor and obey" of +our customary marriage formulas. As Caius and Caia were far and away the +most frequent names among the Romans the phrase might be rendered: "Where +you are Jack, I'm Jill." + +No English words convey precisely the mingling of banter, and earnestness, +of archness, devotion, shyness and fervor implied in the Latin words as +uttered by Vedia. + + +F. OPTIONES + +Private soldiers chosen by their centurions as informal assistant- +centurions; to take their superior's place if he fell in battle, or was +disabled or ill, and to assist him with his routine duties. They +correspond more or less to the corporals of modern armies. (See also NOTE +D.) + + +G. SPINA + +The stone wall, platform, or long narrow structure down the middle of the +arena of a Roman circus, dividing its race-course into half laps. Along it +the teams tore at top speed, for the short turns about its rounded ends +their drivers reined them in. The spina was about 660 feet long. It varied +from a low wall to a gorgeous and complicated series of structures. + + +H. ERGASTULUM + +A hard-labor prison, whether belonging to a private person, company or +municipality, usually below ground-level, for criminal, dangerous, +unmanageable or runaway slaves. + + +J. COMMODUS AS AN ATHLETE + +Even more than Babe Ruth at baseball Commodus was a wonder at beast- +killing in the amphitheater. Dio Cassius, who, being a senator, looked on +from a front seat, says (LXXII, 18.) that he killed a hundred bears in one +day. Herodian, who grew up with men who had known Commodus and had been +spectators of his prowess, says (I; 15; 3, 4, 5, 6.) that when he speared +lions and leopards no one saw a second javelin cast nor any wound not +fatal, that he sent his dart at will through the forehead or the heart of +an animal rushing at top speed and that his missile never struck any part +of a beast except so as both to wound and kill. Hurling his javelins from +a distance he killed a hundred lions let out of the crypts of the +Colosseum with precisely the same number of spear-casts, no dart missing +its mark. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDIVIUS HEDULIO*** + + +******* This file should be named 8532.txt or 8532.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/8/5/3/8532 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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