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Of this Edition of Why te- Melville's
Works One Thousand and Fifty
Copies only have been printed by
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burgh, who have distributed the type

THE WORKS OF

G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE

EDITED BY

SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART.
VOLUME XXII.

THE GLADIATORS

tty? biT ir^

^'5 opportunity ^

powerful cjrajp."

THE GLADIATORS

A TALE OF ROME AND JUD^A

G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRINGTON BIRD

LONDON

W. THACKER & CO., 2 CREED LANE, E.C.

CALCUTTA: THACKER, SPINK 8c CO.
1901

CONTENTS

EROS

CHAP. PAGB

I. THE IVORY GATE ...... I

II. THE MARBLE PORCH ...... 6

III. HERMES . . . . . . .15

IV. APHRODITE ....... 2O

V. ROME ........ 28

VI. THE WORSHIP OF ISIS ..... 36

VII. TRUTH ....... 46

VIII. THE JEW ....... 55

IX. THE ROMAN ....... 6l

X. A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS . . . 7 1

XI. STOLEN WATERS . . . . . . 8l

XII. MYRRHINA ....... 86

XIII. NOLENS— VOLENS ...... 95

XIV. CESAR ....... IOO

XV. RED FALERNIAN . . . . . . Io8

XVI. THE TRAINING-SCHOOL . . . . • 1*7

XVII. A VEILED HEART . . . . . • I25

XVIII. WINGED WORDS . . . . . T35

XIX. THE ARENA ....... 144

XX. THE TRIDENT AND THE NET . . . -'55

CONTENTS

ANTEROS

CHAP. 'AGE

I. THE LISTENING SLAVE . . . .163

II. ATTACK AND DEFENCE . . . . .172

in. "FURENS QUID FCEMINA" . . . . .179

IV. THE LOVING CUP . . . . . 1 86

V. SURGIT AMARI . . . . . .194

VI. DEAD LEAVES . . . . . . . 2OO

VII. " HABET ! :> . . . . . . . 209

VIII. TOO LATE ....... 214

IX. THE LURE . . . . . . .221

X. FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS .... 229

XI. THE RULES OF THE FAMILY .... 238

XII. A MASTER OF FENCE . . . . . 245

XIII. THE ESQUILINE ...... 2$2

XIV. THE CHURCH ....... 260

XV. REDIVIVUS ....... 269

xvi. "MORITURI" ....... 280

XVII. THE GERMAN GUARD ...... 286

XVIII. THE BUSINESS OF CESAR . . . . .293

XIX. AT BAY ....... 300

XX. THE FAIR HAVEN ...... 307

CONTENTS

MOIRA

CHAP. PAGE

I. A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF . . 311

II. THE LION OF JUDAH . . . . -321

III. THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT .... 330

IV. THE MASTERS OF THE WORLD .... 338

V. GLAD TIDINGS . . . . . -345

VI. WINE ON THE LEES ...... 352

VII. THE ATTAINDER . . . . . 360

VIII. THE SANHEDRIM ...... 368

IX. THE PAVED HALL ...... 376

X. A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS . . . . . ' 384

XI. THE DOOMED CITY ...... 392

XII. DESOLATION ....... 398

XIII. THE LEGION OF THE LOST . . 4°6

XIV. FAITH ....•••• 4l6

XV. FANATICISM ... ... 423

XVI. DAWN ......«• 427

XVII. THE FIRST STONE ... • 435

XVIII. THE COST OF CONQUEST . . • 44°

XIX. THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES . • • 44$

XX. THE VICTORY . ..'..• 453

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"THE BRITON, WATCHING HIS OPPORTUNITY, SEIZED THE BIT

IN HIS POWERFUL GRASP" . . Coloured Frontispiece

" ' HAVE AT HIM ! GOOD DOGS ! '" . . . . . 2
"LICINIUS HOLDS THE BRITISH MAIDEN TO HIS BREAST" . 63

"WITH A SHORT LABOURING TROT HE MOVES ACROSS THE

ARENA" . . . . . . . .150

"'YOU ARE SAFE,' SHE SAID" . . . . -197

"SHE WAS ACCOSTED BY A DARK SALLOW OLD WOMAN" . 221

"HER EYES GREW DIM, HER SENSES SEEMED FAILING" . 255

"'THEIR POINTS ARE POISONED,' HE SHOUTED" . . 304

"SHE WALKED BOLDLY UP TO HIM" . . . 407

"SANK DOWN HELPLESS ON THE PAVEMENT 'AT HIS FEET" . 439

Xlll

THE GLADIATORS

Eros

CHAPTER I

THE IVORY GATE

ARK and stern, in their weird beauty,
lower the sad brows of the Queen of
Hell. Dear to her are the pomp
and power, the shadowy vastness,
and the terrible splendour of the
nether world. Dear to her the
pride of her unbending consort ;
and doubly dear the wide imperial
sway, that rules the immortal
destinies of souls. But dearer far
than these — dearer than flashing
crown and fiery sceptre, and throne
of blazing gold — are the memories that glimmer bright as
sunbeams athwart those vistas of gloomy grandeur, and seem
to fan her weary spirit like a fresh breeze from the realms of
upper earth. She has not forgotten, she never can forget,
the dewy flowers, the blooming fragrance of lavish Sicily,
nor the sparkling sea, and the summer haze, and the golden
harvests that wave and whisper in the garden and granary
of the world. Then a sad smile steals over the haughty face ;
the stern beauty softens in the gleam, and, for a while, the
daughter of Ceres is a laughing girl once more.

So the Ivory Gate swings back, and gentle doves come
forth on snowy wings, flying upwards through the gloom, to
bear balm and consolation to the weary and the wounded
and the lost. Now this was the dream the birds of Peace
brought with them, to soothe the broken spirit of a sleeping
slave.

EROS

The old boar has turned to bay at last. Long and severe
has been the chase; through many an echoing woodland,
down many a sunny glade, by copse and dingle, rock and
cave, through splashing stream, and deep, dank, quivering
morass, the large rough hounds have tracked him, unerring
and pitiless, till they have set him up here, against the trunk
of the old oak-tree, and he has turned — a true British denizen
of the waste — to sell his life dearly, and fight unconquered to
the last. His small eye glows like a burning coal ; the stiff
bristles are up along his huge black body, flecked with white
froth that he churns and throws about him, as he offers those
curved and ripping tusks, now to one, now to another of his
crowding, baying, leaping foes.

" Have at him ! Good dogs ! " shouts the hunter, running
in with a short, broad-bladed boar-spear in his hand. Breath-
less is he, and wearied with the long miles of tangled forests
he has traversed ; but his heart is glad within him, and his
blood tingles with a strange wild thrill of triumph known
only to the votaries of the chase.

Gelert is down, torn and mangled from flank to dewlap ;
Luath has the wild swine by the throat ; and a foot of gleam-
ing steel, driven home by a young, powerful arm, has entered
behind the neck and pierces downwards to the very brisket.
The shaft of the spear snaps short across, as the thick un-
wieldy body turns slowly over, and the boar shivers out his
life on the smooth sward, soft and green as velvet, that exists
nowhere but in Britain.

The dream changes. The boar has disappeared, and the
woodland gives place to a fair and smiling plain. Vast herds
of shaggy red cattle are browsing contentedly, with their wide-
horned heads to the breeze; flocks of sheep dot the green
undulating pastures, that stretch away towards the sea. A
gull turns its white wing against the clear blue sky ; there is
a hum of insects in the air, mingled with the barking of dogs,
the lowing of kine, the laughter of women, and other sounds
of peace, abundance, and content. A child is playing round
its mother's knee — a child with frank bold brow and golden
curls, and large blue fearless eyes, sturdy of limb, quick of
gesture, fond, imperious, and wilful. The mother, a tall
woman, with a beautiful but mournful face, is gazing stead-
fastly at the sea, and seems unconscious of her boy's caresses,
who is fondling and kissing the white hand he holds in both
his own. Her large shapely figure is draped in snowy robes
that trail upon the ground, and massive ornaments of gold
encircle arms and ankles. At intervals she looks fondly down

af tym qoocj doac"

THE IVORY GATE

upon the child ; but ever her face resumes its wistful expres-
sion, as she fixes her eyes again upon the sea. There is
nothing of actual sorrow in that steadfast gaze — still less
of impatience, or anger, or discontent. Memory is the pre-
vailing sentiment portrayed — memory, tender, absorbing,
irresistible, without a ray of hope, but without a shadow
of self-reproach. There is a statue of Mnemosyne at one
of the entrances to the Forum that carries on its marble
brow the same crushing weight of thought; that wears on
its delicate features, graven into the saddest of beauty by
the Athenian's chisel, just such a weary and despondent look.
Where can the British child have seen those tasteful spoils of
Greece that deck her imperial mistress ? And yet he thinks
of that statue as he looks up in his mother's face. But the
fair tall woman shivers and draws her robe closer about her,
and taking the child in her arms, nestles his head against
her bosom and covers him over with her draperies, for the
wind blows moist and chill, the summer air is white with
driving mist, huge shapeless forms loom through the haze,
and the busy sounds of life and laughter have subsided into
the stillness of a vast and dreary plain.

The child and its mother have disappeared, but a tall,
strong youth, just entering upon manhood, with the same
blue eyes and fearless brow, is present in their stead. He is
armed for the first time with the weapons of a warrior. He
has seen blows struck in anger now, and fronted the legions
as they advanced, and waged his fearless unskilful valour
against the courage, and the tactics, and the discipline of
Rome. So he is invested with sword, and helm, and target,
and takes his place, not without boyish pride, amongst the
young warriors who encircle the hallowed spot where the
Druids celebrate their solemn and mysterious rites.

The mist comes thicker still, driving over the plain in
waves of vapour, that impart a ghostly air of motion to the
stones that tower erect around the mystic circle. Grey,
moss-grown, and unhewn, hand of man seems never to have
desecrated those mighty blocks of granite, standing there,
changeless and awful, like types of eternity. Dim and
indistinct are they as the worship they guard. Hard and
stern as the pitiless faith of sacrifice, vengeance, and oblation,
inculcated at their base. A wild low chant comes wailing
on the breeze, and through the gathering mist a long line
of white-robed priests winds slowly into the circle. Stern
and gloomy are they of aspect, lofty of stature, and large of
limb, with long grey beards and tresses waving in the wind.

EROS

Each wears a crown of oak - leaves round his head ; each
grasps a wand covered with ivy in his hand. The youth
cannot resist an exclamation of surprise. There is desecra-
tion in his thought, there is profanity in his words. Louder
and louder swells the chant. Closer and closer still contracts
the circle. The white-robed priests are hemming him in to
the very centre of the mystic ring, and see ! the sacrificial
knife is already bared and whetted, and flourished in the air
by a long brawny arm. The young warrior strives to fly.
Horror ! his feet refuse to stir, his hands cleave powerless
to his sides. He seems turning to stone. A vague fear
paralyses him that he too will become one of those granite
masses to stand there motionless during eternity. His heart
stops beating within him, and the transformation seems about
to be completed, when lo ! a warlike peal of trumpets breaks
the spell, and he shakes his spear aloft and leaps gladly from
the earth, exulting in the sense of life and motion once more.
Again the dream changes. Frenzied priest and Druid ical
stone have vanished like the mist that encircled them. It is
a beautiful balmy night in June. The woods are black and
silver in the moonlight. Not a breath of air stirs the topmost
twigs of the lofty elm cut clear and distinct against the sky.
Not a ripple blurs the surface of the lake, spread out and
gleaming like a sheet of polished steel. The bittern calls at
intervals from the adjacent marsh, and the nightingale carols
in the copse. All is peaceful and beautiful, and suggestive
of enjoyment or repose. Yet here, lying close amongst the
foxglove and the fern, long lines of white-robed warriors are
waiting but the signal for assault. And yonder, where the
earthwork rises dark and level against the sky, paces to and
fro a high-crested sentinel, watching over the safety of the
eagles, with the calm and ceaseless vigilance of that discipline
which has made the legionaries masters of the world.

Once more the trumpets peal ; the only sound to be heard
in that array of tents, drawn up with such order and precision,
behind the works, except the footfall of the Roman guard,
firm and regular, as it relieves the previous watch. In a short
space that duty will be performed ; and then, if ever, must the
attack be made with any probability of success. Youth is
impatient of delay — the young warrior's pulse beats audibly,
and he feels the edge of his blade and the point of his short-
handled javelin, with an intensity of longing that is absolutely
painful. At length the word is passed from rank to rank.
Like the crest of a sea-wave breaking into foam, rises that
wavering line of white, rolling its length out in the moonlight,

THE IVORY GATE

as man after man springs erect at the touch of his comrade ;
and then a roar of voices, a rush of feet, and the wave dashes
up and breaks against the steady solid resistance of the
embankment. But discipline is not to be caught thus
napping. Ere the echo of their trumpets has died out
among the distant hills, the legionaries stand to their arms
throughout the camp. Already the rampart gleams and
bristles with shield and helmet, javelin, sword, and spear.
Already the eagle is awake and defiant ; unruffled, indeed,
in plumage, but with beak and talons bare and whetted for
defence. The tall centurions marshal their men in line even
and regular, as though about to defile by the throne of Caesar,
rather than to repel the attack of a wild barbarian foe. The
tribunes, with their golden crests, take up their appointed
posts in the four corners of the camp ; while the praetor him-
self gives his orders calm and unmoved from the centre.

Over the roar of the swarming Britons sounds the clear
trumpet-note pealing out its directions, concise and intelli-
gible as a living voice, and heard by the combatants far and
wide, inspiring courage and confidence, and order in the
confusion. Brandishing their long swords, the white-clad
warriors of Britain rush tumultuously to the attack. Already,
they have filled the ditch and scaled the earthwork ; but once
and again they recoil from the steady front and rigid dis-
cipline of the invader, while the short stabbing sword of the
Roman soldier, covered as he is by his ample shield, does
fearful execution at close quarters. But still fresh assailants
pour in, and the camp is carried and overrun. The young
warrior rushes exulting to and fro, and the enemy falls in
heaps before him. Such moments are worth whole years of
peaceful life. He has reached the praetorium. He is close
beneath the eagles, and he leaps wildly at them to bring
them off in triumph as trophies of his victory. But a grim
centurion strikes him to the earth. Wounded, faint, and
bleeding, he is carried away by his comrades, the shaft of the
Roman standard in his hand. They bear him to a war-
chariot, they lash the wild galloping steeds, the roll of the
wheels thunders in his ears as they dash tumultuously across
the plain, and then . . . the gentle mission is fulfilled, the
doves fly down again to Proserpine, and the young, joyous,
triumphant warrior of Britain wakes up a Roman slave.

CHAPTER II

THE MARBLE PORCH

IT was the sound of a chariot, truly enough, that roused
the dreamer from his slumbers; but how different the
scene on which his drowsy eyes unclosed, from that which
fancy had conjured up in the shadowy realms of sleep !

A beautiful portico, supported on slender columns of
smooth white marble, protected him from the rays of the
morning sun, already pouring down with the intensity of
Italian heat. Garlands of leaves and flowers, cool and fresh
in their contrast with the snowy surface of these dainty pillars,
were wreathed around their stems, and twined amongst the
delicate carving of their Corinthian capitals. Large stone
vases, urn-shaped and massive, stood in long array at stated
intervals, bearing the orange-tree, the myrtle, and other dark-
green flowering shrubs, which formed a fair perspective of
retirement and repose. Shapely statues filled the niches in
the wall, or stood out more prominently in the vacant spaces
of the colonnade. Here cowered a marble Venus, in the
shamefaced consciousness of unequalled beauty ; there stood
forth a bright Apollo, exulting in the perfection of godlike
symmetry and grace. Rome could not finger the chisel like
her instructress Greece, the mother of the Arts, but the hand
that firmly grasps the sword need never want for anything
skill produces, or genius creates, or gold can buy ; so it is no
marvel that the masterpieces and treasures of the nations she
subdued found their way to the Imperial City, mistress of the
world. Even where the sleeper lay reclined upon a couch of
curiously-carved wood from the forests that clothe Mount
Hymettus, an owl so beautifully chiseled that its very breast-
plumage seemed to ruffle in the breeze, looked down upon
him from a niche where it had been placed at a cost that
might have bought a dozen such human chattels as himself;
for it had been brought from Athens as the most successful
effort of a sculptor, who had devoted it to the honour of
Minerva in his zeal. Refinement, luxury, nay, profusion,

THE MARBLE PORCH

reigned paramount even here outside the sumptuous dwelling
of a Roman lady : and the very ground in her porch over
which she was borne, for she seldom touched it with her feet,
was fresh swept and sanded as often as it had been dis-
turbed by the tread of her litter-bearers, or the wheels of
her chariot.

Many a time was this ceremony performed in the twenty-
four hours; for Valeria was a woman of noble rank, great
possessions, and the highest fashion. Not a vanity of her
sex, not a folly was there of her class, in which she scrupled
to indulge ; and then, as now, ladies were prone to rush into
extremes, and frivolity, when it took the garb of a female,
assumed preposterous dimensions, and a thirst for amusement,
incompatible with reason or self-control.

There is always a certain hush, and, as it were, a pompous
stillness, about the houses of the great, even long after inferior
mortals are astir in pursuit of their pleasure or their business.
To-day was Valeria's birthday, and as such was duly observed
by the hanging of garlands on the pillars of her porch ; but
after the completion of this graceful ceremony, silence seemed
to have sunk once more upon the household, and the slave
whose dream we have recorded, coming into her gates with
an offering from his lord, and finding no domestics in the
way, had sat him down to wait in the grateful shade, and,
overcome with heat, might have slept on till noon had he not
been roused by the grinding chariot-wheels, which mingled
so confusedly with his dream.

It was no plebeian vehicle that now rolled into the
colonnade, driven at a furious pace, and stopping so abruptly
as to create considerable confusion and insubordination
amongst the noble animals that drew it. The car, mounted
on two wheels, was constructed of a highly-polished wood,
cut from the wild fig-tree, elaborately inlaid with ivory and
gold ; the very spokes and felloes of the wheels were carved
in patterns of vine-leaves and flowers, whilst the extremities
of the pole, the axle, and the yoke, were wrought into ex-
quisite representations of the wolfs head, an animal, from
historical reasons, ever dear to the fancy of the Roman.
There was but one person besides the driver in the carriage,
and so light a draught might indeed command any rate of
speed, when whirled along by four such horses as now
plunged and reared and bit each other's crests in the portico
of Valeria's mansion. These were of a milky white, with
dark muzzles, and a bluish tinge under the coat, denoting its
soft texture, and the Eastern origin of the animals. Some-

EROS

what thick of neck and shoulders, with semicircular jowl, it
was the broad and tapering head, the small quivering ear, the
wide red nostril, that demonstrated the purity of their blood,
and argued extraordinary powers of speed and endurance ;
while their short, round backs, prominent muscles, flat legs,
and dainty feet, promised an amount of strength and activity
only to be attained by the production of perfect symmetry.
These beautiful animals were harnessed four abreast — the
inner pair, somewhat in the fashion of our modern curricle,
being yoked to the pole, of which the very fastening-pins
were steel overlaid with gold, whilst the outer horses, drawing
only from a trace attached respectively on the inner side
of each to the axle of the chariot, were free to wheel their
quarters outwards in every direction, and kick to their heart's
content — a liberty of which, in the present instance, they
seemed well disposed to avail themselves.

The slave started to his feet as the nearest horse winced
and swerved aside from his unexpected figure, snorting the
while in mingled wantonness and fear. The axle grazed his
tunic while it passed, and the driver, irritated at his horses'
unsteadiness, or perhaps in the mere insolence of a great
man's favourite, struck at him heavily with his whip as he
went by. The Briton's blood boiled at the indignity ; but
his sinewy arm was up like lightning to parry the blow,
and as the lash curled round his wrist he drew the weapon
quickly from the driver's hand, and would have returned
the insult with interest, had he not been deterred from
his purpose by the youthful, effeminate appearance of the
aggressor.

" I cannot strike a girl ! " exclaimed the slave contempt-
uously, throwing the whip at the same time into the floor of
the chariot, where it lit at the feet of the other occupant,
a sumptuously-dressed nobleman, who enjoyed the discom-
fiture of his charioteer, with the loud frank glee of a master
jeering a dependant.

" Well said, my hero ! " laughed the patrician, adding in
good-humoured, though haughty tones, "Not that I would
give much for the chance of man or woman in a grasp like
yours. By Jupiter ! you've got the arms and shoulders of
Antaeus ! Who owns you, my good fellow ? and what do
you here?"

" Nay, I would strike him again to some purpose if I were
on the ground with him," interrupted the charioteer, a hand-
some, petulant youth of some sixteen summers, whose long
flowing curls and rich scarlet mantle denoted a pampered

THE MARBLE PORCH

and favourite slave. " Gently, Scipio ! So-ho, Jugurtha
The horses will fret for an hour now they have been scared
by his ugly face."

" Better let him alone, Automedon ! " observed his master,
again shaking his sides at the obvious discomfiture portrayed
on the flushed face of his favourite. " Through your life keep
clear of a man when he shuts his mouth like that, as you
would of an ox with a wisp of hay on his horn. You silly
boy ! why he would swallow such a slender frame as yours
at a gulp : and nobody but a fool ever strikes at a man unless
he knows he can reach him, ay, and punish him too, without
hurting his own knuckles in return ! But what do you here,
good fellow ? " he repeated, addressing himself once more to
the slave, who stood erect, scanning his questioner with a
fearless, though respectful eye.

" My master is your friend," was the outspoken answer.
" You supped with him only the night before last But a
man need not be in the household of Licinius, not have spent
his best years at Rome, to know the face of Julius Placidus,
the tribune."

A smile of gratified vanity stole over the patrician's
countenance while he listened ; a smile that had the effect
of imparting to its lineaments an expression at once mocking,
crafty, and malicious. In repose, and such was its usual
condition, the face was almost handsome, perfect in its
regularity, and of a fixed, sedate composure which bordered
on vacuity, but when disturbed, as it sometimes, though
rarely, was, by a passing emotion, the smile that passed over
it like a lurid gleam, became truly diabolical.

The slave was right. Amongst all the notorious per-
sonages who crowded and jostled each other in the streets of
Rome at that stormy period, none was better known, none
more courted, flattered, honoured, hated, and mistrusted, than
the occupant of the gilded chariot It was no time for men
to wear their hearts in their hands — it was no time to make
an additional enemy, or to lose a possible friend. Since
the death of Tiberius, emperor had succeeded emperor with
alarming rapidity. Nero had indeed died by his own hand,
to avoid the just retribution of unexampled vices and crimes ;
but the poisoned mushroom had carried off his predecessor,
and the old man who succeeded him fell by the weapons
of the very guards he had enlisted to protect his grey
head from violence. Since then another suicide had indued
Vitellius with the purple ; but the throne of the Caesars was
fast becoming synonymous with a scaffold, and the sword of

EROS

Damocles quivered more menacingly, and on a slenderer hair
than ever, over the diadem.

When great political convulsions agitate a State, already
seething with general vice and luxury, the moral scum seems,
by a law of nature, to float invariably to the surface — the
characters most destitute of principle, the readiest to obey
the instincts of self-aggrandisement and expediency, achieve
a kind of spurious fame, a doubtful and temporary success.
Under the rule of Nero, perhaps, there was but one path to
Court favour, and that lay in the disgraceful attempt to vie
with this emperor's brutalities and crimes. The palace of
Caesar was then indeed a sink of foul iniquity and utter
degradation. The sycophant who could most readily reduce
himself to the level of a beast in gross sensuality, while he
boasted a demon's refinement of cruelty, and morbid de-
pravity of heart, became the first favourite for the time with
his imperial master. To be fat, slothful, weak, gluttonous,
and effeminate, while the brow was crowned with roses, and
the brain was drenched with wine, and the hands were
steeped in blood — this it was to be a friend and counsellor
of Caesar. Men waited and wondered in stupefied awe when
they marked the monster reeling from a debauch to some
fresh feast of horrors, some ingenious exhibition of the com-
plicated tortures that may be inflicted on a human being,
some devilish experiment of all the body can bear, ere the
soul takes wing from its ghastly, mutilated tenement, and
this not on one, but a thousand victims. They waited and
wondered what the gods were about, that divine vengeance
should slumber through such provocations as these.

But retribution overtook him at last. The heart which a
slaughtered mother's spectre could not soften, which remorse
for a pregnant wife's fate, kicked to death by a brutal lord,
failed to wring, quailed at the approach of a few exasperated
soldiers ; and the tyrant who had so often smiled to see
blood flow like water in the amphitheatre, died by his own
hand — died as he had lived, a coward and a murderer to
the last.

Since then, the Court was a sphere in which any bold
unscrupulous man might be pretty sure of attaining success.
The present emperor was a good-humoured glutton, one
whose faculties, originally vigorous, had been warped and
deadened by excess, just as his body had become bloated,
his eye dimmed, his strength palsied, and his courage de-
stroyed by the same course. The scheming statesman, the
pliant courtier, the successful soldier had but one passion

THE MARBLE PORCH

now, one only object for the exercise of his energies, both
of mind and body — to eat enormously, to drink to excess,
to study every art by which fresh appetite could be stimu-
lated when gorged to repletion — and then — to eat and
drink again.

With such a patron, any man who united to a tendency
for the pleasures of the table, a strong brain, a cool head,
and an aptitude for business, might be sure of considerable
influence. The Emperor thoroughly appreciated one who
would take trouble off his hands, while at the same time
he encouraged his master, by precept and example, in his
swinish propensities. It was no slight service to Vitellius,
to rise from a debauch and give those necessary orders in
an unforeseen emergency which Caesar's sodden brain was
powerless to originate or to understand.

Ere Placidus had been a month about the Court, he had
insinuated himself thoroughly into the good graces of the
Emperor. This man's had been a strange and stirring
history. Born of patrician rank, he had used his family
influence to advance him in the military service, and already,
whilst still in the flower of youth, had attained the grade of
tribune in Vespasian's army, then occupying Judaea under
that distinguished general. Although no man yielded so
willingly, or gave himself up so entirely to the indolent
enjoyments of Asiatic life, Placidus possessed many of the
qualities which are esteemed essential to the character of
a soldier. Personal bravery, or we should rather say, in-
sensibility to danger, was one of his peculiar advantages.
Perhaps this is a quality inseparable from such an organisa-
tion as his, in which, while the system seems to contain a
wealth of energy and vitality, the nerves are extremely
callous to irritation, and completely under control. The
tribune never came out in more favourable colours than when
everyone about him was in a state of alarm and confusion.
On one occasion, at the siege of Jotapata, where the Jews
were defending themselves with the desperate energy of
their race, Placidus won golden opinions from Vespasian by
the cool dexterity with which he saved from destruction a
whole company of soldiers and their centurion, under the
very eye of his general.

A maniple, or, in the military language of to-day, a wing
of the cohort led by Placidus was advancing to the attack,
and the first centurion, with the company under his com-
mand, was already beneath the wall, bristling as it was
with defenders, who hurled down on their assailants darts,

EROS

javelins, huge stones, every description of weapon or missile,
including molten lead and boiling oil. Under cover of a
movable pent -house, which protected them, the head of
the column had advanced their battering-ram to the very
wall, and were swinging the huge engine back, by the ropes
and pulleys which governed it, for an increased impulse of
destruction, when the Jews, who had been watching their
opportunity, succeeded in balancing an enormous mass of
granite immediately above the pent-house and the materials
of offence, animate and inanimate, which it contained. A
Jewish warrior clad in shining armour had taken a lever in
his hand, and was in the act of applying that instrument to
the impending tottering mass ; in another instant it must
have crashed down upon their heads, and buried the whole
band beneath its weight. At his appointed station by the
eagle, the tribune was watching the movements of his men
with his usual air of sleepy, indolent approval. And even
in this critical moment his eye never brightened, his colour
never deepened a shade. The voice was calm, low, and
perfectly modulated in which he bade the trumpeter at his
right hand sound the recall ; nor, though its business-like
rapidity could scarce have been exceeded by the most
practised archer, was the movement the least hurried with
which he snatched the bow from a dead Parthian auxiliary
at his feet and fitted an arrow to its string. In the twinkling
of an eye, while the granite vibrated on the very parapet,
that arrow was quivering between the joints of the warrior's
harness who held the lever, and he had fallen with his head
over the wall in the throes of death. Before another of the
defenders could take his place the assaulting party had
retired, bringing along with them, in their cool and rigid
discipline, the battering-ram and wooden covering which
protected it, while the tribune quietly observed, as he re-
placed the bow into the fallen Parthian's hand, " A company
saved is a hundred men gained. A dead barbarian is exactly
worth my tallest centurion, and the smartest troop I have in
the maniple ! "

Vespasian was not the man to forget such an instance
of cool promptitude, and Julius Placidus was marked out
for promotion from that day forth. But with its courage,
the tribune possessed the cunning of the tiger, not without
something also of that fierce animal's outward beauty, and
much of its watchful, pitiless, and untiring nature. A brave
soldier should have considered it a degradation, under any
circumstances, to play a double part; but with Placidus

THE MARBLE PORCH

every step was esteemed honourable so long as it was on
the ascent. The successful winner had no scruple in de-
ceiving all about him at Rome, by the eagerness with which
he assumed the character of a mere man of pleasure, while
he lost no opportunity the while of ingratiating himself
with the many desperate spirits who were to be found in
the Imperial City, ready and willing to assist in any enter-
prise which should tend to anarchy and confusion. While
he rushed into every extravagance and pleasure of that
luxurious Court — while he vied with Caesar himself in his
profusion, and surpassed him in his orgies — he suffered no
symptoms to escape him of a higher ambition than that of
excellence in trifling — of deeper projects than those which
affected the winecup, the pageant, and the [passing follies
of the hour. Yet all the while, within that dainty reveller's
brain, schemes were forming and thoughts burning that
should have withered the very roses on his brow. It might
have been the strain of Greek blood which filtered through
his veins, that tempered his Roman courage and endurance
with the pliancy essential to conspiracy and intrigue — a
strain that was apparent in his sculptured regularity of
features, and general symmetry of form. His character has
already been compared to the tiger's, and his movements
had all the pliant ease and stealthy freedom of that graceful
animal. His stature was little above the average of his
countrymen, but his frame was cast in that mould of exact
proportion which promises the extreme of strength combined
with agility and endurance. Had he been caught like Milo,
he would have writhed himself out of the trap, with the
sinuous persistency of a snake. There was something snake-
like, too, in his small glittering eye, and the clear smoothness
of his skin. With all its brightness no woman worthy of
the name but would have winced with womanly instincts
of aversion and repugnance from his glance. With all its
beauty no child would have looked up frankly and con-
fidingly in his face. Men turned, indeed, to scan him
approvingly as he passed ; but the brave owned no sympathy
with that smooth set brow, that crafty and malicious smile,
while the timid or the superstitious shuddered and shrank
away, averting their own gaze from what they felt to be the
influence of the evil eye. Yet, in his snowy tunic bleached
to dazzling white, in his collar of linked gold, his jewelled
belt, his embroidered sandals, and the ample folds of his
deep violet mantle, nearly approaching purple, Julius
Placidus was no unworthy representative of his time and

EROS

his order, no mean specimen of the wealth, and foppery, and
extravagance of Rome.

Such was the man who now stood up in his gilded chariot
at Valeria's door, masking with his usual expression of care-
less indolence, the real impatience he felt for tidings of its
mistress.

CHAPTER III

HERMES

IT was customary with the more refined aristocracy of
Rome, during the first century of the Empire, to pay
great respect to Mercury, the god of invention and intrigue.
Not that the qualities generally attributed to that power
were calculated to inspire admiration or esteem, but simply
because he had acquired a fortuitous popularity at a period
when the graceful Pantheism of the nation was regulated by
general opinion, and when a deity went in and out of fashion
like a dress. At Valeria's porch, in common with many
other great houses, stood an exquisite statue of the god,
representing him as a youth, of athletic and symmetrical
proportions, poised on a winged foot in the act of running,
with the broad-leaf hat on his head, and the snake - turned
rod in his hand. The countenance of the statue was
expressive of intellect and vivacity, while the form was
wrought into the highest ideal of activity and strength. It
was placed on a square pedestal of marble immediately
opposite the door ; and behind this pedestal, the slave retired
in some confusion when a train of maidens appeared from
within, to answer the summons of Julius Placidus in his chariot.

The tribune did not think it necessary to alight, but
producing from the bosom of his tunic a jewelled casket,
leaned one hand on the shoulder of Automedon, while with
the other he proffered his gift to a damsel who seemed the
chief among her fellows, and whose manners partook largely
of the flippancy of the waiting-maid.

" Commend me to your mistress," said Placidus, at the
same time throwing a gold chain round her neck on her own
account, and bending carelessly down to take a receipt for
the same, in the shape of a caress ; " bid her every good omen
from the most faithful of her servants, and ask her at what
hour I may hope to be received on this her birthday, which
the trifle you carry to her from me will prove I have not
forgotten."

EROS

The waiting-maid tried hard to raise a blush, but with all
her efforts the rich Southern colour would not deepen on her
cheek ; so she thought better of it, and looked him full in the
face with her bold black eyes, while she replied : "You have
forgotten surely, my lord, that this is the feast of Isis, and no
lady that is a lady, at least here in Rome, can have leisure
to-day for anything but the sacred mysteries of the goddess."

Placidus laughed outright; and it was strange how his
laugh scared those who watched it. Automedon fairly turned
pale, and even the waiting-maid seemed disconcerted for a
moment.

" I have heard of these mysteries," said he, " my pretty
Myrrhina, and who has not ? The Roman ladies keep them
somewhat jealously to themselves ; and by all accounts it is
well for our sex that they do so. Nevertheless there are yet
some hours of sunlight to pass before the chaste rites of
Egypt can possibly begin. Will not Valeria see me in the
interval ? "

A very quick ear might have detected the least possible
tremor in the tribune's voice as he spoke the last sentence ;
it was not lost upon Myrrhina, for she showed all the white
teeth in her large well-formed mouth, while she enumerated
with immense volubility those different pursuits which filled
up the day of a fashionable Roman lady.

" Impossible ! " burst out the damsel. " She has not a
moment to spare from now till sunset. There's her dinner,1
and her fencing-lesson, and her bath, and her dressing, and
the sculptor coming for her hand, and the painter for her face,
and the new Greek sandals to be fitted to her feet. Then she
has sent for Philogemon, the augur, to cast her horoscope, and
for Galanthis, who is cleverer than ever Locusta was, and has
twice the practice, to prepare a philtre. Maybe it is for you,
my lord," added the girl roguishly. " I hear the ladies are all
using them just now."

The evil smile crossed the tribune's face once more ;
perhaps he too had been indebted to the potions of Galanthis,
for purposes of love or hate, and he did not care to be
reminded of them.

"Nay," said he meaningly, "there is no need for that.
Valeria can do more with one glance of her bright eyes, than
all the potions and poisons of Galanthis put together. Say,
Myrrhina — you are in my interest — does she look more
favourably of late ? "

" How can I tell, my lord ? " answered the girl, with an

1 The dinner or prandium of Rome was the first meal in the day.

HERMES

arch expression of amusement and defiance in her face.
" My mistress is but a woman after all, and they say women
are more easily mastered by the strong hand, than lured by
the honey lip. She is not to be won by a smooth tongue
and a beardless face, I know, for 1 heard her say so to Paris
myself, in the very spot where we are now standing. Juno !
but the player slunk away somewhat crestfallen, I can tell
you, when she called him 'a mere girl in her brother's
clothes ' at the best. No ; the man who wins my mistress
will be a man all over, I'll answer for it ! So far, she is like
the rest of us for that matter."

Arid Myrrhina sighed, thinking, it may be, of some
sunburnt youth the while, whose rough but not unwelcome
wooing had assailed her in her early girlhood, ere she came
to Rome; far away yonder amongst the blushing vines, in
the bright Campanian hills.

" Say you so ? " observed the tribune, obviously flattered
by the implied compliment ; for he was proud in his secret
heart of his bodily strength. " Nay, there was a fellow
standing here when I drove up, who would make an easy
conquest of you, Myrrhina, if, like your Sabine grandams,
you must be borne off to be wed, on your lover's shoulders.
By the body of Hercules ! he would tuck you up under his
arm as easily as you carry that casket, which you seem so
afraid to let out of your hand. Ay, there he is ! lurking
behind Hermes. Stand forth, my good fellow ! What ! you
are not afraid of Automedon, are you, and the crack of that
young reprobate's whip ? "

While he spoke, the slave stepped forward from his
lurking-place behind the statue, where the quick eye of
Placidus had detected him, and presented to Myrrhina with
a respectful gesture the offering of his lord to her mistress —
a filigree basket of frosted silver, filled with a few choice fruits
and flowers —

" From Caius Licinius, greeting," said he, " in honour of
Valeria's natal day. The flowers are scarce yet dry from the
spray that brawling Anio flings upon its banks; the fruits
were glowing in yesterday's sun, on the brightest slopes of
Tibur. My master offers the freshest and fairest of his fruits
and flowers to his kinswoman, who is fresher and fairer than
them all."

He delivered his message, which he had obviously learned
by rote, in sufficiently pure and fluent Latin, scarcely tinged
with the accent of a barbarian, and bowing low as he placed
the basket in Myrrhina's hand, drew himself up to his

B 17

EROS

noble height, and looked proudly, almost defiantly, at the
tribune.

The girl started and turned pale — it seemed as if the
statue of Hermes had descended from its pedestal to do her
homage. He stood there, that glorious specimen of manhood,
in his majestic strength and symmetry, in the glow of his
youth, and health, and beauty, like an impersonation of the
god. Myrrhina, in common with many of her sex, was easily
fascinated by external advantages, and she laughed nervously,
while she accepted with shaking hands the handsome slave's
offering to his master's kinswoman.

" Will you not enter ? " said she, the colour mantling once
more, and this|time without an effort, in her burning cheeks.
" It is not the custom to depart from Valeria's house without
breaking bread and drinking wine."

But the slave excused himself, abruptly, almost rudely,
losing, be sure, by his refusal, none of the ground he had
already gained in Myrrhina's good graces. It chafed him
to remain even at the porch. The atmosphere of luxury that
pervaded it, seemed to weigh upon his senses, and oppress his
breath. Moreover, the insult he had sustained from Autome-
don, yet rankled in his heart. How he wished the boy-
charioteer was nearer his match in size and strength ! He
would have hurled him from the chariot where he stood,
turning his curls so insolently round his dainty fingers —
hurled him to earth beyond his horses' heads, and taught him
the strength of a Briton's arm and the squeeze of a Briton's
gripe. " Ay ! and his master after him ! " thought the slave,
for already he experienced towards Placidus that unaccount-
able instinct of aversion which seems to warn men of a
future foe, and which, to give him his due, the tribune was
not unused to awaken in a brave and honest breast.

Placidus, however, scanned him once more, as he strode
away, with the critical gaze of a judge of human animals. It
was this man's peculiarity to look on all he met as possible
tools, that might come into use for various purposes at a
future and indefinite time. If he observed more than usual
courage in a soldier, superior acuteness in a freedman, nay,
even uncommon beauty in a woman, he bethought himself
that although he might have no immediate use for these
qualities, occasions often arose on which he could turn them
to his profit, and he noted, and made sure of, their amount
accordingly. In the present instance, although somewhat
surprised that he had never before remarked the slave's
stalwart proportions in the household of Licinius, whose

HERMES

affection for the Briton had excused him from all menial
offices, and consequent contact with visitors, he determined
not to lose sight of one so formed by nature to excel in the
gymnasium or the amphitheatre, while there crept into his
heart a cruel cold-blooded feeling of satisfaction at the
possibility of witnessing so muscular and shapely a figure
in the contortions of a mortal struggle, or the throes of
a painful death.

Besides, there was envy, too, at the bottom — envy in the
proud patrician's breast, leaning so negligently on the
cushions of his gilded chariot, with all his advantages of
rank, reputation, wealth, and influence — envy of the noble
bearing, the personal comeliness, and the free manly step of
the slave.

" Had he struck thee, Automedon," said his master, unable
to resist taunting the petted youth who held the reins ; " had
he but laid a finger on thee, thou hadst never spoken again,
and I had been rid of the noisiest and most useless of my
household. Gently with that outside horse ; dost see how he
chafes upon the rein ? Gently, boy, I say ! and drive me
back into the Forum."

As he settled himself among the cushions and rolled
swiftly away, Myrrhina came forth into the porch once more.
She seemed, however, scarcely to notice the departing
chariot, but looked dreamily about her, and then re-entered
the house with a shake of the head, a smile, and something
that was almost a sigh.

CHAPTER IV

APHRODIT6

A NEGRO boy, the ugliest of his kind, and probably all
the more prized for that reason, was shifting uneasily
from knee to knee, in an attitude of constraint that showed
how long and tiresome he felt his office, and how wearied he
was of Valeria's own apartment. Such a child, for the urchin
seemed of the tenderest age, might be initiated without
impropriety into the mysteries of a lady's toilet ; and, indeed,
the office it was his duty to undertake, formed the most
indispensable part of the whole performance. With a skill
and steadiness beyond his years, though with a rueful face,
he was propping up an enormous mirror, in which his
mistress might contemplate the whole galaxy of her charms
— a mirror formed of one broad plate of silver, burnished
to the brightness and lucidity of glass, set in an oval frame
of richly chased gold, wrought into fantastic patterns and
studded with emeralds, rubies, and other precious stones.
Not a speck was to be discerned on the polish of its dazzling
surface ; and, indeed, the time of one maiden was devoted to
the task alone of preserving it from the lightest breath that
might dim its brightness, and cloud the reflection of the
stately form that now sat before it, undergoing, at the hands
of her attendants, the pleasing tortures of an elaborate toilet.
The reflection was that of a large handsome woman in
the very prime and noontide of her beauty — a woman whose
every movement and gesture bespoke physical organisation
of a vigorous nature and perfect health. While the strong
white neck gave grace and dignity to her carriage — while the
deep bosom and somewhat massive shoulders partook more
of Juno's majestic frame than Hebe's pliant youth — while the
full sweep and outline of her figure denoted maturity and
completeness in every part — the long round limbs, the shapely
hands and feet, might have belonged to Diana, so perfect
was their symmetry; the warm flush that tinted them, the
voluptuous ease of her attitude, the gentle languor of her

APHRODIT6

whole bearing, would have done no discredit to the goddess,
hanging over the mountain-tops in the golden summer nights
to look down upon Endymion, and bathe her sleeping
favourite in floods of light and love.

Too fastidious a critic might have objected to Valeria's
form that it expressed more of physical strength than is
compatible with perfect womanly beauty, that the muscles
were developed overmuch, and the whole frame, despite its
flowing outlines, partook somewhat of a man's organisation,
and a man's redundant strength. The same fault might
have been found in a less degree with her countenance.
There was a little too much resolution in the small aquiline
nose, something of manly audacity and energy in the large
well-formed mouth, with its broad white teeth that the fullest
and reddest of lips could not conceal — a shade of masculine
sternness on the low wide brow, smooth and white, but
somewhat prominent, and scarcely softened by the arch of
the marked eyebrows, or the dark sweep of the lashes that
fringed the long laughing eyes.

And yet it was a face that a man, and still more a boy,
could hardly have looked on without misgivings that he
might too soon learn to long for its glances, its smiles, its
approval, and its love. There was such a glow of health on
the soft transparent skin, such a freshness and vitality in the
colour of those blooming cheeks, such a sparkle in the grey
eyes, that flashed so meaningly when she smiled, that
gleamed so clear and bright and cold when the features
resumed their natural expression, grave, scornful, almost
stern in their repose ; and then such womanly softness in
the masses of rich nut-brown hair that showered down neck
and shoulders, to form a framework for this lovely, dangerous,
and too alluring picture. Even the little negro, wearied as
he was, peeped at intervals from the back of the mirror he
upheld, fawning like a dog for some sign of approval from
his haughty, careless mistress. At length she bade him keep
still, with a half-scornful smile at his antics ; and the sharp
white teeth gleamed from ear to ear of the dusky little face,
as it grinned with pleasure, while the boy settled himself
once more in an attitude of patience and steady submission.

Nor was Valeria's apartment unworthy of the noble
beauty who devoted it to the mysterious rites of dress and
decoration. Everything that luxury could imagine for bodily
ease, everything that science had as yet discovered for the
preservation or the production of feminine attractions, was
there to be found in its handsomest and costliest form. In

EROS

one recess, shrouded by transparent curtains of the softest
pink, was the bath that could be heated at will to any
temperature, and the marble steps of which that shapely
form was accustomed to descend twice and thrice a day. In
another stood the ivory couch with its quilted crimson silks
and ornamental pillars of solid gold, in which Valeria slept,
and dreamed such dreams as hover round the rest of those
whose life is luxury, and whose business is a ceaseless career
of pleasure. On a table of cedar-wood, fashioned like a palm-
leaf opening out from a pedestal that terminated in a single
claw of grotesque shape, stood her silver night-lamp, exhaling
odours of perfumed oil, and near it lay the waxen tablets, on
which she made her memorandums, or composed her love-
letters, and from which, as from an unfinished task, the sharp-
pointed steel pencil had rolled away upon the shining floor.
Through the whole court — for court it might be called, with
its many entrances and recesses, its cool and shady nooks,
its lofty ceiling and its tesselated pavement — choice vases,
jewelled cups, burnished chalices, and exquisite little statues,
were scattered in systematic irregularity and graceful pro-
fusion. Even the very water in the bath flowed through the
mouth of a marble Cupid ; and two more winged urchins
wrought in bronze, supported a stand on which was set a
formidable array of perfumes, essences, cosmetics, and such
material for offensive and defensive warfare.

The walls, too, of this seductive arsenal, were delicately
tinted of a light rose-colour, that should throw the most
becoming shade over its inmates, relieved at intervals by oval
wreaths wrought out in bas-relief, enclosing diverse mytho-
logical subjects, in which the figure of Venus, goddess of love
and laughter, predominated. Round the cornices stretched
a frieze representing, also in relief, the fabulous contests of
the Amazons with every description of monster, amongst
which the most conspicuous foe was the well-known gryphon,
or griffin, an abnormal quadruped, with the head and neck of
a bird of prey. It was curious to trace in the female warriors
thus delineated, something of the imperious beauty, the
vigorous symmetry, and the dauntless bearing that dis-
tinguished Valeria herself, though their energetic and spirited
attitudes afforded, at the same time, a marked contrast to the
pleasing languor that seemed to pervade every movement of
that luxurious lady reclining before her mirror, and submit-
ting indolently to the attentions of her maid-servants.

These were five in number, and constituted the principal
slaves of her household ; the most important among them

APHRODIT6

seemed to be a tall matronly woman, considerably older than
her comrades, who filled the responsible office of housekeeper
in the establishment — a dignity which did not, however,
exempt her from insult, and even blows, when she failed to
satisfy the caprices of a somewhat exacting mistress ; the
others, comely laughing girls, with the sparkling veyes and
white teeth of their countrywomen, seemed principally
occupied with the various matters that constituted their
lady's toilet — a daily penance, in which, notwithstanding the
rigour of its discipline, and the severities that were sure to
follow the most trifling act of negligence, they took an in-
explicable and essentially feminine delight.

Of these it was obvious that Myrrhina was the first in
place as in favour. She it was who brought her mistress the
warm towels for her bath ; who was ready with her slippers
when she emerged ; who handed every article of clothing as
it was required ; whose taste was invariably consulted, and
whose decision was considered final, on such important points
as the position of a jewel, the studied negligence of a curl, or
the exact adjustment of a fold.

This girl possessed, with an Italian exterior, the pliant
cunning and plausible fluency of the Greek. Born a slave
on one of Valeria's estates in the country, she had been
reared a mere peasant, on a simple country diet, and amidst
healthful country occupations, till a freak of her mistress
brought her to Rome. With a woman's versatility — with a
woman's quickness in adapting herself to a strange phase of
life and a total change of circumstances — the country girl
had not been a year in her new situation, ere she became the
acutest and cleverest waiting-maid in the capital, with what
benefit to her own morals and character, it is needless to
inquire. Who so quick as Myrrhina to prepare the unguents,
the perfumes, or the cosmetics that repaired the injuries of
climate, and effaced the marks of dissipation? Who so
delicate a sempstress ; who had such taste in colours ; who
could convey a note or a message with half such precision,
simplicity, and tact? In short, who was ever so ready, in an
emergency, with brush, crisping - iron, needle, hand, eye, or
tongue? Intrigue was her native element. To lie on her
mistress's behalf, seemed as natural as on her own. He who
would advance in Valeria's goodwill, must begin by bribing
her maid ; and many a Roman gallant had ere this discovered
that even that royal road to success was as tedious as it was
costly, and might lead eventually to discomfiture and dis-
grace.

EROS

As she took the pouncet-box from one of the girls, and
proceeded to sprinkle gold-dust in Valeria's hair, Myrrhina's
eye was caught by the gift of Placidus, lying neglected at
her feet, the casket open, the jewels scattered on the floor.
Such as it was, the waiting -maid owned a conscience. It
warned her that she had not as yet worked out the value of
the costly chain thrown round her neck by the tribune.
Showering the gold - dust liberally about her lady's head,
Myrrhina felt her way cautiously to the delicate theme.

" There's a new fashion coming in for headgear when the
weather gets cooler," said she. " It's truth I tell you, madam,
for I heard it direct from Selina, who was told by the
Empress's first tirewoman, though even Caesar himself cannot
think Galeria looks well, with that yellow mop stuck all over
her head. But it's to be the fashion, nevertheless, and right
sorry I am to hear it; nor am I the only one for that
matter."

"Why so?" asked Valeria languidly; "is it more
troublesome than the present?"

Myrrhina had done with the gold-dust now, and, holding
the comb in her mouth, was throwing a rich brown curl
across her wrist, while she laid a plat carefully beneath it.
Notwithstanding the impediment between her lips, however,
she was able to reply with great volubility.

" The trouble counts for nothing, madam, when a lady
has got such hair as yours. It's a pleasure to run your hands
through it, let alone dressing and crisping it, and plaiting it
up into a crown that's fit for a queen. But this new fashion
will make us all alike, whether we're as bald as old Lyce, or
wear our curls down to our ankles, like Neaera. Still, to hide
such hair as yours ; — as my lord said, only this morning " —

" What lord ? this morning ! " interrupted Valeria, a dawn
of interest waking on her handsome features ; " not Licinius,
my noble kinsman? His approval is indeed worth having."

" Better worth than his gifts," answered Myrrhina pertly ;
pointing to the filigree basket which occupied a place of
honour on the toilet-table. " Such a birthday present I never
saw! A few late roses and a bunch or two of figs to the
richest lady in Rome ! To be sure, he sent a messenger
with them, who might have come direct from Jove, and the
properest man I ever set eyes on."

And Myrrhina moved to one side, that her lady might
not observe the blush that rose, even to her shameless brow,
as she recalled the impression made on her by the handsome
slave. Valeria liked to hear of proper men ; she woke up a

APHRODIT6

little out of her languor, and flung the hair back from her
face.

" Go on," said she, as Myrrhina hesitated, half eager and
half loth to pursue the pleasing topic.

But the waiting-maid felt the chain round her neck, and
acknowledged in her heart the equivalent it demanded.

" It was the tribune, madam," said she, " who spoke about
your hair — Julius Placidus, who values every curl you wear,
more than a whole mine of gold. Ah ! there's not a lord in
Rome has such a taste in dress. Only to see him this
morning, with his violet mantle and his jewels sparkling in
the sun, with the handsomest chariot and the four whitest
horses in the town. Well ! if I was a lady, and wooed by
such a man as that " —

"Man call you him?" interrupted her mistress, with a
scornful smile. " Nay, when these curled, perfumed, close-
shaven things are called men, 'tis time for us women to bestir
ourselves, lest strength and courage die out in Rome alto-
gether. And you, too, Myrrhina, who know Licinius and
Hippias, and saw with your own eyes two hundred gladiators
in the circus only yesterday, you ought to be a better judge.
Man, forsooth ! Why, you will be calling smooth-faced Paris
a man next ! "

Here maid and mistress burst out laughing, for thereby
hung a tale of which Valeria was not a little proud. This
Paris, a young Egyptian, of beautiful but effeminate appear-
ance, had lately come to Italy to figure with no small success
on the Roman stage. His delicate features, his symmetrical
shape, and the girlish graces of his pantomimic gestures, had
made sad havoc in the hearts of the Roman ladies, at all
times too susceptible to histrionic charms. He lost nothing,
either, of public attention, by bearing the name of Nero's ill-
fated favourite, and embarked at once, unhesitatingly, on the
same brilliant and dangerous career. But although it was
the fashion to be in love with Paris, Valeria alone never
yielded to the mode, but treated him with all the placid
indifference she felt for attractions that found no favour in
her sight. Stung by such neglect, the petted actor paid
devoted court to the woman who despised him, and succeeded,
after much importunity, in prevailing on her to accord him
an interview in her own house. Of this he had the bad taste
to make no small boast in anticipation ; and Myrrhina, who
found out most things, lost no time in informing her mistress
that her condescension was already as much misrepresented
as it was misplaced. The two laid their plans accordingly ;

EROS

and when Paris, attired in the utmost splendour, arrived
panting to the promised interview, he found himself seized
by some half-dozen hideous old negresses, who smothered
him with caresses, stripped him from head to foot, forced him
into the bath, and persisted in treating him as if he were a
delicate young lady, but with a quiet violence the while, that
it was useless to resist. The same swarthy tirewomen then
dressed him in female garments ; and despite of threats,
struggles, outcries, and entreaties, placed him in Valeria's
litter, and so carried him home to his own door. The ready
wit of the play-actor put upon his metamorphosis the con-
struction least favourable to the character of its originator ;
but he vowed a summary vengeance, we may be sure,
nevertheless.

" I think Paris knows what you think of him only too
well," resumed Myrrhina; "not but that he has a fair face
of his own, and a lovely shape for dancing, though, to be
sure, Placidus is a finer figure of a man. Oh ! if you could
have seen him this morning, madam, when he lay back so
graceful in his chariot, and chid that pert lad of his for
striking with his whip at the tall slave, who to be sure
vanished like a flash of lightning, you would have said there
wasn't such another patrician in the whole city of Rome ! "

" Enough of Placidus ! " interrupted her mistress im-
patiently ; " the subject wearies me. What of this tall slave,
Myrrhina, who seems to have attracted your attention ?
Did he look like one of the barbarians my kinsman Licinius
cries up so mightily ? Is he handsome enough to step with
my Liburnians, think you, under the day-litter ? "

The waiting - maid's eyes sparkled as she thought how
pleasant it would be to have him in the same household as
herself; and any little restraint she might have experienced
in running over the personal advantages that had captivated
her fancy disappeared before this agreeable prospect.

" Handsome enough, madam ! " she exclaimed, removing
the comb from her mouth, dropping her lady's hair, and
flourishing her hands with true Italian emphasis and rapidity,
— " handsome enough ! why he would make the Liburnians
look like bald - headed vultures beside a golden eagle !
Barbarian, like enough, he may be, Cimbrian, Frisian, Ansi-
barian, or what not, for I caught the foreign accent tripping
on his tongue, and we have few men in Rome of stature equal
to his. A neck like a tower of marble ; arms and shoulders
like the statue of Hercules yonder in the vestibule; a face,
ay, twice as beautiful as Pericles on your medallion, with the

APHRODITE

golden curls clustering round a forehead as white as milk
and eyes" —

Here Myrrhina stopped, a little at a loss for a simile, and
a good deal out of breath besides.

"Go on," said Valeria, who had been listening in an
attitude of languid attention, her eyes half closed, her lips
parted, and the colour deepening on her cheek. " What were
his eyes like, Myrrhina ? "

" Well, they were like the blue sky of Campania in the
vintage; they were like the stones round the boss of your
state-mantle; they were like the sea at noonday from the
long walls of Ostia. And yet they flashed into sparks of
fire when he looked at poor little Automedon. I wonder the
boy wasn't frightened ! I am sure I should have been ; only
nothing frightens those impudent young charioteers."

" Was he my kinsman's slave ; are you sure, Myrrhina ? "
said her mistress, in an accent of studied unconcern, and
never moving a finger from her listless and comfortable
attitude.

" No doubt of it, madam," replied the waiting-maid ; and
would probably have continued to enlarge on the congenial
subject, had she not been interrupted by the entrance of one
of the damsels who had been summoned from the apartment,
and returned to announce that Hippias, the retired gladiator,
was in waiting — " Would Valeria take her fencing-lesson ? "

But Valeria declined at once, and sat on before her mirror,
without even raising her eyes to the tempting picture it
displayed. Whatever was the subject of her thoughts, it must
have been very engrossing, she seemed so loth to be disturbed.

CHAPTER V

ROME

EANWHILE the British slave,
unconscious that he was already
the object of Valeria's interest and
Myrrhina's admiration, was thread-
ing his way through the crowded
streets that 'adjoined the Forum,
enjoying that vague sense of
amusement with which a man
surveys a scene of bustle and
confusion that does not affect his
immediate concerns. Thanks to
the favour of his master, his time
was nearly at his own disposal,
and he had ample leisure to observe the busiest scene
in the known world, and to compare it, perhaps, with
the peace and simplicity of those early days, which seemed
now like the memories of a dream, so completely had they
passed away. The business of the Forum was over: the
markets were disgorging their mingled stream of purveyors,
purchasers, and idle lookers-on. The whole population of
Rome was hurrying home to dinner, and a motley crowd it
was. The citizens themselves, the Plebeians, properly so
called, scarcely formed one half of the swarming assemblage.
Slaves innumerable hurried to and fro, to speed the business
or the pleasure of their lords ; slaves of every colour and of
every nation, from the Scandinavian giant, with blue eyes
and waving yellow locks, to the sturdy Ethiopian, thick-
lipped, and woolly-haired, the swarthy child of Africa, whose
inheritance has been servitude from the earliest ages until
now. Many a Roman born was there, too, amongst the
servile crowd, aping the appearance and manner of a citizen,
but who shrank from a master's frown at home, and who,
despite the acquirement of wealth, and even the attainment
of power, must die a bondsman as he had lived.

Not the least characteristic feature of the state of society

ROME

under the Empire was the troop of freedmen that everywhere
accompanied the person, and swelled the retinue of each
powerful patrician. These manumitted slaves were usually
bound by the ties of interest as much as gratitude to the
former master, who had now become their patron. De-
pendent on him in many cases for their daily food, doled
out to them in rations at his door, they were necessarily little
emancipated from his authority by their lately acquired
freedom. While the relation of patron and client was pro-
ductive of crying evils in the Imperial City, while the former
threw the shield of his powerful protection over the crimes
of the latter, and the client in return became the willing
pander to his patron's vices, it was the freedman who, more
than all others, rendered himself a willing tool to his patrician
employer, who yielded unhesitatingly time, affections, probity,
and honour itself, to the caprices of his lord. They swarmed
about the Forum now, running hither and thither with the
obsequious haste of the parasite, bent on errands which in too
many cases would scarce have borne the light of day.

Besides these, a vast number of foreigners, wearing the
costumes of their different countries, hindered the course of
traffic as they stood gaping, stupefied by the confusing scene
on which they gazed. The Gaul, with his short, close-fitting
garment ; the Parthian, with his conical sheepskin cap ; the
Mede, with his loose silken trousers ; the Jew, barefoot and
robed in black ; the stately Spaniard, the fawning Egyptian,
and amongst them all, winding his way wherever the crowd
was closest, with perfect ease and self-possession, the smooth
and supple Greek. When some great man passed through
the midst, borne aloft in his litter, or leaning on the shoulder
of a favourite slave, and freedmen and clients made a passage
for him with threat, and push, and blow, the latter would
invariably miss the Greek to light on the pate of a humble
mechanic, or the shoulders of a sturdy barbarian, while the
descendant of Leonidas or Alcibiades would reply in whining
sing-song tones to the verbal abuse, with some biting retort,
which was sure to turn the laughter of the crowd on the
aggressor.

If Rome had once overrun and conquered the dominions
of her elder sister in civilisation, the invasion seemed now to
be all the other way. With the turn of the tide had come
such an overflow of Greek manners, Greek customs, Greek
morals, and Greek artifice, that the Imperial City was already
losing its natural characteristics ; and the very language was
so interlarded with the vocabulary of the conquered, that it

EROS

was fast becoming less Latin than Greek. The Roman ladies,
especially, delighted in those euphonious syllables, which
clothed Athenian eloquence in such melodious rhythm ; and
their choicest terms of endearment in the language of love,
were invariably whispered in Greek.

That supple nation, too, adapting itself to the degradation
of slavery and the indulgence of ease, as it had risen in nobler
times to the exigencies of liberty and the efforts demanded
by war, had usurped the greater portion of art, science, and
even power, in Rome. The most talented painters and
sculptors were Greeks. The most enterprising contractors
and engineers were Greeks. Rhetoric and elocution could
only be learned in a Greek school, and mathematics, unless
studied with Greek letters, must be esteemed confused and
useless ; the fashionable invalid who objected to consult a
Greek physician deserved to die ; and there was but one
astrologer in Rome who could cast a patrician horoscope.
Of course he was a Greek. In the lower walks of criminal
industry; in the many iniquitous professions called into
existence by the luxury of a great city, the Greeks drove a
thriving and almost an exclusive trade. Whoever was in
most repute, as an evil counsellor, a low buffoon, a money-
lender, pimp, pander, or parasite, whatever might be his other
qualifications, was sure to be a Greek. And many a scrutin-
ising glance was cast by professors of this successful nation
at the Briton's manly form as he strode through the crowd,
making his way quietly but surely from sheer weight and
strength. They followed him with covetous eyes, as they
speculated on the various purposes to which so much good
manhood might be applied. They appraised him, so to
speak, and took an inventory of his thews and sinews, his
limbs, his stature, and his good looks ; but they refrained
from accosting him with importunate questions or insolent
proposals, for there was a bold confident air about him, that
bespoke the stout heart and the ready hand. The stamp of
freedom had not yet faded from his brow, and he looked like
one who was accustomed to take his own part in a crowd.

Suddenly a stoppage in the traffic arrested the moving
stream, which swelled in continually to a struggling, eager,
vociferating mass. A dray, containing huge blocks of marble,
and drawn by several files of oxen, had become entangled
with the chariot of a passing patrician, and another great
man's litter being checked by the obstruction, much confusion
and bad language was the result. Amused with the turmoil,
and in no hurry to get home, the British slave stood looking

ROME

over the heads of the populace at the irritated and gesticu-
lating antagonists, when a smart blow on the shoulder caused
him to wheel suddenly round, prepared to return the injury
with interest. At the same instant a powerful hand dragged
him back by the tunic, and a grasp was laid on him, from
which he could not shake himself free, while a rough good-
humoured voice whispered in his ear —

" Softly, lad, softly ! Keep hands off Caesar's lictors an'
thou be'st not mad in good earnest. These gentry give more
than they take, I can promise thee ! "

The speaker was a broad powerful man of middle size,
with the chest of a Hercules ; he held the Briton firmly
pinioned in his arms while he spoke, and it was well that he
did so, for the lictors were indeed forcing a passage for the
Emperor himself, who was proceeding on foot, and as far as
was practicable incog., to inspect the fish-market.

Vitellius shuffled along with the lagging step of an infirm
and bloated old man. His face was pale and flabby, his eye
dim, though sparkling at intervals with some little remnant
of the ready wit and pliant humour that had made him the
favourite of three emperors ere he himself attained the purple.
Supported by two freedmen, preceded and followed only by
a file of lictors, and attended by three or four slaves, Caesar
was taking his short walk in hopes of acquiring some little
appetite for dinner : what locality so favourable for the further-
ance of this object as the fish-market, where the imperial
glutton could feast his eyes, if nothing else, on the choicest
dainties of the deep? He was so seldom seen abroad in
Rome, that the Briton could not forbear following him with
his glance, while his new friend, relaxing his hold with great
caution, whispered once more in his ear —

" Ay, look well at him, man, and give Jove thanks thou
art not an emperor. There's a shape for the purple ! There's
a head to carry a diadem ! Well, well, for all he's so white
and flabby now, like a Lucrine turbot, he could drive a
chariot once, and hold his own at sword and buckler with
the best of them. They say he can drink as well as ever still.
Not that he was a match for Nero in his best days, even at
that game. Ay, ay, they may talk as they will : we've never
had an emperor like him before nor since. Wine, women,
shows, sacrifices, wild-beast fights ; — a legion of men all engaged
in the circus at once ! Such a friend as he was to our trade."

" And that trade ? " inquired the Briton good-humouredly
enough, now his hands were free : " I think I can guess it
without asking too many questions."

EROS

" No need to guess," replied the other. " I'm not ashamed
of my trade, nor of my name neither. Maybe you have
heard of Hirpinus, the gladiator ? Tuscan born, free Roman
citizen, and willing to match himself with any man of
his weight, on foot or on horseback, blindfold or half-
armed, in or out of a war-chariot, with two swords, sword
and buckler, or sword or spear. Any weapon, and every
weapon, always excepting the net and the noose. Those I
can't bear talking about — to my mind they are not fair
fighting. But what need I tell you all about it ? " he added,
running his eye over the slave's powerful frame. " I must
surely have seen you before. You look as if you belonged
to the Family l yourself ! "

The slave smiled, not insensible to the compliment.

"'Tis a manlier way of getting bread than most of the
employments I see practised in Rome," was his reply, though
he spoke more to himself than his companion. "A man
might die a worse death than in the amphitheatre," he added
meditatively.

" A worse death ! " echoed Hirpinus. " He could scarce
die a better ! Think of the rows of heads one upon another
piled up like apples to the very awnings. Think of the
patricians and senators wagering their collars and bracelets,
and their sesterces in millions, on the strength of your arm,
and the point of your blade. Think of your own vigour and
manhood, trained till you feel as strong as an elephant, and
as lithe as a panther, with an honest wooden buckler on
your arm, and two feet of pliant steel in your hand, as you
defile by Caesar and bid him ' Good-morrow, from those who
have come here to die ! ' Think of the tough bout with your
antagonist, foot to foot, hand to hand, eye to eye, feeling
his blade with your own (why a swordsman, lad, can fence
as well in the dark as the daylight!), foiling his passes,
drawing his attack, learning his feints, watching your
opportunity ; when you catch it at last, in you dash like a
wild-cat, and the guard of your sword rings sharp and true
against his breastbone, as he goes over backwards on the
sand!"

" And if Jte gets the opportunity first ? " asked the slave,
interested in spite of himself at the enthusiasm which carried
him irresistibly along with it. " If your guard is an inch
too high, your return a thought too slow ? If you go back-
wards on the sand, with the hilt at your breastbone, and
the two feet of steel in your bosom ? How does it feel then ? "

1 A technical term for a school of gladiators trained by the same master.

ROME

" Faith, lad, you must cross the Styx to have that question
fairly answered," replied the other. " I have had no such
experience yet. When it comes I shall know how to meet
it. But this talking makes a man thirsty, and the sun is hot
enough to bake a negro here. Come with me, lad ! I know
a shady nook, where we can pierce a skin of wine, and after-
wards play a game at quoits, or have a bout of wrestling, to
while away the afternoon."

The slave was nothing loth. Besides the debt of gratitude
he owed for preservation from a serious danger, there was
something in his new friend's rough, good-humoured, and
athletic manhood that won on the Briton's favour. Hirpinus,
with even more than their fierce courage, had less than the
usual brutality of his class, and possessed besides a sort of
quaint and careless good-humour, by no means rare among
the athletes of every time, which found its way at once
to the natural sympathies of the slave. They started off
accordingly, on the most amicable terms, in search of that
refreshment which a few hours' exposure to an Italian sun
rendered very desirable ; but the crowd had not yet cleared
off, and their progress was necessarily somewhat slow, not-
withstanding that the throng of passengers gave way readily
enough before two such stalwart and athletic forms.

Hirpinus thought it incumbent on him to take the Briton,
as it were, under his protection, and to point out to him the
different objects of interest, and the important personages, to
be seen at that hour in the streets of the capital, totally
irrespective of the fact that his pupil was as well instructed
on these points as himself. But the gladiator dearly loved
a listener, and, truth to tell, was extremely diffuse in his
narratives when he had got one to his mind. These generally
turned on his own physical prowess, and his deadly exploits
in the amphitheatre, which he was by no means disposed to
underrate. There are some really brave men who are also
boasters, and Hirpinus was one of them.

He was in the midst of a long dissertation on the beauties
of an encounter fought out between naked combatants, armed
only with the sword, and was explaining at great length a
certain fatal thrust outside his antagonist's guard, and over
his elbow, which he affirmed to be his own invention, and
irresistible by any party yet discovered, when the slave felt
his gown plucked by a female hand, and turning sharply
round was somewhat disconcerted to find himself face to face
with Valeria's waiting-maid.

" You are wanted," said she unceremoniously, and with an

c 33

EROS

imperious gesture. "You are to come to my lady this
instant. Make haste, man ; she cannot brook waiting."

Myrrhina pointed while she spoke to where a closed
litter borne aloft by four tall Liburnian slaves, had stopped
the traffic, and already become the nucleus of a crowd. A
white hand peeped through its cur tains, as the slave approached,
surprised and somewhat abashed at this unexpected appeal.
Hirpinus looked on with grave approval the while. Arriving
close beneath the litter, of which the curtain was now open,
the slave paused and made a graceful obeisance ; then,
drawing himself up proudly, stood erect before it, looking
unconsciously his best, in the pride of his youth and beauty.
Valeria's cheek was paler than usual, and her attitude more
languid, but her grey eyes sparkled, and a smile played round
her mouth as she addressed him.

" Myrrhina tells me that you are the man who brought
a basket of flowers to my house this morning from jLicinius.
Why did you not wait to carry back my salutations to my
kinsman?"

The colour mounted to the slave's brow as he thought
of Automedon's insolence, but he only replied humbly, " Had
I known it was your wish, lady, I had been standing in your
porch till now."

She marked his rising colour, and attributed it to the
effect of her own dazzling beauty.

" Myrrhina knew you at once in the crowd," said she
graciously ; " and indeed yours is a face and figure not easily
mistaken in Rome. I should recognise you myself anywhere
now."

She paused, expecting a suitable reply, but the slave,
albeit not insensible to the compliment, only blushed again
and was silent. Valeria, meanwhile, whose motives in
summoning him to her litter had been in the first instance
of simple curiosity to see the stalwart barbarian who had so
excited Myrrhina's admiration, and whom that sharp-sighted
damsel had recognised in an instant amongst the populace,
now found herself pleased and interested by the quiet
demeanour and noble bearing of this foreign slave. She had
always been susceptible to manly beauty, and here she beheld
it in its noblest type. She was rapacious of admiration in
all quarters; and here she could not but flatter herself she
gathered an undoubted tribute to the power of her charms.
She owned all a woman's interest in anything that had a
spice of mystery or romance, and a woman's unfailing instinct
in discovering high birth and gentle breeding under every

ROME

disguise ; and here she found a delightful puzzle in the
manner and appearance of her kinsman's messenger, whose
position seemed so at variance with his looks. She had
never in her life laid the slightest restraint on her thoughts,
and but little on her actions — she had never left a purpose
unfulfilled, nor a wish ungratified — but a strange and new
feeling, at which even her courageous nature quailed, seemed
springing up in her heart while she gazed with half-closed
eyes at the Briton, and hesitated to confess, even to herself,
that she had never seen such a man as this in her life before.
It was in a softened tone that she again addressed him,
moving on her couch to show an ivory shoulder and a
rounded arm to the best advantage.

" You are a confidential servant of my kinsman's ? You
are attached to his person, and always to be found in his
household ? " she asked, more with a view of detaining him
than for any fixed purpose.

" I would give my life for Licinius ! " was the prompt
and spirited reply.

" But you are gentle born," she resumed, with increasing
interest ; " how came you in your present dress, your present
station? Licinius has never mentioned you to me. I do
not even know your name. What is it ? "

" Esca," answered the slave proudly, and looking the while
anything but a slave.

" Esca ! " she repeated, dwelling on the syllables, with a
slow soft cadence ; " Esca ! 'Tis none of our Latin names ;
but that I might have known already. Who and what are you?"

There was something of defiance in the melancholy tone
with which he answered —

" A prince in my own country, and a chief of ten thousand.
A barbarian and a slave in Rome."

She gave him her hand to kiss, with a gesture of pity that
was almost a caress, and then, as though ashamed of her own
condescension, bade the Liburnians angrily to " go on."

Esca looked long and wistfully after the litter as it dis-
appeared ; but Hirpinus, clapping him on the back with his
heavy hand, burst into a hearty laugh while he declared —

" 'Tis a clear case, comrade. ' Came, saw, and conquered,'
as the great soldier said. I have known it a hundred times,
but always to men of muscle like thee and me. By Castor
and Pollux ! lad, thou art in luck. Ay, ay, 'tis always so.
She takes thee for a gladiator, and they'll look at nothing but
a gladiator now. Come on, brother ; we'll drink a cup to
every letter of her name ! "

CHAPTER VI

THE WORSHIP OF ISIS

IT was the cool and calming hour of sunset. Esca was
strolling quietly homewards after the pursuits of the
day. He had emptied a wineskin with Hirpinus ; and, re-
sisting that worthy's entreaties to mark so auspicious a
meeting by a debauch, had accompanied him to the gym-
nasium, where the Briton's magnificent strength and prowess
raised him higher than ever in the opinion of the experienced
athlete. Untiring as were the trained muscles of the pro-
fessional, he found himself unable to cope with the barbarian
in such exercises as demanded chiefly untaught physical
power and length of limb. In running, leaping, and wrestling,
Esca was more than a match for the gladiator. In hurling
the quoit, and fencing with wooden foils, the latter's constant
practice gave him the advantage, and when he fastened round
his wrists and hands the leathern thong or cestus, used for the
same purpose as our modern boxing-glove, and proposed a
round or two of that manly exercise to conclude with, he
little doubted that his own science and experience would
afford him an easy victory. The result, however, was far
different from his expectations. His antagonist's powers were
especially adapted to this particular kind of contest; his
length of limb, his quickness of eye, hand, and foot, his
youthful elasticity of muscle, and his unfailing wind, rendered
him an invincible combatant, and it was with something like
pique that Hirpinus was compelled to confess as much to
himself.

At the end of the first round he was satisfied of his mistake
in underrating so formidable an opponent. Ere the second
was half through, he had exhausted all the resources of his
own skill without gaining the slightest advantage over his
antagonist; and with the conclusion of a third, he flung
away the cestus in well-feigned disgust at the heat of the
weather, and proposed one more skin of wine before part-
ing, to drink success to the profession, and speedy employ-

THE WORSHIP OF ISIS

ment for the gladiators at the approaching games in the
amphitheatre.

" Join us, man ! " said Hirpinus, dropping something of the
patronising air he had before affected. " Thou wert born to
be a swordsman. Hippias would teach thee in a week to
hold thine own against the best fencers in Rome. I myself
will look to thy food, thy training, and thy private practice.
Thou wouldst gain thy liberty easily, after a few victories.
Think it over, man ! and when thou hast decided, come to
the fencing-school yonder, and ask for old Hirpinus. The
steel may have a speck of rust on it, but it's tough and true
still ; so fare thee well, lad. I count to hear from thee again
before long ! "

The gladiator accordingly rolled off with more than his
usual assumption of manly independence, attributable to the
measure of rough Sabine wine of which he had drunk his full
share, whilst the Briton walked quietly away in the direction
of his home, enjoying the cool breeze that fanned his brow,
and following out a train of vague and complicated reflec-
tions, originating in the advice of his late companion.

The crimson glow of a summer evening had faded into
the serene beauty of a summer night. Stars were flashing
out, one by one, with mellow lustre, not glimmering faintly,
as in our northern climate, but hanging like silver lamps, in
the infinity of the sky. The busy turmoil of the streets had
subsided to a low and drowsy hum ; the few chance pas-
sengers who still paced them, went softly and at leisure, as
though enjoying the soothing influence of the hour. Even
here, in the great city, everything seemed to breathe of peace,
and contentment, and repose. Esca walked slowly on, lost
in meditation.

Suddenly, the clash of cymbals and the sound of voices
struck upon his ear. A wild and fitful melody, rising and
falling with strange thrilling cadence, was borne upon the
breeze. Even while he stopped to listen, it swelled into a full
harmonious chorus, and he recognised the chant of the wor-
shippers of Isis, returning from the unholy celebration of her
rites. Soon the glare of torches heralded its approach, and
the tumultuous procession wound round the corner of the
street with all the strange grotesque ceremonies of their order.
Clashing their cymbals, dashing their torches together till the
sparks flew up in showers, tossing their bare arms aloft with
frantic gestures, the smooth-faced priests, having girt their
linen garments tightly round their loins, were dancing to and
fro before the image of the goddess with bacchanalian energy.

EROS

Some were bareheaded, some crowned with garlands of the
lotus-leaf, and some wore masks representing the heads of
dogs and other animals ; but all, though leaping wildly here
and there, danced in the same step, all used the same
mysterious gestures of which the meaning was only known
to the initiated. The figure of the goddess herself was borne
aloft on the shoulders of two sturdy priests, fat, oily, smooth,
and sensual, with the odious look of their kind. It repre-
sented a stately woman crowned with the lotus, holding a
four-barred lyre in her hand. Gold and silver tinsel was
freely scattered over her flowing garments, and jewels of
considerable value, the gifts of unusually fervent devotees,
might be observed upon her bosom and around her neck and
arms. Behind her were carried the different symbols by
which her qualities were supposed to be typified ; amongst
these an image of the sacred cow, wrought in frosted silver
with horns and hoofs of gold, showed the most conspicuous,
borne aloft as it was by an acolyte in the wildest stage of
inebriety, and wavering, with the uncertain movements of its
bearer, over the heads of the throng. In the van moved the
priests, bloated eunuchs clad in white ; behind these came the
sacred images carried by younger votaries, who, aspiring to
the sacerdotal office, and already prepared for its functions,
devoted themselves assiduously in the meantime to the orgies
with which it was their custom to celebrate the worship of
their deity. Maddened with wine, bare-limbed and with dis-
hevelled locks, they danced frantically to and fro, darting at
intervals from their ranks, and compelling the passengers
whom they met to turn behind them, and help to swell the
rear of the procession. This was formed of a motley crew.
Rich and poor, old and young, the proud patrician and the
squalid slave, were mingled together in turbulent confusion ;
it was difficult to distinguish those who formed a part of the
original pageant from the idlers who had attached themselves
to it, and, having caught the contagious excitement, vocifer-
ated as loudly, and leaped about as wildly, as the initiated
themselves. Amongst these might be seen some of the
fairest and proudest faces in Rome. Noble matrons reared
in luxury, under the very busts of those illustrious ancestors
who had been counsellors of kings, defenders of the common-
wealth, senators of the empire, thought it no shame to be seen
reeling about the public streets, unveiled and flushed with
wine, in the company of the most notorious and profligate
of their sex. A multitude of torches shed their glare on
the upturned faces of the throng, and on one that looked,

THE WORSHIP OF ISIS

with its scornful lips and defiant brow, to have no business
there.

Amongst the wildest of these revellers, Valeria's haughty
head moved on, towering above the companions, with whom
she seemed to have nothing in common, save a fierce de-
termination to set modesty and propriety at defiance. Esca
caught her glance as she swept by. She blushed crimson, he
observed even in the torchlight, and seemed for an instant to
shrink behind the portly form of a priest who marched at her
side ; but, immediately recovering herself, moved on with a
gradually paling cheek, and a haughtier step than before.

He had little leisure, however, to observe the scornful
beauty, whose charms, to tell the truth, had made no slight
impression on his imagination ; for a disturbance at its head,
which had now passed him some distance, had stopped the
progress of the whole procession, and no small confusion was
the result. The torch-bearers were hurrying to the front.
The silver cow had fallen and been replaced in an upright
position more than once. The goddess herself had nearly
shared the same fate. The sacred chant had ceased, and
instead a hundred tongues were vociferating at once, some in
anger, some in expostulation, some in maudlin ribaldry and
mirth. " Let her go ! " cried one. " Hold her fast ! " shouted
another. " Bring her along with you ! " reasoned a drunken
acolyte. " If she be worthy she will conform to the worship
of the goddess. If she be unworthy she shall experience the
divine wrath of Isis ! " " Mind what you are about," inter-
posed a more cautious votary. " She is a Roman maiden,"
said one. " She's a barbarian ! " shrieked another. " A
Mede!" "A Spaniard!" "A Persian!" "A Jewess! A
Jewess ! "

In the meantime the unfortunate cause of all this turmoil,
a young girl closely veiled and dressed in black, was struggling
in the arms of a large unwieldy eunuch, who had seized her
as a hawk pounces on a pigeon, and despite her agonised
entreaties, for the poor thing was in mortal fear, held her
ruthlessly in his grasp. She had been surrounded by the
lawless band, ere she was aware, as she glided quietly round
the street corner, on her homeward way, had shrunk up
against the wall in the desperate hope that she might remain
unobserved or unmolested, and found herself, as was to be
expected, an immediate object of insult to the dissolute and
licentious crew. Though her dress was torn and her arms
bruised from the unmanly violence to which she was sub-
jected, with true feminine modesty she kept her veil closely

EROS

drawn round her face, and resisted every effort for its removal,
with a firm strength of which those slender wrists seemed
hardly capable. As the eunuch grasped her with drunken
violence, bending his huge body and bloated face over the
shrinking figure of the girl, she could not suppress one
piercing shriek for help, though, even while it left her lips,
she felt how futile it must be, and how utterly hopeless was
her situation. It was echoed by a hundred voices in tones of
mockery and derision.

Little did Spado, for such was the eunuch's name, little
did Spado think how near was the aid for which his victim
called ; how sudden would be the reprisals that should
astonish himself with their prompt and complete redress,
reminding him of what he had long forgotten, the strength
of a man's blow, and the weight of a man's arm. At the
first sound of the girl's voice, Esca had forced his way
through the crowd to her assistance. In three strides he had
come up with her assailant, and laid his heavy grasp on
Spado's fat shoulder, while he bade him in low determined
accents to release his prey. The eunuch smiled insolently,
and replied with a brutal jest.

Valeria, interested in spite of herself, could not resist an
impulse to press forward and see what was going on. Long
afterwards she delighted to recall the scene she now beheld
with far more of exultation and excitement than alarm. It
had, indeed, especial attraction for an imagination like hers.
Standing out in the red glare of the torches, like the bronze
statue of some demigod starting into life, towered the tall
figure of Esca, defiance in his attitude, anger on his brow,
and resistless strength in the quivering outline of each
sculptured limb. Within arm's length of him, the obese,
ungraceful shape of Spado, with his broad fat face, expressive
chiefly of gluttony and sensual enjoyment, but wearing now
an ugly look of malice and apprehension. Starting back
from his odious embrace to the utmost length of her out-
stretched arms, the veiled form of the frightened girl, her
head turned from the eunuch, her hands pressed against his
chest, every line of her figure denoting the extreme of horror,
and aversion, and disgust. Round the three, a shifting mass
of grinning faces, and tossing arms, and wild bacchanalian
gestures ; the whole rendered more grotesque and unnatural
by the lurid, flickering light. With an unaccountable fascina-
tion Valeria watched for the result.

" Let her go ! " repeated Esca, in the distinct accents with
which a man speaks who is about to strike, tightening at the

THE WORSHIP OF ISIS

same time a gripe which went into the eunuch's soft flesh
like iron.

Spado howled in mingled rage and fear, but released the
girl nevertheless, who cowered instinctively close to her
protector.

" Help ! " shouted the eunuch, looking round for assistance
from his comrades. " Help ! I say. Will ye see the priest
mishandled and the goddess reviled ? Down with him !
down with him, comrades, and keep him down ! "

There is little doubt that had Esca's head once touched
the ground it had never risen again, for the priests were
crowding about him with wild yells and savage eyes, and the
fierce revelry of a while ago was fast warming into a thirst
for blood. Valeria thrust her way into the circle, though she
never feared for the Briton — not for an instant.

It was getting dangerous, though, to remain any longer
amongst this frantic crew. Esca wound one arm round the
girl's waist and opposed the other shoulder to the throng.
Spado, encouraged by his comrades, struck wildly at the
Briton, and made a furious effort to recover his prey. Esca
drew himself together like a panther about to spring, then
his long sinewy arm flew out with the force and impulse of a
catapult, and the eunuch, reeling backwards, fell heavily to
the ground, with a gash upon his cheek like the wound
inflicted by a sword.

" Euge ! " exclaimed Valeria, in a thrill of admiration and
delight. " Well struck, by Hercules ! Ah ! these barbarians
have at least the free use of their limbs. Why, the priest
went down like a white ox at the Mucian Gate. Is he much
hurt, think ye ? Will he rise again ? "

The last sentence was addressed to the throng who now
crowded round the prostrate Spado, and was but the result
of that pity which is never quite dormant in a woman's
breast. The fallen eunuch seemed indeed in no hurry to get
upon his legs again. He rolled about in hideous discomfiture,
and gave vent to his feelings in loud and pitif il moans and
lamentations.

After such an example of the Briton's prowess, none of
her other votaries seemed to think it incumbent on them to
vindicate the majesty of the goddess by further interference
with the maiden and her protector. Supporting and almost
carrying her drooping form, Esca hurried her away with swift
firm strides, pausing and looking back at intervals, as though
loth to leave his work half finished, and by no means un-
willing to renew the contest. The last Valeria saw of him

EROS

was the turn of his noble head bending down with a courteous
and protecting gesture, to console and reassure his frightened
charge. All her womanly instincts revolted at that moment
from the odious throng with whom she was involved. She
could have found it in her heart to envy that obscure and
unknown girl hurrying away yonder through the darkening
streets on the arm of her powerful protector — could have
wished herself a peasant or a slave, with some one being in
the world to look up to, and to love.

Valeria's life had been that of a spoiled child from the
day she left her cradle — that gilded cradle over which the
nurses had repeated their customary Roman blessing with an
emphasis that in her case seemed to be prophetic —

" May monarchs woo thee, darling ! to their bed,
And roses blossom where thy footsteps tread ! "

The metaphorical flowers of wealth, prosperity, and
admiration, did indeed seem to spring up beneath her feet,
and her stately beauty would have done no discredit to an
imperial bride ; but it must have been something more than
outward pomp and show — something nobler than the purple
and the diadem — that could have won its way to Valeria's
heart.

She was habituated to the beautiful, the costly, the refined,
till she had learned to consider such qualities as the mere
essentials of life. It seemed to her a simple matter of course
that houses should be noble, and chariots luxurious, and
horses swift, and men brave. The nil admirari was the
maxim of the class in which she lived ; and whilst their
standard was thus placed at the superlative, that which came
up to it received no credit for excellence, that which fell short
was treated with disapproval and contempt. Valeria's life
had been one constant round of pleasure and amusement;
yet she was not happy, not even contented. Day by day she
felt the want of some fresh interest, some fresh excitement ;
and it was this craving probably, more than innate depravity,
which drove her, in common with many of her companions,
into such disgraceful scenes as were enacted at the worship of
Juno, Isis, and the other gods and goddesses of mythology.

Lovers, it is needless to say, Valeria had won in plenty.
Each new face possessed for her but the attraction of its
novelty. The favourite of the hour had small cause to plume
himself on his position. For the first week he interested her
curiosity, for the second he pleased her fancy, after which, if
he was wise, he took his leave gracefully, ere he was bidden

THE WORSHIP OF ISIS

to do so with a frankness that admitted of no misconception.
Perhaps the only person in the world whom she respected
was her kinsman Licinius ; and this, none the less, that she
possessed no kind of influence over his feelings or his opinions ;
that she well knew he viewed her proceedings often with
disapprobation, and entertained for her character a kindly
pity not far removed from contempt. Even Julius Placidus,
who was the most persevering, as he was the craftiest, of her
adorers, had made no impression on her heart. She appreci-
ated his intellect, she was amused with his conversation, she
approved of his deep schemes, his lavish extravagance, his
unprincipled recklessness ; but she never thought of him for
an instant after he was out of her sight, and there was some-
thing in the cold-blooded ferocity of his character from which,
even in his presence, she unconsciously recoiled. Perhaps
she admired the person of Hippias, her fencing-master, a
retired gladiator, who combined handsome regularity of
features with a certain worn and warlike air, not without its
charm, more than that of any man whom she had yet seen,
and with all her pride and her cold exterior, Valeria was a
woman to be captivated by the eye ; but Hippias, from his
professional reputation, was the darling of half the matrons
in Rome, and it may be that she only followed the example
of her friends, with whom, at this period of the Empire, it
was considered a proof of the highest fashion, and the best
taste, to be in love with a gladiator.

Strong in her passions, as in her physical organisation, the
former were only bridled by an unbending pride, and an
intensity of will more than masculine in its resolution. As
under that smooth skin the muscles of the round white arm
were firm and hard like marble, so beneath that fair and
tranquil bosom there beat a heart that for good or evil could
dare, endure, and defy the worst. Valeria was a woman
whom none but a very bold or very ignorant suitor would
have taken to his breast ; yet it may be that the right man
could have tamed, and made her gentle and patient as the
dove. And now something seemed to tell her that the void
in her heart was filled at last. Esca's manly beauty had
made a strong impression on her senses ; the anomaly of his
position had captivated her imagination ; there was some-
thing very attractive in the mystery that surrounded him ;
there was even a wild thrill of pleasure in the shame of loving
a slave. Then, when he stood forth, the champion of that
poor helpless girl, brave, handsome, and victorious, the charm
was complete; and Valeria's eyes followed him as he dis-

EROS

appeared with a longing loving look, that had never glistened
in them in her life before.

The Briton hurried away with his arm round the drooping
figure of his companion, and for a time forbore to speak a
word even of encouragement or consolation. At first the
reaction of her feelings turned her sick and faint, then a
burst of weeping came to her relief; ere long the tears were
flowing silently; and the girl, who indeed showed no lack
of courage, had recovered herself sufficiently to look up in
her protector's face, and pour out her thanks with a quiet
earnestness that showed they came direct from the heart.

" I can trust you," she said, in a voice of peculiar swc tness,
though her Latin, like his own, was touched with a si. htly
foreign accent. " I can read a brave man's face — none b ter.
We have not far to go now. You will take me safe home ? "

" I will guard you to your very door," said he, in tones of
the deepest respect. " But you need fear nothing now ; the
drunken priests and their mysterious deity are far enough off
by this time. Tis a noble worship, truly, for such a city as
this — the mistress of the world ! "

" False gods ! false gods ! " replied the girl, very earnestly.
" Oh ! how can men be so blind, so degraded ? " Here she
stopped suddenly, and clung closer to her companion's arm,
drawing her veil tighter round her face the while. Her quick
ear had caught the sound of hurrying footsteps, and she
dreaded pursuit.

" 'Tis nothing," said Esca, encouraging her ; " the most we
have to dread now is some drunken freedman or client reeling
home from his patron's supper - table. They are a weakly
race, these Roman citizens," he added good-humouredly ; " I
think I can promise to stave them off if they come not more
than a dozen at a time."

The cheerful tone reassured her no less than the strong
arm to which she clung. It was delightful to feel so safe
after the fright she had undergone. The footsteps were
indeed those of a few dissolute idlers loitering home after a
debauch. They had hastened forward on espying a female
figure ; but there was something in the air of her protector
that forbade a near approach, and they shrank to the other
side of the way rather than come in contact with so powerful
an opponent. The girl felt proud of her escort, and safer
every minute. By this time she had guided him into a
dark and narrow street, at the end of which the Tiber might
be seen gleaming under the starlit sky. She stopped at a
mean-looking door, let into a dead-wall, and applying her

THE WORSHIP OF ISIS

hand to a secret spring, it opened noiselessly to her touch.
Then she turned to face her companion, and said frankly,
" I have not thanked you half enough. Will you not enter
our poor dwelling, and share with us a morsel of food and
a cup of wine, ere you depart upon your way ? "

Esca was neither hungry nor thirsty, yet he bowed his
head, and followed her into the house.

CHAPTER VII

TRUTH

THE dwelling in which the Briton now found himself
presented a strange contrast of simplicity and splen-
dour, of wealth and frugality, of obscure poverty and costly
refinement. The wall was bare and weather-stained ; but a
silver lamp, burning perfumed oil, was fixed against its sur-
face on a bracket of common deal. Though the stone floor
was damp and broken, it was partially covered by a soft
thick carpet of brilliant colours, while shawls from the richest
looms of Asia hung over the mutilated wooden seats and the
crazy couch, which appeared to be the congenial furniture of
the apartment. Esca could not but remark on the same in-
consistency throughout all the minor details of the household.
A measure of rich wine from the Lebanon was cooling in
a pitcher of coarse earthenware, a draught of fair water
sparkled in a cup of gold. A bundle of Eastern javelins,
inlaid with ivory and of beautiful finish and workmanship,
kept guard, as it were, over a plain two-edged sword devoid
of ornament, and with a handle frayed and worn as though
from constant use, that looked like a weapon born for work
not show, some rough soldier's rude but trusty friend. The
room of which Esca thus caught a hasty glance as he passed
through, opened on an inner apartment, which seemed to
have been originally equally bare and dilapidated, but of
which the furniture was even more rich and incongruous. It
was flooded by a soft warm light, shed from a lamp burning
some rare Syrian oil, that was scarcely to be procured for
money in Rome. It dazzled Esca's eyes as he followed the
girl through the outer apartment into this retreat, and it
was a few seconds ere he recovered his sight sufficiently to
take note of the objects that surrounded him.

A venerable man with bald head and long silvery beard
was sitting at the table when they entered, reading from a
roll of parchment filled to the very margin with characters
in the Syriac language, then generally spoken over the

TRUTH

whole of Asia Minor, and sufficiently familiar at Rome. So
immersed was he in his studies, that he did not seem to
notice her arrival, till the girl rushed up] to him, and, without
unveiling, threw herself into his arms with many expressions
of endearment and delight at her own return. The language
in which she spoke was unknown to the Briton ; but he
gathered from her gestures, and the agitation which again
overcame her for an instant, that she was relating her own
troubles, and the part he had himself borne in the adventures
of the night. Presently she turned, and drew him forward,
while she said in Latin, with a little sob of agitation between
every sentence —

" Behold my preserver — the youth who came in like a lion
to save me from those wicked men ! Thank him in my
father's name, and yours, and all my kindred and all my
tribe. Bid him welcome to the best our house affords. It
is not every day a daughter of Judah meets with an arm and
a heart like his, when she falls into the grasp of the heathen
and the oppressor ! "

The old man stretched his hand to Esca with cordiality
and goodwill ; as he did so, the Briton could not but
observe how kindly was the smile that mantled over his
serene and gentle face.

" My brother will be home ere long," said he, " and will
himself thank you for preserving his daughter from insult
and worse. Meantime Calchas bids you heartily welcome
to Eleazar's house. Mariamne," he added, turning to the
girl, " prepare us a morsel of food that we may eat. It is
not the custom of our nation to send a stranger fasting from
the door."

The girl departed on her hospitable mission, and Esca,
making light of his prowess, and of the danger incurred,
gave his own version of the night's occurrence, to which
Calchas listened with grave interest and approval. When
he had concluded, the old man pointed to the scroll he had
been reading, which now lay rolled up on the table at his
hand.

" The time will come," said he, " when the words that are
written here shall be in the mouths of all men on the surface
of the known earth. Then shall there be no more strife, nor
oppression, nor suffering, nor sorrow. Then shall men love
each other like brothers, and live only in kindliness and
goodwill. The day may seem far distant, and the means
may seem poor and inadequate now, yet so it is written here,
and so will it be at last."

EROS

" You think that Rome will extend her dominions farther
and farther? That she will conquer all known nations, as
she has conquered us ? That she means to be in fact what
she proudly styles herself, the Mistress of the World? In
truth, the eagle's wings are wide and strong. His beak is
very sharp, and where his talons have once fastened them-
selves, they never again let go their hold ! "

Calchas smiled and shook his head.

" The dove will prevail against the eagle, as love is a
stronger power than hate. But it is not of Rome I speak
as the future influence that shall establish the great good on
earth. The legions are indeed well trained, and brave even
to the death ; but I know of soldiers in a better service than
Caesar's, whose warfare is harder, whose watches are longer,
whose adversaries are more numerous, but whose triumph
is more certain, and more glorious at the last."

Esca looked as if he understood him not. The Briton's
thoughts were wandering back to the tramp of columns and
the clash of steel, and the gallant stand made against the
invader by the white-robed warriors with their long swords,
amongst whom he had been one of the boldest and the
best.

"It is hard to strive against Rome," said he, with a
glowing cheek and sparkling eye. " Yet I cannot but think,
if we had never been provoked to an attack, if we had kept
steadily on the defensive, if we had moved inland as he
approached, harassing and cutting him off whenever we
saw an opportunity, but never suffering him to make one
for himself — trusting more to our woods and rivers, and less
to our own right hands — we might have tamed the eagle
and clipped his wings, and beat him back across the sea at
last. But what have I to do with such matters now?" he
added, while his whole countenance fell in bitter humiliation.
" I, a poor barbarian captive, and a slave here in Rome ! "

Calchas studied his face with a keen scrutinising glance,
then he laid his hand on the young man's shoulder, and said
inquiringly —

" There is not a grey hair in your clustering locks, nor a
wrinkle on your brow, yet you have known sorrow ? "

"Who has not?" replied the other cheerfully; "and yet
I never thought to have come to this."

" You are a slave, and you would be free ? " asked Calchas,
slowly and impressively.

" I am a slave," repeated the Britqn, " and I shall be free.
But not till death."

TRUTH

" And after death ? " proceeded the old man, in the same
gentle inquiring tone.

" After death," answered the other, " I shall be free as the
elements I have been taught to worship, and into which they
tell me I shall be resolved. What need I know or care more
than that in death there will be neither pleasure nor pain ? "

"And is not life with all its changes too sweet to lose
on such terms as these ? " asked the older man. " Are you
content to believe that, like one walking through a quick-
sand, the footsteps you leave are filled up and obliterated
behind you as you pass on ? Can you bear to think that
yesterday is indeed banished and gone for ever? That a
to-morrow must come of black and endless night? Death
should be really terrible if this is your conviction and your
creed ! "

" Death is never terrible to a brave man," answered Esca.
" A Briton need not be taught how to die sword in hand."

" You think you are brave," said Calchas, looking wistfully
on the other's rising colour and kindling eyes. " Ah ! you
have not seen my comrades die, or you would know that
something better than courage is required for the service to
which we belong. What think ye of weak women, tender
shrinking maidens, worn with fatigue, emaciated with hunger,
fainting with heat and thirst, brought out to be devoured by
beasts, or to suffer long and agonising tortures, yet smiling
the while in quiet calm contentment, as seeing the home to
which they are hastening, the triumph but a few short hours
off? What think ye of the captains under whom I served,
who here at Rome, in the face of Caesar and his power,
vindicated the honour of their Lord and died without a
murmur for His cause? I was with Peter, I tell you, Peter
the Galilean, of whom men talk to this day, of whom men
shall never cease to talk in after ages, when he opposed to
Simon's magic arts his simple faith in the Master whom he
served, and I saw the magician hurled like a stricken vulture
to the ground. I was present when the fiercest and the
wickedest of the Caesars, returning from the expedition to
Greece, wherein his buffooneries had earned the contempt
even of that subtle nation of flatterers, sentenced him to
death upon the cross for that he had dared to oppose Nero's
vices, and to tell Nero the truth. I heard him petition that
he might be crucified with his head downward, as not worthy
to suffer in the same posture as his Lord — and I can see him
now, the pale face, the noble head, the dark keen eye, the
slender sinewy form, and, above all, the self-sustaining con-
D 49

EROS

fidence, the triumphant daring of the man as he walked fear-
lessly to death. I was with Paul, the noble Pharisee, the
naturalised Roman citizen, when he, alone amongst a crowd
of passengers and a century of soldiers, quailed not to look
on the black waves raging round our broken ship, and bade
us all be of good cheer, for that every soul, to the number
of two hundred and seventy-five, should come safe to shore.
I remember how trustfully we looked on that low spare form,
that grave and gracious face with its kindly eyes, its bushy
brows and thick beard sprinkled here and there with grey.
It was the soul, we knew, that sustained and strengthened
the weakly body of the man. The very barbarians where
we landed acknowledged its influence, and would fain have
worshipped him for a god. Nero might well fear that quiet,
humble, trusting, yet energetic nature ; and where the imperial
monster feared, as where he admired, loved, hated, envied, or
despised, the sentiment must be quenched in blood."

" And did he too fall a victim ? " inquired Esca, whose
interest, notwithstanding occasional glances at the door
through which Mariamne had gone out, seemed thoroughly
awakened by the old man's narrative.

" They might not crucify him," answered Calchas, " for he
was of noble lineage and a Roman citizen born ; but they
took him from amongst us, and they let him languish in a
prison, till they released him at last and brought him out to
be beheaded. Ay, Rome was a fearful sight that day; the
foot was scorched as it trod the ashes of the devastated city,
the eye smarted in the lurid smoke that hung like a pall upon
the heavy air and would not pass away. Palaces were
crumbling in ruins, the shrivelled spoils of an empire were
blackening around, the dead were lying in the choked-up
highways half - festering, half -consumed — orphan children
were wandering about starved and shivering, with sallow
faces and large shining eyes, or, worse still, playing thought-
lessly, unconscious of their doom. They said the Christians
had set fire to the city, and many an innocent victim suffered
for this foul and groundless slander. The Christians, for-
sooth ! oppressed, persecuted, reviled ; whose only desire was
to live in brotherhood with all men, whose very creed is peace
and goodwill on earth. I counted twenty of them, men,
women, and children, neighbours with whom I had held
kindly fellowship, friends with whom I had broken bread,
lying stiff and cold in the Flaminian Way on the morning
Paul was led out to die. But there was peace on the dead
faces, and the rigid hands were clasped in prayer; and

TRUTH

though the lacerated emaciated body, the mere shell, was
grovelling there in the dust, the spirit had gone home to God
who made it, to the other world of which you have not so
much as heard, yet which you too must some day visit, to
remain for ever. Do you understand me ? not for ages, but
for ever — without end ! "

" Where is it ? " asked Esca, on whom the idea of a
spiritual existence, innate from its very organisation in every
intelligent being, did not now dawn for the first time. " Is it
here, or there ? below, or above ? in the stars, or the elements ?
I know the world in which I live ; I can see it, can hear it,
can feel it ; but that other world, where is it ? "

" Where is it ? " repeated Calchas. " Where are the
dearest wishes of your heart, the noblest thoughts of your
mind? Where are your loves, your hopes, your affections,
above all, your memories ? Where is the whole better part
of your nature ? your remorse for evil, your aspirations after
good, your speculations on the future, your convictions of the
reality of the past? Where these are, there is that other
world. You cannot see it, you cannot hear it, yet you know
that it must be. Is any man's happiness complete? is any
man's misery when it reaches him so overwhelming as it
seemed at a distance ? And why is it not ? Because some-
thing tells him that the present life is but a small segment
in the complete circle of a soul's existence. And the circle,
you have not lived in Rome without learning, is the symbol
of infinity."

Esca pondered and was silent. There are convictions
which men hold unconsciously, and to which they are so
accustomed that their attention can only be directed to them
from without, just as they wear their skins and scarcely know
it, till the familiar covering has been lacerated by injury or
disease. At last he looked up with a brightening countenance,
and exclaimed, " In that world, surely, all men will be free ! "

" All men will be equal," replied Calchas, " but no mortal
or immortal ever can be free. Suppose a being totally
divested of all necessity for effort, all responsibility to his
fellows or himself, all participation in the great scheme of
which government is the essential condition in its every part,
and you suppose one whose own feelings would be an intoler-
able burden, whose own wishes would be an unendurable
torture. Man is made to bear a yoke ; but the Captain whom
I serve has told me that His yoke is easy and His burden is
light. How easy and how light, I experience every moment
of my life."

EROS

" And yet you said but now that death and degradation
were the lot of those who bore arms by your side in the
ranks," observed the Briton, still intently regarding his
companion.

A ray of triumphant courage and exultation flashed up
into the old man's face. For an instant Esca recognised the
fierce daring of a nature essentially bold, reckless, and defiant ;
but it faded as it came, and was succeeded by an expression
of meek, chastened humility, whilst he replied —

" Death welcome and long looked-for ! Degradation that
confers the highest honours in this world and the next ! — at
least to those who are held worthy of the great glory of
martyrdom. Oh ! that I might be esteemed one of that
noble band ! But my work will be laid to my hand, and it
is enough for me to be the lowest of the low in the service of
my Master."

" And that master ? Tell me of that master," exclaimed
Esca, whose interest was excited, as his feelings were roused,
by converse with one who seemed so thoroughly impressed
with the truth of what he spoke, who was at once so earnest,
so gentle, and so brave. The old man bowed his head with
unspeakable reverence, but in his face shone the deep and
fervent joy of one who looks back with intense love and
gratitude to the great epoch of his existence.

" I saw Him once," said he, " on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee — I that speak to you now saw Him with my own eyes
— there were little children at His feet. But we will talk of
this again, for you are weary and exhausted. Meat and
drink are even now prepared for you. It is good to refresh
the body if the mind is to be vigorous and discerning. You
have done for us to-night the act of a true friend. You will
henceforth be always welcome in Eleazar's house."

While he spoke, the girl whom Esca had rescued so
opportunely entered the apartment, bearing in some food
on a coarse and common trencher, with a wineskin, of which
she poured the contents into a jewelled cup, and presented
it to her preserver with an embarrassed but very graceful
gesture, and a soft shy smile.

Mariamne had unveiled; and, if Esca's expectations
during their homeward walk had been raised by her gentle
feminine manners, and the sweet tones of her voice, they
were not now disappointed with what he saw. The dark
eyes that looked up so timidly into his own, were full and
lustrous as those of a deer. They had, moreover, the
mournful pleading expression peculiar to that animal, and,

TRUTH

through all their softness and intelligence, betrayed the
watchful anxiety of one whose life is passed in constant
vicissitudes and occasional danger. The girl's face was
habitually pale, though the warm blood mantled in her
cheek as she drooped beneath Esca's gaze of honest admira-
tion, and her regular features were sharpened, a little more
than was natural to them, by daily care and apprehension.
This was especially apparent in the delicate aquiline of the
nose, and a slight prominency of the cheek-bones. It was
a face that in prosperity would have been rich and sparkling
as a jewel, that in adversity preserved its charms from the
rare and chastened beauty in which it was modelled. Her
dress betrayed the same incongruity that was so remarkable
in the furniture of her home. Like her veil it was black,
and of a coarse and common material, but where it was
looped up, the folds were fastened by one single gem of
considerable value ; and two or three links of a heavy gold
chain were visible round her white and well-turned neck.

Moving through the room, busied with the arrangements
of the meal which she must herself have prepared, Esca could
not but observe the pliant grace of her form, enhanced by
a certain modest dignity, very different from the vivacious
gestures of the Roman maidens to whom he was accustomed,
and especially pleasing to the eye of the Briton.

Calchas seemed to love the girl as a daughter ; and his
kind face grew kinder and gentler still, while he followed her
about in her different movements, with eyes of the deepest
and fondest affection.

Esca could not but observe that the board was laid for
three persons, and that by one of the wooden platters stood
a drinking-cup of great beauty and value. Mariamne's glance
followed his as it rested on the spare place. " For my father,"
said she gently, in answer to the inquiry she read on his face.
" He is later than usual to-night, and, I fear — I fear ; my
father is so bold, so prompt to draw steel when he is angered.
To-night he has left his sword at home; and I know not
whether to be most frightened or reassured at his being alone
in this wicked town, unarmed."

"He is in God's hand, my child," said Calchas reverently.
" But I should not fear for Eleazar," he added, with a proud
and martial air, " were he surrounded by a score of such as
we see prowling nightly in the streets of Rome, though they
were armed to the teeth, and he with only a shepherd's staff
to keep his head."

" Is he, then, so redoubtable a warrior ? " asked Esca, on

EROS

whom good manhood seldom failed to produce a favourable
impression. While he spoke he looked from one to the other
with increasing curiosity and interest.

"You shall judge for yourself," answered Calchas, "for
it cannot now be long ere he return. Nevertheless, the man
who could leap down from the walls of a beleaguered city,
as my brother did, naked and unarmed; who could break
the head off a Roman battering-ram by main force, and
render that engine useless ; who could reach the wall again
with his prize, covered with wounds, having fought his way
through a whole maniple of Roman soldiers, and could ask
but for a draught of water, ere he donned his armour, and
took his place once more upon the rampart, is not likely to
fear aught that can befall him from a few idlers in a common
street-broil. Nevertheless, as I said before, you shall judge
for yourself."

" And here he is ! " exclaimed Mariamne, while the outer
door shut to, and a man's step was heard advancing through
the adjoining apartment, with a firm and measured footfall.

She had been pale enough all night in the eyes of Esca,
who was watching her intently; but he thought now she
seemed to turn a shade paler than before.

CHAPTER VIII

THE JEW

' I "'HE man who entered the apartment with the air of one
J_ to whom every nook and corner was familiar, must have
been fully three-score years of age, yet his dark eye still
glittered with the fire of youth, his thick curling beard and
hair were but slightly sprinkled with grey, and the muscles
of his square powerful frame seemed but to have acquired
solidity and consistency with age. His appearance was that
of a warrior, toughened, and, as it were, forged into iron, by
years of strife, hardship, and unremitting toil.

If something in the line of his aquiline features resembled
Calchas, no two faces could have been more different in
their character and expression than those of Eleazar and
his brother. The latter was all gentleness, kindliness, and
peace ; on the former, fiery passions, deep schemes, continual
peril, and contention, had set their indelible marks. The
one was that of the spectator, who is seated securely on the
clifF, and marks the seething waters below with interest,
indeed, and sympathy, but with feelings neither of agitation
nor alarm ; the other was the strong swimmer, breasting the
waves fiercely, and battling with their might, striving for his
life inch by inch, and stroke by stroke, conscious of his peril,
confident in his strength, and never despairing for an instant
of the result. At times, indeed, the influence of opposite
feelings, softening the one and kindling the other, would
bring out the family likeness clear and apparent upon each ;
but in repose no two faces could be more dissimilar, no two
types of character more utterly at variance, than those of
the Christian and the Jew.

As Eleazar's warlike figure came into the light, Esca
could not but remark with what a glance of mistrust his
quick eye took in the presence of a stranger, how the strong
fingers closed instinctively round the staff he was in the act
of laying down, and the whole form seemed to gather itself
in an instant as though ready for the promptest measures

EROS

of resistance or attack. Such trifling gestures spoke volumes
of the character and habits of the man.

Nevertheless Calchas rapidly explained to his brother
the cause of this addition to their supper - party ; and
Mariamne, who seemed in considerable awe of her father,
busied herself in placing food and wine before him, with
even more alacrity than she had shown when serving their
guest.

The Jew thanked his new friend for the kindness he had
rendered his daughter, with a few brief cordial words, as one
brave man expresses his gratitude to another, then fell to on
the meat and drink provided, with a voracity that argued
well for his physical powers, and denoted a strong constitu-
tion and a long fast. As he took breath after a deep draught
of wine in which, though he pledged him not, he challenged
his guest to join, Calchas asked his brother how he had sped
in the affairs that kept him from home all day.

" 111," answered the other, shooting from under his thick
eyebrows a penetrating glance at the Briton. " 111 and
slowly, yet not so ill but that something has been gained,
another step taken in the direction at which I aim. Yet I
have been to-day in high places, have seen those bloated
gluttons and drunkards who are the ministers of Caesar's
will, have spoken with that spotted panther, Vespasian's
scheming agent forsooth ! who thinks he hath the cunning,
as he can doubtless boast of the treachery and the gaudy
colours, of the beast of prey. Let him take care ! Weaker
hands than mine have ere this strangled a fiercer animal for
the worth of his shining skin. Let him beware ! Eleazar-
Ben-Manahem is a match, and more than a match, for Julius
Placidus the tribune ! "

Esca glanced quickly at the speaker, as his ear caught
the familiar name. The look was not lost upon his host.

"You know him?" said he, with a fierce smile that
showed the strong white teeth gleaming through his bushy
beard. "Then you know as cool and well-taught a soldier
as ever buckled on a sword. I wish I had a few like him to
officer the Sicarii 1 at home. But you know, also, a man who
would not scruple to slay his own father for the worth of the
clasp that fastens his gown. I have seen him in the field, and
I have seen him in the council. He is bold, skilful, and he
can be treacherous in both ! Where met you him last ? " he
added, with a searching glance at Esca, while at the same

"Sicarii," or homicides — bands of assassins, regularly organised in Judasa,
who made a trade of murder.

THE JEW

time he desired Mariamne to fill the stranger's cup and his
own.

The latter proceeding engrossed the Briton's whole
attention. It was with the utmost carelessness that he
replied to the question, by relating his interview, that very
morning, with the tribune at Valeria's door. He scarcely
marked how precisely the father noted down the name in
his tablets, for the daughter's white arm was reaching over
his shoulder, so close that it almost touched his cheek.

It was indeed well worth Eleazar's while to obtain
information, from whatever source, of any influence that
might affect those in authority with whom he was in daily
contact at Rome. His position was one which called for
courage, tact, skill, and even cunning, to a great extent.
Charged by the Supreme Council at Jerusalem, then in the
last stage of perplexity and sorely beset by Vespasian and
his legions, with a private mission to Vitellius, who much
mistrusted the successful general, he represented the hopes
and fears, the temporal and political prosperity, nay, the
very existence of the Chosen People. Nor to all appearance
could a better instrument have been selected for the purpose.
Eleazar, though a bigoted and fanatical Jew of the strictest
sect, was a man of keen and powerful intellect, whose
obstinacy was open to no conviction, whose perseverance was
to be deterred by no obstacle. A distinguished and fearless
soldier, he possessed the confidence of the large and fighting
portion of the nation, who looked on Roman supremacy
with abhorrence, and who clung dearly to the notion of
earthly dominion, wrested from the heathen with the sword.
His rigid observance of its fasts, its duties, and its cere-
monials, had gained him the affections of the priesthood,
and the more enthusiastic followers of that religion in which
outward forms were so strictly enjoined and so faithfully
observed ; while a certain fierce, defiant, and unbending
demeanour towards all classes of men, had won for him a
character of frankness which did him good service in the
schemes of intrigue and dissimulation with which he was
continually engaged.

Yet perhaps the man was honest too, as far as his own
convictions went. He esteemed all means lawful for the
furtherance of a lawful object. He was one of those who
deem it the most contemptible of weakness to shrink from
doing evil that good may come. Like Jephthah he would
have sacrificed his daughter unflinchingly in performance of
a vow ; nay, had Mariamne stood between him and the

EROS

attainment of his ambition, or even the accomplishment of
his revenge, he would have walked ruthlessly over the body
of his child. Versed in the traditions of his family and the
history of his nation, he was steeped to the lips in that pride
of pedigree which was so essential a feature of the Jewish
character : he was convinced that the eventual destiny of his
people was to lord it over the whole earth. He possessed
more than his share of that haughty self-sufficiency which
bade the Pharisee hold aloof from those of lower pretensions
and humbler demeanour than himself; while he had all the
fierce courage and energy of the Lion of Judah, so terrible
when roused, so difficult to be appeased when victorious.
In his secret heart he anticipated the time when Jerusalem
should again become a sovereign city, when the Roman eagles
should be scared away from Syria, and a hierarchy established
once more as the government of the people chosen by Heaven.
That he should be a second Judas Maccabaeus, a chief
commander of the armies of the faithful in the new order of
things, was an ambition naturally enough entertained by the
bold and skilful soldier ; but, to do Eleazar justice, individual
aggrandisement had but little share in his schemes, and
personal interest never crossed those visions for the future, on
which his dark and dangerous enthusiasm so loved to dwell.

It was a delicate matter to intrigue with Vitellius in Rome
against the very general who held supreme authority, at least
ostensibly, from the Emperor. It was playing a hazardous
game, to receive power and instructions from the Council at
Jerusalem, and to use or suppress them according to the
bearer's own political views and future intentions.

It was no easy task to hold his own against such men as
Placidus, in the contest of finesse, subtlety, and double-dealing ;
yet the Jew entered upon his perilous career with a strenuous
energy, a cool calculating audacity, that was engraved in the
very character of the man.

Another draught of the rich Lebanon wine served to
improve their acquaintance, and Eleazar, with considerable
tact, drew from the Briton all the information he could obtain
as to the habits and movements of his antagonist the tribune,
while he seemed but to be carrying on the courteous con-
versation of a host with his guest. Esca's answers, notwith-
standing that thoughts and eyes wandered frequently towards
Mariamne, were frank and open like his disposition. He, too,
entertained no very cordial liking for Placidus, and ex-
perienced towards the tribune that unconscious antipathy
which the honest man so often feels for the knave.

THE JEW

Calchas, meanwhile, had returned to the perusal of his
scroll, on which his brother cast occasional glances of unfeigned
contempt, notwithstanding that the reader was the person
whom he most loved and respected on earth. Mariamne,
moving about the apartment, looked covertly on the fair face
and stately form of her preserver, approving much of what
she saw ; once their eyes met, and the Jewess blushed to her
temples for very shame. So the time passed quickly ; the
night stole on, the Lebanon was nearly finished, and Esca
rose to bid his entertainers farewell.

" You have done me a rare service," said Eleazar, feeling
in his breast while he spoke, and producing, from under his
coarse garment, a jewel of considerable value, "a service
neither thanks nor guerdon can requite; yet, I pray you,
keep this trinket in remembrance of the Jew and the Jew's
daughter, who come of a people that forgive not an injury,
and forget not a benefit."

The colour mounted to Esca's forehead, and an expression
of pain, almost of anger, came into his face, while he replied —

" I have done nothing to merit either thanks or reward.
It is no such matter to put a fat eunuch on his back, or to
defend an unprotected woman in a town like this. Take
back your jewel, I pray you. Any other man would have
done as much."

" It is not every man who could have interposed so effectu-
ally," replied Eleazar, with a glance of hearty approval at the
thews and sinews of his friend, replacing the jewel mean-
while in his vestment, without the least sign of displeasure
at its being declined. He would have bestowed it freely, no
doubt, but if Esca did not want it, it would serve some other
purpose : precious stones and gold would always fetch their
value at Rome. " At least you will let me give you a safe-
conduct home," he added ; " the night is far advanced, and
I should !be loth that you should suffer wrong for your
interposition in our behalf."

Esca burst out laughing now. In the pride of his strength,
it seemed so impossible that he should require protection
or assistance from anyone. He squared his large shoulders
and drew himself to his full height.

" I should wish no better pastime," said he, " than a bout
with a dozen of them ! I, too, was brought up a warrior,
in a land you have never heard of, many a long mile from
Rome; a land fairer far than this, of green valleys and
wooded hills, and noble rivers winding calmly towards the
sea; a land where the oaks are lofty and the flowers are

EROS

sweet, where the men are strong and the women fair. I
have followed the chase afoot from sunrise to sunset through
many a summer's day. I have fronted the invader, sword in
hand, ever since my arm was long enough to draw blade
from sheath, or I had not been here now. You too are a
soldier, I see it in your eye — you can believe that my limbs
grow stiff, my spirits droop for lack of martial exercise. In
faith, it seems to me that even a vulgar broil in the street
makes my blood dance in my veins once more ! "

Mariamne was listening with parted lips and shining
eyes. She drank in all he said of his distant home with its
woodland scenery, its forest trees, its fragrant flowers, and,
above all, its lovely women. She felt so kindly towards
this bold young stranger, exiled from kin and country, she
attributed her interest to pity and gratitude, nor could she
help wondering to find these sentiments so strong.

Calchas looked up from his studies.

" Fare thee well ! " said he. " Take an old man's warning,
and strike not unless it be in self-defence. Mark well the
turning from the main street to the Tiber, so shalt thou find
thy way to our poor home again."

Esca promised faithfully to return, and fully intended to
redeem his promise.

" Another cup of wine," said Eleazar, emptying the leathern
bottle into a golden vessel ; " the sun of Italy cannot ripen
such a vintage as this."

But the rich produce of the Lebanon was all too cloying
for the healthy palate and the thirst of youth. Esca prayed
for a draught of fair water, and Mariamne brought him the
pitcher and gave him to drink with her own hand. For the
second time to-night their eyes met, and although they were
instantly averted, the Briton felt that he was drinking from
a cup more intoxicating than all the wine-presses of Syria
could produce — a cup that made him unconscious of the past
as of the future, and only too keenly sensible of the present
by its joy. He forgot that he was a barbarian, he forgot
that he was a slave.

He forgot everything but Mariamne and her dark
imploring trustful eyes.

CHAPTER IX

THE ROMAN

T is time to give some account of Esca's
anomalous position in the capital of the
world — to explain how the young British
noble (for that was indeed the rank he
held in his own country) found himself
a slave in the streets of Rome. In order
to do so it is necessary to take a glimpse
at the interior of a patrician's house
about the hour of supper ; perhaps also
to intrude upon the reflections of its
owner, as he paces up and down the
colonnade in the cool air of sunset, absorbed in his own
thoughts, and deep in the memories of the past.

His mansion is of stately proportion, and large size, but
all its ornaments and accessories are chastened by a severe
simplicity of taste. An observer might identify the man by
the very nature of the objects that surround him. In his
vestibule the columns are of the Ionic order, and their
elaborate capitals have been wrought into the utmost degree
of finish which that style will allow. In the smaller entrance-
hall or lobby, which leads to the principal apartments, and
which is guarded by an image of a dog, let into the pavement
in mosaic, there are no florid sculptures nor carvings, nor
any attempt at decoration beyond the actual beauty of the
stonework and the scrupulous care with which it is kept
clean. The doors themselves are of bronze, so well burnished
as to need no mixture of gold or silver inlaid to enhance its
brightness ; whilst in the principal hall itself, the room in
which friends are welcomed, clients received, and business
transacted, the walls, instead of frescoes and such gaudy
ornaments, are simply overlaid with entablatures of white
and polished marble. The dome is very lofty, rising majestic-
ally towards the circular opening at the top, through which

EROS

the sky is visible ; and round the fountain or cistern immedi-
ately below this are ranged four colossal statues, representing
the elements. These, with the busts of a long line of illustrious
ancestors, are the only efforts of the sculptor's art throughout
the apartment. A large banqueting-hall, somewhat more
luxuriously furnished, opens from one side of the central
room, and as much as can be seen of it displays considerable
attention to convenience and personal comfort. Frescoes,
representing scenes of military life, adorn the walls, and at
one end stands a trophy, composed of deadly weapons and
defensive armour, arranged so as to form a glittering and
conspicuous ornament. Large flagons and chalices of
burnished gold, some of them adorned with valuable jewels,
are ranged upon a sideboard ; but it is evident that no guests
are expected to-night, for near the couch against the wall
has been drawn a small table, laid for one person only, with
a clean napkin, and a cup and platter of plain silver thereon.
That person is none other than the master of the house,
bodily pacing up and down his own colonnade in Rome,
mentally gazing on a fair expanse of wood and vale and
shining river, drinking in the cool breezes, the fragrant odours,
and the wild luxuriant beauty of distant Britain.

Five-and-twenty years ! and yet it seems but yesterday.
The brow wrinkles, the hair turns grey, strength wastes,
energy fails, the brain gets torpid, and the senses dull, but
the heart never grows old. Business, ambition, pleasure,
dangers, duties, difficulties, and successes have filled that
quarter of a century, and passed away like a dream ; but the
touch of a hand, the memory of a face, have outlived them
all. Caius Lucius Licinius, Roman patrician, general, praetor,
consul, and procurator of the Empire, is the young com-
mander of a legion once more, with the world before him, and
the woman he loves by his side. This is what he sees now,
as he has seen it so often in his dreams by night, and his
waking visions by day.

An old oak-tree, a mossy sward soft and level as velvet,
delicate fern bending and whispering in the summer breeze,
fleecy clouds drifting across the blue sky, and a graceful form,
in its white robes, coming shyly up the glade, with faltering
step, and sidelong glance, and timid gesture, to keep her
tryst with her Roman lover. She is in his arms now. The
rich brown curls are scattered over his breastplate, and the
blue eyes are looking up into his own, liquid with the love-
light that thrills to a man's heart but from one pair of eyes in
a lifetime. She is, indeed, no contemptible prize, in the glory

Licii?i6i5 frold^

rrjaicUp To 1715

THE ROMAN

of her beauty and the pride of her blooming womanhood.
With the rounded form, the noble features, and the dazzling
colour of her nation, she possesses the courage and constancy
of a highborn race, and a witchery half imperious, half
playful, peculiarly her own. There are women who find their
way to the core of a man's heart, who pervade it all, and
saturate it, so to speak, with their influence.

" Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem1
Testa diu"

The vessel that has once held this rich and rare liquid is ever
after impregnated with its fragrance, and even when it has
been spilt every drop, and a fresh infusion poured in, the new
wine smacks strangely and wildly of the old. She is one of
them ; he knows it too well.

They should have nothing in common, these two, the
British chieftain's daughter and the Roman conqueror. But
there is a truce between the nations ; a truce in which the
elements of discord are nevertheless smouldering, ready to
blaze out afresh at the first opportunity, and they have seen
each other accidentally, and been thrown together by cir-
cumstances, till curiosity has become interest, and interest
grown into liking, and liking ripened into love. The British
maiden might not be won lightly, and many a tear she wept
in secret, and sore she strove against her own heart ; but
when it conquered her at last she gave it, as such women will,
wholly and unreservedly. She would have lived for him,
died for him, followed him to the end of the world. And
Licinius worshipped her as a man worships the one woman
who is the destiny of his life. Most men have at some time
or other experienced this folly, infatuation, madness, call it
what you will. They are not likely to forget it. Possibly —
alas! probably — the bud they then watched opening has
never expanded into bloom, at least for them. The worm
may have destroyed it, or the cold wind cut it to the earth,
or another's hand may have borne it away in triumph to
gladden another's breast ; but there is something in the May
mornings that reminds them of the sweet flower still, and
they wander round the fairest gardens of earth rather drearily
to-day, because of the memory that has never faded, and the
blank where she is not.

Licinius holds the British maiden to his breast, and they
discourse of their own happiness and revel in the sunny hour,

1 " You may break, you may ruin, the vase if you will ;
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."

EROS

and plan schemes for the future — schemes in which each is to
the other all in all, and dream not that when to-day is past
for them there will be no to-morrow. The woman, indeed,
heaves a gentle sigh at intervals, as though in the midst of
her happiness some foreboding warned her of the brooding
tempest ; but the man is hopeful, buoyant, and impetuous,
playful in his tenderness, and joyous in his own triumphant
love. They parted that evening more reluctantly than usual.
They lingered round the oak, they found excuse after excuse
for another loving word, another fond caress. When at last
they went their several ways, how often Licinius turned to
look after the receding form that carried with it all his hope
and all his happiness ! Little did he think how, and when,
and where, he would see Guenebra again.

Ten years went heavily by. The commander of a legion
was the chief of an army now. Licinius had served Rome in
Gaul, in Spain, in Syria. Men said he bore a charmed life ;
and, indeed, while his counsels showed the forethought, the
caution, and the patience of a skilful officer, his personal
conduct was remarkable for a reckless disregard of danger,
which would have been esteemed foolhardy in the meanest
soldier. It was observed, too, that a deep and abiding
melancholy had taken possession of the once light-hearted
patrician. He only seemed to brighten up into his former
self under the pressure of imminent danger, in the confusion
of a repulse, or the excitement of a charge. At other times
he was silent, depressed, preoccupied ; never morose, for his
kindly heart was open to the griefs of others, and the legion-
aries knew that their daring general was the friend of all who
were in sorrow or distress. But the men talked him over,
too, by their watch-fires ; they marvelled, those honest old
campaigners, how one who was so ready in the field could be
so sparing of the winecup ; how the leader who could stoop
to fill his helmet from the running stream under a storm of
javelins, and drink composedly with a jest and a smile, should
be so backward in the revel, should show such a disinclination
to those material pleasures which they esteemed the keenest
joys of life.

One old centurion, who had followed his fortunes from the
Thames to the Euphrates, from the confines of Pannonia to
the Pillars of Hercules, averred that he had never seen his
chief discomfited but once, and that was on the day when he
had been accorded a triumph for his services in the streets of
Rome. The veteran used to swear he never could forget the
dejected look upon those brows, encircled with their laurel

THE ROMAN

garland, nor the weary listlessness of that figure, to which all
eyes were directed in its gilded chariot ; the object of
admiration to the whole city, and, for that day, scarcely
second even to Caesar himself. It was a goodly triumph, no
doubt ; the spoils were rich, the car was lofty, the people
shouted, and the victims fell. But what was glory without
Guenebra ? and the hero's eye could not rest in peace on one
of all those gazing thousands, for lack of the loving face
framed in its rich brown hair.

On the very night Licinius and Guenebra parted, a long-
meditated rising had broken out among the islanders-
conquered, but not subdued. Nothing but the cool courage
of its young commander, and the immovable discipline of the
legionaries, saved the Roman camp. Ere morning, Guenebra
had been forced away by her tribe many miles from the scene
of action ; the Britons, too, retired into their strongholds,
those natural fastnesses impregnable by regular troops. The
whole country was once more in a state of open warfare.
Prompt and decisive measures were taken ; Publius Ostorius,
the Roman general, in execution of a manoeuvre by which
he preserved his line of operation, despatched Licinius and
his legion to a different part of the island, and with all his
exertions and all his influence, the young officer could never
obtain tidings of Guenebra again. It was after this event
that the change came over Licinius which was so commented
on by the soldiers under his command.

Ten years of brilliant and successful services had elapsed
when he returned to Britain. Nero had but lately succeeded
to the purple, nor had he then degenerated into the monster
of iniquity which he afterwards became. Until sapped by
his ungovernable passions, the Emperor's administrative
abilities were of no mean order ; and he selected Licinius for
the important post assigned to him, as being a consummate
soldier, and experienced in the country with which he had to
deal. The latter accepted the appointment with alacrity;
through all change of time and fortune, he had never forgotten
his British love. Under the burning skies of Syria, by the
frozen shores of the Danube, at home or abroad, in peace or
war, Guenebra's face was ever present to him, fond and
trustful as when they last parted under the old oak-tree.
He longed but to see it once more. And so he did. Thus —

A partial insurrection had been quelled beyond the Trent.

The Roman vanguard had surprised the Britons, and forced

them to fly in great confusion, leaving their baggage, their

valuables, in some cases even their arms, behind. When

E 65

EROS

Licinius came up with the main body of his forces, he found,
indeed, no prisoners taken, for everything animate had fled,
but a goodly amount of spoil, over which Roman discipline
had placed a strong guard. One of his tribunes approached
him with a list of the captured articles ; and when his general
had perused it, the officer hesitated as though there was still
some further report to make. At last he spoke out —

" There is a hut left standing within the lines of the enemy.
I would not order it to be destroyed till I had provided for
the burial of a dead body that lies beneath its shelter."

Licinius was counting the arms taken.

" A dead body ! " said he carelessly ; " is it an officer of
rank?"

"'Tis a woman's corpse," answered the tribune; "a fair
and stately woman, apparently the wife of some prince or
chieftain at the least."

For Guenebra's sake, every woman, much more every
British woman, was an object of respect and interest to
Licinius.

" Lead on," said he. " I will give directions when I have
seen it;" and the general followed his officer to the place
already indicated.

It was but a rude hut made of a few planks and branches
hastily thrown together. It seemed to have been erected at
a moment's notice, probably to shelter an inmate in the last
stage of dissolution. Through a wide rent in the roof the
summer sun streamed in brilliantly, throwing a sheet of light
on the dead face below. The prostrate form was swathed in
its white robe, the bridal garment of the destroyer. A band
of white encircled the head and chin, and the brown hair was
parted modestly on the smooth forehead calm and womanly
as of old. It was Guenebra's face that lay there so strangely
still. Guenebra's face, how like and yet how changed ! As
he stooped over it, and looked on the closed eyes beneath
their arching brows, the fair and noble features chiseled by
the hand of death — the sweet lips wreathed even now with a
chastened loving smile — he could not but mark that there
were lines of thought upon the forehead, streaks of silver in
the hair, the result it might be of regrets, and memories, and
sorrows, and care for him.

Then the warm tears gushed up into the soldier's eyes,
the pressure on his heart and brain seemed to be relieved.
As when the spear is drawn out of a wound and the red
stream spouts freely forth, the previous agony was succeeded
by a dull hopeless resignation, that in comparison seemed

THE ROMAN

almost akin to peace. He pressed his lips hard upon the cold
dead forehead, and turned away — a man for whom from hence-
forth there was neither good to covet, nor evil to be feared.

And thus it was that here, on earth, Licinius looked once
more upon his love.

Fresh victories crowned his arms in Britain — a fresh
triumph awaited his return to Rome ; but still as of old with
Licinius, the glory seemed to count for nothing, the service
seemed to be all-in-all. Only, now, the restless, eager look
had left his face. He was always calm and unmoved, even
in the uncertainty of conflict or the triumph of success. Still
kindly in his actions, his outward demeanour was very stern
and cold. He kept aloof from the intrigues, as from the
pleasures, of the Court; but was ever ready to serve Rome
with his sword, and on many occasions by his coolness and
conduct redeemed the errors and incapacity of his colleagues
or predecessors. Fortune smiled upon the man who was
insensible to her frowns. Honours poured in on the soldier
who seemed so careless of their attainment ; and Caius Lucius
Licinius was perhaps the object of more respect and less envy
than any other person of his rank in Rome.

It fell out that shortly before the death of Nero, the
general, in traversing the slave-market on the way from the
Forum, felt his sleeve plucked by a notorious dealer in human
wares, named Gargilianus, who begged him earnestly to come
and examine a fresh importation of captives lately arrived
from Britain. To mention their country was at once to
excite the interest of Licinius, who readily acceded to the
request, and spoke a few kind words in their native language
to the unhappy barbarians as he passed through their ranks.
His attention was, however, especially arrested by the appear-
ance of one of the conquered, a fine young man of great
strength and stature, who seemed to feel painfully the in-
dignity of his position, placed as he was on a huge stone
block, whereon his own towering height rendered him a
conspicuous object in the throng. He had been severely
wounded, too, in several places, as was apparent from the
scars scarce yet healed over. Indeed, had it not been so, he
would never probably have been here. There was something
in his face, and the expression of his large blue eyes, that
roused a painful thrill in the Roman general's breast. He
felt a strange and undefinable attraction towards the captive,
for which he could not account, and, pausing in his walk,
scanned him with a wistful searching gaze, which was not
lost on the practised perceptions of the dealer.

EROS

" He should have been shown in private," whispered
Gargilianus, with an important and mysterious air. " Indeed,
my man was just taking him away, when I saw you coming,
my honoured patron, and I called to him to stop. Ay ! you
may examine him all over — tall, young, and healthy. Sound,
wind and limb, and stronger than any gladiator in the amphi-
theatre. They are men of iron, these barbarians, that's the
truth, and he has only just come over. There! look for
yourself, noble general; you will see the chalk-marks1 on
his feet"

" But he is badly wounded," observed Licinius, beginning
to scan him, as the other instinctively felt, with the eye of a
purchaser.

" That is nothing ! " exclaimed Gargilianus. " Mere
scratches, skin deep, and healed over now. You will not be
able to run your nail against them in a week. Eyesores, I
grant you, to-day, otherwise I would ask two thousand
sesterces at least for him. These islanders are cheap at any
price."

" I will give you a thousand," said Licinius quietly.

" Impossible ! " burst out the dealer, with a quiver of his
fingers, that expressed a most emphatic negative. " I should
lose money by him, generous patron ! What ! A man must
live. Caesar would give more for him to die in the circus.
Look at his muscles ! He would stand up for a good five
minutes against the tiger ! "

This last consideration was probably not without its in-
fluence. After a little more haggling, the British captive
became the property of Licinius at the cost of fifteen hundred
sesterces;2 and Esca found the most indulgent and the
kindest-hearted master in Rome.

We must return to that master, pacing thoughtfully up
and down the colonnade, in the cool and pleasant evening
air.

It is, perhaps, one of the most consoling and merciful
dispensations of Providence that the human mind is so con-
stituted as to dwell on past pleasures, rather than past pain.
The sorrow that is done with, returns indeed at intervals
vividly and bitterly enough; but every fresh recurrence is
less cruel than the last, and we can look back to our sufferings
at length with a calm and chastened humility which is the
first step towards resignation and eventual peace. But the
memory of a great happiness seems so interwoven with the

1 According to Pliny, the distinguishing sign of newly-arrived slaves.

2 About twelve pounds sterling.

THE ROMAN

imperishable part of our being, that it loses none of its reality
by the lapse of time, none of its brightness from the effect of
distance. Anger, sorrow, hatred, contentions, fleet away like
a dream ; but the smile that gladdened us long ago, has
passed into the very sunlight of noonday ; the whisper that
softened our sternest moods, steals with the breeze of evening
to our heart, gently and tenderly as of yore, and we know,
we feel, that while crime, and misery, and remorse, are the
temporary afflictions of humanity, pardon, and hope, and love
are its inheritance for evermore.

Licinius, pacing his long shadowy colonnade, dwells not
on the anxieties, and the separation, and the sorrows of years ;
on the loss of his dearest treasure and its possession by
another ; not even on the calm dead face bound with its linen
band. No ; he is back in Britain once more with his living
love, in the green glade where the bending ferns are whisper-
ing under the old oak-tree.

A step in the hall rouses him from his meditations, and
a kind grave smile steals over the general's face at the
approach of his favourite slave.

The Roman patrician looks what he is — a war-worn
veteran, bronzed and hardened by the influence of many
campaigns in many climates. He is not yet past the prime
of his bodily vigour, and there is a severe beauty about his
noble features, and beard and hair already touched with grey,
that possesses considerable attraction still. Valeria, no mean
judge, asserts that he is, and always will be, a handsome man,
but that he does not know it. She respects him much, likes
him a good deal, and he is the only person on earth for
whose good opinion she has the slightest value. In truth,
though she would not confess it even to herself, she is a little
afraid of her good-hearted, brave, and thoughtful kinsman.

A man who has reached mature age without forming
family ties is always to a certain extent in a false position.
No amount of public interest will stop up the little chinks
and corners, so to speak, which are intended by Nature to
contain the petty cares and pleasures and vexations of
domestic life. Without the constant association — the daily
friction — of wife and children, a cynical disposition becomes
selfish and morose; a kind one, melancholy and forlorn.
Licinius feels a blank in his existence, which nothing he has
yet found serves to fill ; and he often wonders in himself why
the barbarian slave should be almost the only creature in
Rome for whom he entertains a feeling of interest and regard.

As he takes his place on the couch by the supper-table,

EROS

Esca gives him to drink ; and the patrician cannot help
thinking the while, how he would like to have such a son,
tall and handsome, with so warlike an air ; a son whom he
could instruct in all the intricacies of his glorious profession,
whose mind he could educate, whose genius he could foster,
and whose happiness he could watch over and ensure. They
converse freely enough during the general's temperate meal
— an egg, a morsel of kid, a few grapes, and a flask of com-
mon Sabine wine. Esca tells his master the encounter of
the previous evening, and the friendship he had made in
consequence, after nightfall. Licinius laughs at his account
of the skirmish, and the eunuch's discomfiture.

" Nevertheless," says he, " I trust he did not recognise
you. It can have been none other than Spado, whom you
treated so unceremoniously ; and Spado is just now a prime
favourite with Caesar. I might find it difficult to protect
you if he knew where to find you, for charms and philtres
are deadlier weapons in such hands as his, than sword and
spear in yours and mine. Did he take note of your person,
think you, Esca, ere he went down ? "

" I can hardly believe it," answered Esca. " The evening
was dark, and the confusion great. Moreover, I fled with
the poor girl they had surrounded, the very instant I could
snatch her out of the throng."

"And you saw these Jews in their home, you say?"
pursued Licinius gravely. " I have heard much of that
people, and, indeed, served against them in Syria. Are
they not morose, cruel, bloodthirsty? Slayers of men,
devourers of children? Have they not fearful orgies in
which they feast upon human flesh? And one day in the
week that they devote to solitude and silence, and schemes
of hatred against all mankind ? Are you sure that your
entertainers belonged to this detestable nation?"

" Christians and Jews," replied Esca, who had caught
the sound of the former title in the course of his conversa-
tion with Calchas.

" Are they not the same ? " returned Licinius, and to this
question the barbarian was unable to furnish a reply.

CHAPTER X

A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS

T TNDER the porch of one of the most luxurious houses
V^J in Rome, two men jostled in the dubious light of
early morning. Exclamations of impatience were succeeded
by a mutual recognition, and a hearty laugh, as Damasippus
and Oarses, freedmen and staunch clients of Julius Placidus,
recognised each other's eagerness to pay court to their joint
patron. They had risen from their beds while it was yet
dark, and hurried hither in order to be the first to salute the
tribune at his morning levee. Yet they found the great hall
filling already with a bustling crowd of friends, retainers,
clients, and dependants. Damasippus was a short, square,
beetle-browed man, with a villainous leer ; Oarses, a pale,
sedate, and somewhat precise personage. But with this
marked difference of exterior, an expression of unscrupulous
and thorough-paced knavery was common to both. Said
Damasippus to Oarses, with a shrug of affected disgust —

" It may be hours yet ere he will see us ! Look at this
wretched crowd of parasites and flatterers ! They will follow
the patron to his bath ! They will besiege him in his very
bed ! Oh, my friend ! Rome is no longer the place for an
honest man."

To which Oarses replied, in subdued and humble tones —

" The flies gather round the honey, though it is only for
what they can get. But the sincerest gratitude and affection
draw you and me, my dear companion, to the side of the
illustrious tribune."

" You speak truth," returned Damasippus. " It is sad to
see how few clients are uninfluenced by mean and sordid
thoughts. An honest man is becoming as rare at Rome as
at Athens. It was not so in the days of the republic — in the
golden age — in the good old times ! "

" Oh for the good old times ! " exclaimed Oarses, still in
the same low and unmoved voice.

" Oh for the good old times ! " echoed Damasippus ; and

EROS

the two knaves, with their arms on each other's shoulders,
fell to pacing the extremity of the hall, and exchanging
spiteful remarks on the concourse with which it was
filled.

The tribune's house was the most perfect of its kind in
the whole city. Standing apart and surrounded by a wall
and garden of its own, it combined the luxurious splendour
of a palace with the comfort and seclusion of a private
residence. Everything of ornament that was most costly
and gorgeous, had been procured by Placidus to decorate
his mansion. Everything of art that was most conspicuous
and effective hung on his walls, stood in picturesque groups
about his apartments, or lay scattered in rich profusion on
his floor. The hangings that veiled his own sleeping-room
from the public eye, were of embroidered crimson silk,
woven in the looms of Asia, and probably taken by the
strong hand of the successful soldier as spoils of war. The
very pavement of the hall was of the richest mosaic, traced
in fanciful patterns and inlaid with gold. As the morning
drew on, it was trodden by a multitude of feet. No one of
his rank held so numerous a levee as Julius Placidus. In
the concourse that thronged it now, might be seen men of
all countries, classes, characters, professions, and denomina-
tions. Unlike Licinius, who, indeed, owed his influence
solely to the firm consistency and unbending rectitude of
his character, the tribune let no opportunity pass of binding
an additional partisan to his cause by the ties of self-interest
and expectation. They were crowding in now through the
wide open doors ; and while the spacious hall was nearly
filled, the approach to it, and the street itself outside, were
choked with applicants, who had one and all, directly or
indirectly, something to get, or ask, or hope for, from the
tribune. Here, an artist brought his picture carefully draped
in the remains of an old garment ; yet not so entirely con-
cealed but that a varnished corner might be visible, and
the painter, nothing loth, might be prevailed on by earnest
solicitations to reveal, bit by bit, all the beauties of his pro-
duction. There, a sculptor was diligently preserving the
outlines of his model, wrapped in its wet cloth, from collision
with the bystanders, and assuming credit for the mysterious
beauties of a work, which, perhaps, if uncovered, would have
grievously disappointed the eyes that scanned it so curiously.
In one corner stood a jeweller, holding in his hand a gorgeous
collar of pearls and rubies, prepared by the patrician's orders,
and testifying at once to the ingenuity of the tradesman,

A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS

and the munificence of his employer. In another, waited a
common-looking slave, with a downcast eye and a bloated
unwholesome face ; who, nevertheless, assumed an important
air that seemed to say he was sure of an early audience,
as, indeed, was more than probable in consideration of his
tidings, a message from venal beauty to the admirer who
paid his welcome tribute in gold. Parasites and flatterers
elbowed their way insolently in the midst, as though they
had a right to be there, whilst honest men, brown with
toil, and sighing wistfully for the fresh breezes of Tibur or
Praeneste, kept aloof, abashed and shrinking, though they
had but come to ask for their due. Nearest the hangings
that concealed the bedroom, stood a dirty slave, bespattered
with the filth of the fish-market, and exhaling an odour of
garlic that cleared for him an ample breathing-space even
in a Roman crowd ; but the knave knew the value of his
intelligence, and how it would obtain him favour in the
tribune's eyes. No less important a communication than
this, that a mullet had been taken the night before of nearly
six pounds weight, and that so lavish a patron as Placidus
should have the first offer to purchase at a thousand sesterces l
a pound. He waited with his eyes intently fastened on
the curtains, and took no notice of the jabber and confusion
that pervaded the hall.

Presently the crowd gave way a little, ebbing backward
on either side, and forming a lane as it were for three men,
who were regarded as they passed with glances of great awe
and admiration. There was no mistaking the deep chest
and broad shoulders of one of these, even apart from the
loud frank voice in which Hirpinus the gladiator was wont
to convey his observations, without much respect for persons.
He was accompanied, on the present occasion, by two in-
dividuals, obviously of the same profession as himself—
Hippias the fencing-master, and Euchenor the boxer. All
three conversed and laughed boisterously. It was obvious
that even at that early hour they had not broken their fast
without a generous draught of wine.

" Talk not to me," said Hirpinus, rolling his strong
shoulders, and observing with great complacency the atten-
tion he excited — " talk not to me : I have seen them all —
Dacians, Gauls, Cimbrians, Ethiopians, every barbarian that
ever put on a breastplate. By Hercules, they were fools to
this lad. Why, the big yellow-haired German, whom Caesar

1 The sestertius was at this period about ifd., or rather more. The sesterciurn,
or thousand sesterces, about £7, i6s.

EROS

gave us for the lion last summer, would not have stood up
to him for a quarter of an hour. He was taller, maybe, a
little, but he hadn't the shape, man — he hadn't the shape !
You'll hardly call me a kid that hasn't put his horns out,
will ye? Well, he gave me so much to do with the cestus,
that I wouldn't have taken it off for a flagon of cheap wine,
I tell ye. What think ye of that, my little Greek? You
don't call it so bad for a beginner, I hope?"

He turned to Euchenor as he spoke, a beautifully-made
young man, of extraordinary strength and symmetry, with
the regular chiseled features of his country, and as evil an
expression as ever lowered on a fair face. The Greek
pondered awhile before he answered. Then he made the
apposite inquiry —

" Were you sober, Hirpinus, when you stood up to him ?
or had you sucked down a skinful of wine, before you took
your bellyful of boxing ? "

The other burst into a loud laugh.

" Drunk or sober," said he, " you know the stuff I am
made of, just as well as I know your weight to an ounce, and
your reach to an inch. Ay, and your mettle too, my lad !
though it don't take a six-foot rod to get to the bottom of
that. Harkye, this Briton of mine would eat such a man as
you, body and bones and all, just as I would eat a thrush, and
be ready for another directly, without so much as washing
his mouth out."

A very sinister scowl passed across Euchenor's face, who
did not quite relish this low valuation of his prowess, and,
above all, his courage ; but he was a professional boxer, and,
as such, necessarily possessed thorough command of temper,
so he only glanced a little scornfully over the other's frame,
which was getting somewhat into flesh, and observed —

" There will be money to be made out of him then in the
arena, if he falls into good hands, and is properly trained."

Hitherto, the fencing-master had joined but carelessly in
the conversation, and, indeed, scarcely seemed aware of its
purport ; but the concluding sentence arrested his attention,
and turning upon Hirpinus rather angrily, and with the air of
one accustomed to command, he said abruptly —

" Why did you not bring him to me at once ? If you have
let him slip through those great fingers of yours, it will be the
worst job you have been concerned in for many a day. Have
a care, Hirpinus ! Better men than you have been under the
net ere now, and the great games are not so far off. It needs
but a word from me to send you into the arena to-morrow, a

A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS

fair prey for a clumsy trident and a fathom or two of twine.
You know that as well as I do."

Hippias spoke truth. A retired gladiator, celebrated for
his deadly swordsmanship and the number of his victories, he
had been long ago invested by Nero with the wooden foil,
which represented a free discharge and immunity from future
services in the amphitheatre. Habituated, however, to the
excitement of the fatal sport, and rejoicing in that spurious
fame which so distinguished men of his class at Rome, he had
set up a school for the express purpose of training swordsmen
for the arena ; and had won such favour, under two successive
emperors, by the proficiency to which he brought his pupils,
and his talent for arranging the deadly pageants in which
they figured, that he had gradually become an incontrovert-
ible authority on such matters, and the principal manager
of the games in the amphitheatre. Of his reputation for
gallantry, and the strange fascination such men possessed for
the Roman ladies, we have already spoken ; but if his smiles
were courted amongst the fair spectators of their contests, his
word was law with the gladiators themselves. He it was who
paired the combatants, supplied them with weapons, adjusted
their disputes, and, in most cases, held the balance on which
their very lives depended. A threat from Hippias was more
dreaded by these ruffians than the home-thrust of spear and
sword.

Now, Hirpinus, although a fearless and skilful fighter, had
his assailable point. On one occasion, when he had entered
the circus as a secutor, that is to say, a combatant armed with
sword and helmet, against the retiarius, who bore nothing
but a trident and net, he had the misfortune to find himself
involved in the meshes of the latter, and at the mercy of
his antagonistic. The Roman crowd, though fickle in its
approval, and uncertain in its antipathies, spared him in con-
sideration of the gallant fight he had made; but Hirpinus
never forgot his sensations at that moment. Bold and fierce
as he was, it completely cowed him ; and the boisterous,
boastful prize-fighter would turn pale at the mention of a
trident and a net. There was something ludicrous in the
manner in which he now quailed before Hippias, eyeing him
with the same sort of imploring glance that a dog casts at his
master, and obviously persuaded of the speedy fulfilment of
his threat.

" Patience, patron ! " he growled apologetically. " I know
where the lad is to be found. I can lay my hand on him at
any time. I can bring him with me to the school. Why I

EROS

talked myself well-nigh hoarse, and stayed out the drinking
of two flagons of sour Sabine to boot, while I canvassed him
to become one of us, and join the Family forthwith. Why,
you don't think, patron, I would be so thick-witted as to let
him go without finding out where he lives ? He is either a
freedman, or a slave of" —

" Hush, fool ! " interrupted Hippias angrily, observing that
Damasippus and Oarses were hovering near, and listening
intently for a piece of intelligence which he had resolved
should be conveyed by himself, and none other, to the
tribune's ear. " There is no occasion to publish it by the
crier. Hadst thou but brains, man, in any sort of proportion
to those great muscles of thine, I could tell thee why, with
some hope of being understood. Enough ! lose not sight
of the lad ; and, above all, keep thy tongue within thy
teeth ! "

The big gladiator nodded a sulky affirmative, puzzled, but
obedient ; and the two freedmen, with many courteous bows
and gestures, accosted the champions with all the humility
and deference to which such public characters were entitled.

" They say there will be two hundred pairs of swordsmen,
matched at the same moment," observed Damasippus, in
allusion to the coming games ; " and not a plate of steel
allowed in the circus, save sword and helmet. But of course,
my Hippias, you know best if this is true."

" And three new lions from Libya, loose at once," added
Oarses, " with a scene representing shepherds surprised over
their watch-fires ; real rocks, I have been told, and a stream
of running water in the amphitheatre, with a thicket of live
shrubs, from which the beasts are to emerge. Your taste,
illustrious Hippias, the people say, is perfect. It has ob-
viously been consulted here."

Hippias smiled mysteriously, and a little scornfully.

" There is a lion from Libya," said he ; "I can tell you
thus much. I, myself, saw him fed only yesterday at sunset."

" Is he large ? is he strong ? is he fierce ? " questioned the
two almost in a breath. "When did he come? is he quite
full-grown ? will they keep him without flesh ? Of course the
shepherds are not to be armed? Will they be condemned
criminals, or only paid gladiators ? Not that it matters much,
if the lion is a pretty good one. We had a tiger, you know,
last year, that killed five Ethiopian slaves, though they all set
on him at once."

" But they were unarmed," interrupted Euchenor, whose
cheek had turned a shade paler during the discussion. " Give

A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS

me the proper weapons, and I fear no beast that walks the
earth."

" Unarmed, of course ! " repeated Damasippus, " and so
was the tiger. A more beautiful creature was never seen.
Do you not remember, Oarses, how he waved his long tail
and stroked his face with his paws, like a kitten before it
begins to play? And then, when he made his spring, the
first black was rolled up like a ball ? I was in the fifth row,
my friends, yet I heard his bones crack, distinctly, even
there."

" He was a great loss, that tiger," observed Oarses, more
sadly than usual ; " they should never have pitted him against
a tusked elephant. The moment I saw the ivory, I knew
how the fight must end, and I wagered against the smaller
animal directly. I would have lost my sesterces, I think,
willingly, for it to have won; but the beautiful beast never
had a chance."

" It was the weight that did it, patrons — the weight,"
observed Hirpinus. " Man or beast, I will explain to you
that weight must always" —

But here the gladiator's dissertation was broken off by the
movement of the crimson hangings, and the appearance of
Placidus emerging on his leve*e of expectants, bright and
handsome, ready dressed for the day.

The tribune owned one advantage at least, which is of no
small service to a man who embarks on a career demanding
constant energy and watchfulness ; he possessed that good
digestion which is proverbially held to accompany an elastic
conscience and a hard heart. Though supper the previous
evening had been a luxurious and protracted meal — though
the winecup had passed round very often, and the guests
with singing brains had shown themselves in their own
characters to their cool-headed and designing host — the
latter, refreshed by a night's rest, now appeared with the
glow of health on his cheek, and its lustre in his eye. As he
looked about him on the throng of clients and dependants,
his snow-white gown fastened and looped up with gold, his
mantle adorned with a broad violet hem, his hair and beard
carefully perfumed and arranged, a murmur of applause went
round the circle which, perhaps, for once was really sincere,
and even the rough gladiators could not withhold their
approbation from a figure that was at once so richly attired,
so manly, and so refined.

" Hail, my friends ! " said the tribune, pausing in the
entrance, and looking graciously around him on the crowd.

EROS

" Hail, patron ! " answered a multitude of voices, in every
key, from the subdued and polished treble of Oarses to the
deep hoarse voice of the gladiators.

Placidus moved from one to the other, with an easy
though dignified cordiality of manner which he well knew
how to assume when disposed to cultivate the favour of his
inferiors. Clear-headed and discerning, in a wonderfully
short space of time he had despatched the various matters
which constituted the business of his morning lev^e. He had
admired the model, declined the painting, ordered the statue,
bought the jewels, answered the fair suppliant's message, and
secured the mullet by sending to the market for it at once.
The honest countrymen, too, he dismissed sufficiently well
pleased, considering they had received nothing more sub-
stantial than smiles ; and he now turned leisurely to Hippias,
as if life had no duty so engrossing as the pursuit of pleasure,
and asked him eagerly after the training of his gladiators, and
the prospects of the amphitheatre.

Hippias knew his own value; he conversed with the
patrician as an equal ; but Hirpinus and Euchenor, appreci-
ating the worth of a rich patron, gazed on Placidus with
intense respect and admiration. The latter, especially,
watched the tribune with his bright cunning eye, as if pre-
pared to plant a blow on the first unguarded place.

" But your swordsmen are all too well known," urged the
patrician on the fencing-master. " Here is old Hirpinus
covers his whole body with two feet of steel as if it were a
complete suit of armour, and never takes his point off his
adversary's heart the while. The others are nearly as wary ;
if they encounter ordinary fencers they are sure to conquer ;
if we match them against each other and the people would
see blood drawn, they must fight blindfolded,1 and it becomes
a matter of mere chance. No, what we want is a new man —
one whom we can train without his being discovered, and
bring out as an unknown competitor to try for the Emperor's
prize. What say you, Hippias ? 'Tis the only chance for a
winning game now."

" I have heard of such a one," answered Hippias. " I
think I can lay my hand on an untried blade, that a few
weeks' training will polish up into the keenest weapon we
have sharpened yet; at least, so Hirpinus informs me.
What say'st thou, old Trojan? Tell the patron how thou
earnest to light on thy match at last."

Thus adjured, the veteran gladiator related at considerable

1 This inhuman practice was actually in vogue.
78

A TRIBUNE OF THE LEGIONS

length, interrupted by many exclamations of wonder from
Damasippus and Oarses, his chance meeting with Esca in the
Forum, and subsequent trial of strength and skill at the
gymnasium. Somewhat verbose, as we have seen, when he
could secure an audience, Hirpinus waxed eloquent on so
congenial a theme as the beauty and stature of his new
friend. " As strong as an ox, patron," said he, " and as lithe
as a panther ! Hand, and foot, and eye, all keeping time
together like a dancing girl's. The spring of a wild-cat, and
the light footfall of a deer. Then he would look so well in
the arena, with his fair young face, set on his towering neck,
like that of the son of Peleus. Indeed, if he should be
vanquished, the women would save him every time. Why,
one of the fairest and the noblest ladies in Rome stopped her
litter in the crowded street while we walked together, and
bade him come and speak to her from sheer goodwill. In
faith, he was as tall, and twice as handsome, as the very
Liburnians who carried her on their shoulders."

The tribune was laughing heartily at the athlete's
eloquence ; but Damasippus, who never took his eyes off his
patron's face, thought the evil laugh was more malicious than
usual at the mention of the Liburnians, and there was a false
ring in the mirthful tones with which he asked for more
information as to this young Apollo, and the dame on whom
his appearance seemed to have made such an impression.

" I know most of the great ladies pretty well by sight,"
answered the honest swordsman. " Faith, a man does not
easily forget the faces he sees turned on him in the arena,
when he has his point at his adversary's throat, and they bid
him drive it merrily home, and never spare. But of all the
faces I see under the awning, there's not one looks down so
calm and beautiful on a death-struggle as that of the noble
Valeria."

" Like the moon on the torrent of Anio," observed Dama-
sippus.

" Like the stars on the stormy Egean," echoed Oarses.

"Like nothing but herself," continued Hirpinus, who
esteemed his own judgment incontrovertible on all matters
relating to physical beauty, whether male or female. " The
handsomest face and the finest form in Rome. It was not
likely I could be mistaken, though I only caught a glimpse
of her neck and arm for a moment, as she drew back the
curtains of her litter, like" — and here Hirpinus paused for
a simile, concluding with infinite relish, — " like a blade half
drawn, and returned with a clash into the sheath."

EROS

Again Damasippus thought he perceived a quiver on his
patron's face. Again there was something jarring in the
tribune's voice, as he said to Hippias —

" We must not let this new Achilles escape us ! See to it,
Hippias. Who knows ? He may make a worthy successor,
even for thee, thou artist in slaughter, when he has worked
his way up, step by step, and victory by victory, to the
topmost branch of the tree."

Hippias laughed good-humouredly, turning at the same
time his right thumb outward, and pointing with it to the
roof. It was the gesture with which the Roman crowd in the
amphitheatre refused quarter to the combatant who was
down.

CHAPTER XI

STOLEN WATERS

broken column of one of the buildings destroyed in
_ the great fire of Rome, and not yet restored, was
glowing crimson in the setting sun. Beneath its base, the
Tiber was gliding gently on towards the sea. There was a
subdued hum even in the streets of the Imperial City that
denoted how the burden and heat of the day were now past ;
and the languor of the hour seemed to pervade even those
who were compelled to toil on in the struggle for bread, and
who could only in imagination abandon themselves to repose.
On a fragment of the ruin sat Esca, gazing intently on the
water as it stole by. To all appearance his listless and
dreamy mood was unconscious of surrounding objects, yet
his attitude was that of one prepared to start into action at a
moment's notice ; and though his arms were folded and his
head bent down, his ear was watching eagerly to catch the
faintest sound.

It is a patience-wearing process, that same waiting for
a woman ; and under the most favourable circumstances is
productive of much irritation, disappointment, and disgust.
In the first place a man is invariably too soon, and this
knowingly and as it were with malice prepense. Taking time
thus by the forelock, delays his flight considerably, and
indeed reduces his pace to the slowest possible crawl ; so that
when the appointed moment does arrive, it seems to the
watcher that it has been past a considerable period, and that
his vigil should be already over, when in reality it is only
just begun. Then, as the minutes steal on, come the different
misgivings and suspicions which only arise on such occasions,
and which in his right senses the self-torturer would be
incapable of harbouring. Circumstances which, when the
appointment was made, seemed expressly adapted to further
his designs, now change to insurmountable difficulties, or
take their place as links in a chain of deception which he
persuades himself has been forged with unheard-of duplicity,
F 81

EROS

expressly for his discomfiture. He thinks badly of everyone,
worst of all of her, whose unpardonable fault is that she is
now some fifty seconds late. Then comes a revulsion of
feeling, and his heart leaps to his mouth, for yonder, emerging
on the long perspective, is a female figure obviously advancing
this way. The expected object is tall, slim, pliant, and walks
with the firm free step of a deer on the heather. The
advancing shape is short, fat, awkward, and waddles in its
gait ; nevertheless, it is not till it has reached within arm's
length that he will allow himself to be convinced of his
disappointment. If its ears are pretty quick, the unoffending
figure may well be shocked at the deep and startling execra-
tion which its presence calls forth. Then begins another
phase of despondency, humiliation, and bitter self-contempt,
through all which pleasant changes of feeling the old feverish
longing remains as strong as ever. At last she comes round
the corner in good earnest, with the well-known smile in her
eyes, the well-known greeting on her lips, and he forgets in
an instant, as if they had never been, his anxiety, his anger,
his reproaches, all but the presence that brings light to his
life and gladness to his heart once more.

Esca rose impatiently at intervals, walked a few paces to
and fro, sat down again, and threw small fragments of the
ruin into the water. Presently a figure, draped in black and
closely veiled, moved down to the river's side near where the
Briton sat, and began filling a pitcher from the stream. It
could hardly have passed the column without seeing him, yet
did it seem unconscious of his presence ; and who could tell
how the heart might be beating within the bosom, or the
cheek blushing behind the veil ? That veil was lifted, how-
ever, with an exclamation of surprise, when Esca stooped
over her to take the pitcher from her hand, and Mariamne's
cheek turned paler now than it had been even on the
memorable night when he rescued her from the grasp of
Spado and his fellow-bacchanals. He, too, murmured some
vague words of astonishment at finding her here. If they
were honest, for whom could he have been waiting so
impatiently? and it is possible, besides, Mariamne might
have been a little disappointed had she been allowed to fill
her pitcher from the Tiber for herself.

The Jewess had been thinking about him a good deal
more than she intended, a good deal more than she knew,
for the last two days. It is strange how very insensibly such
thoughts gain growth and strength without care or culture.
There are plants we prune and water every day which never

STOLEN WATERS

reach more than a sickly and stunted vitality after all, and
there are others that we trample down, cut over, tear up by
the very roots, which nevertheless attain such vigour and
luxuriance that our walls are covered by their tendrils, and
our dwellings pervaded by their fragrance.

Mariamne was no bigoted daughter of Judah, for whom
the stranger was an outcast because a heathen. Her constant
intercourse with Calchas had taught her nobler truths than
she had derived from the traditions of her fathers. And with
all her pride of race and national predilections, she had
imbibed those principles of charity and toleration which
formed the groundwork of a new religion, destined to shed
its light upon all the nations of the earth.

It was not precisely as a brother, though, that Mariamne
had yet brought herself to regard the handsome British slave.
They were soon conversing happily together. The embar-
rassment of meeting had disappeared with the first affectation
of surprise. It was not long before he told her how tired
he had been of watching by the broken column at the river-
side.

" How could you know I should come here ? " asked the
girl with a look of infinite simplicity and candour, though
she must have remembered all the time, that she had not
scrupled to hint at the daily practice in course of conversa-
tion with Calchas, on the night when Esca brought her safely
home.

" I hoped it," he replied, with a smile. " I have been a
hunter, you know, and have learned that the shyest and
wildest of animals seek the waterside at sunset. I was here
yesterday, and waited two long hours in vain."

She glanced quickly at him, but withdrew her eyes imme-
diately, while the blood mounted to her pale face.

" Did you expect to see me ? " she asked in a trembling
voice ; " and I never left the house the whole of yesterday !
Oh, how I wish I had known it ! "

Then she stopped in painful embarrassment, as having
said too much. He appeared not to notice her confusion.
He seemed to have some confession to make on his own part
— something he hardly dared to tell her, yet which his honest
nature could not consent should be withheld. At last he said
with an effort —

" You know what I am ! My time is not my own, my
very limbs belong to another. It matters not that the
master is kind, good, and considerate. Mariamne, I am a
slave ! "

EROS

" I know it," she answered, very gently, with a loving
pity beaming in her dark eyes. " My kinsman Calchas told
me as much after you went away."

He drew a long breath as if relieved.

" And yet you wished to see me again ? " he asked, while
a gleam of happiness brightened his face.

" Why not ? " she replied, with a kind smile. " Though
that hand is a slave's, it struck my enemy down with the
force of a hundred warriors ; though that arm is a slave's, it
bore me home with the care and tenderness of a woman.
Ah ! tell me not of slavery when the limbs are strong, and
the heart is brave and pure. Though the body be chained
with iron fetters, what matter so long as the spirit is free ?
Esca, you do not believe I think the worse of you because
you are a heathen and a slave ? "

Her voice was very soft and low while she spoke his
name. No voice had ever sounded so sweetly in his ears
before. A new, strange sense of happiness seemed to pervade
his whole being, yet he had never felt his situation so galling
and unendurable as now.

" I would not have you think the worse of me," he
answered eagerly, "upon any account. Listen, Mariamne.
I was taken captive in war and brought here with a hundred
others to Rome. We were set up like cattle in the slave-
market. Like cattle also we were purchased, one by one, by
those who esteemed themselves practised judges of such human
wares. I was bought by Caius Lucius Licinius at the price
of a yoke of oxen, or a couple of chariot-horses. Bought and
sold like a beast of the field, and driven home to my new
master ! "

He spoke with a scorn all the more bitter from having
been repressed so long. Yet he kept back and smothered
the indignation rising within him. This was the first ear that
had ever been open to his wrongs, and the temptation was
strong to pour them freely forth to so interested and partial
a listener. To do him justice, he refrained from the indul-
gence. He had been taught from childhood that it was weak
and womanish to complain ; and the man had not forgotten
the lessons of the boy.

Her gentle voice again interposed in soothing and con-
soling accents.

" But he is kind," she said, " kind and considerate — you
told me so yourself. I could not bear to think him otherwise.
Indeed, Esca, it would make me very unhappy to know that
you"—

STOLEN WATERS

Here she broke off suddenly, and snatched up the pitcher
he had been rilling for her with such haste as to spill half its
contents over his dress and her own.

" There is someone watching us ! Farewell ! " she
whispered in a breathless, frightened voice, and hurried away,
turning her head once, however, to cast a glance over her
shoulder, and then hastened home faster than before. Esca
looked after her while she continued in sight, either uncon-
scious of their vicinity, or at all events not noticing a pair of
bold black eyes that were fixed upon him with an expression
of arch and ludicrous surprise. He turned angrily, however,
upon the intruder, when the black eyes had gazed their fill,
and their owner burst out into a loud, merry, and mocking
laugh.

CHAPTER XII

MYRRHINA

MYRRHINA'S voice was at all times pitched in a high
key ; her accents were very distinct and shrill,
admirably adapted for the expression of derision or the
conveyance of sarcastic remarks.

" So I have run you into a corner at last," she said, " and
a pretty hunt you have given me. "Pis to draw water, of
course, that you come down to the Tiber-side, just at sunset ;
and you met her quite by accident, I daresay, that slip of a
girl in her wisp of black clothes, who flitted away just now like
a ghost going back again to Proserpine. Ah ! you gape like a
calf when they put the garland on him for sacrifice, and the
poor thing munches the very flower-buds that deck him for
destruction. Well, you at least are reserved for a nobler
altar, and a worthier fate than to give your last gasp to a
sorceress in the suburbs. Jupiter ! how you stare, and how
handsome you look, you great, strong barbarian, when you
are thoroughly surprised ! "

She put her face so close up to his, to laugh at him, that
the gesture almost amounted to a caress. Myrrhina had no
slight inclination to make love to the stalwart Briton on her
own account, pending the conclusion of certain negotiations
she felt bound to carry out on her mistress's. These were
the result of a conversation held that morning while the
maid was as usual combing out her lady's long and beautiful
hair.

Valeria's sleep had been broken and restless. She tossed
and turned upon her pillow, and put back the hair from her
fevered cheeks and throbbing temples in vain. It was weary
work to lie gazing with eyes wide open at the flickering
shadows cast by the night-lamp on the opposite wall. It was
still less productive of sleep to shut them tight and abandon
herself to the vision thus created, which stood out in life-like
colours and refused to be dispelled. Do what she would to
forget him, and conjure up some other object, there was the

MYRRHINA

young barbarian, towering like a demigod over the mean
effeminate throng; there were the waving linen garments,
and the reeling symbols, and the tossing hands, and the
scowling faces of the priests of Isis ; there was the dark-clad
girl with her graceful pliant form ; and there, yes, always
there, in his maddening beauty, was the tall brave figure,
gathering itself in act to strike. She could not analyse her
feelings; she believed herself bewitched. Valeria had not
reached the prime of her womanhood, without having
sounded, as she thought, every chord of feeling, tasted of
every cup that promised gratification or excitement She
had been flattered by brave, courted by handsome, and
admired by clever men. Some she fancied, some she liked,
some she laughed at, and some she told herself she loved.
But this was a new sensation altogether. This intense and
passionate longing she had never felt before. But for its
novelty it would have been absolutely painful. A timid girl
might have been frightened at it ; but Valeria was no timid
girl. She was a woman, on the contrary, who, with all the
eagerness and impetuosity of her sex, possessed the tenacity
of purpose and the resolution of a man. Obviously, as she
could not conquer the sentiment, it was her nature to
indulge it.

" I have a message to Licinius," said she, turning at the
same time from the mirror, and suffering her long brown hair
to fall over her face like a veil ; " a message that I do not
care to write, lest it should be seen by other eyes. Tell me,
Myrrhina, how can I best convey it to my kinsman ? "

The waiting-maid was far too astute to suggest the
obvious arrangement of a private interview, than which
nothing could have been easier, or to offer her own services,
as an emissary who had already proved herself trustworthy
in many a well-conducted intrigue ; for Myrrhina knew her
business too well to hesitate in playing into the hands of her
mistress. So she assumed a look of perplexity and deep
reflection while, finger on forehead, as the result of profound
thought, she made the following reply —

" It would be safest, madam, would it not, to trust the
matter to some confidential slave ? "

Valeria's heart was beating fast, and the fair cheek was pale
again now, while she answered, with studied carelessness —

" Perhaps it would, if I could think of one. You know
his household, Myrrhina. Can I safely confide in any of them?"

"Those barbarians are generally faithful," observed the
maid, with the most unconscious air. " I know Licinius has

EROS

a British slave in whom he places considerable trust. You
have seen him yourself, madam."

" Have I ? " answered Valeria, moving restlessly into a
more comfortable attitude. " Should I know him again ?
What' is he like?"

The blood had once more mounted to her forehead,
beneath the long hair. Myrrhina, who was behind her, saw
the crimson mantling even on her neck. She was a slave,
and a waiting-maid, but she was also a woman, and she
could not resist the temptation ; so she answered maliciously —

" He is a big awkward-looking youth, of lofty stature,
madam, and with light curly hair. Stupid doubtless, and as
trusty, probably, as he is thick-witted."

It is not safe to jest with a tigress unless you are outside
the bars of her cage. Valeria made a quick impatient move-
ment that warned the speaker she had gone too far. The
latter was not wanting in readiness of resource.

" I could bring him here, madam," she added demurely,
" within six hours."

Her lady smiled pleasantly enough.

" This evening, Myrrhina," she said ; " I shall scarcely be
ready before. By the way, I am tired of those plain gold
bracelets. Take them away, and don't let me see them
again. This evening, you said. I suppose I, had better
leave it entirely to you."

Both maid and mistress knew what this meant well. It
implied full powers and handsome remuneration on one side,
successful manoeuvring and judicious blindness on the other.
Valeria disposed herself for a long day's dreaming : stretched
indeed in bodily repose, but agitating her mind with all the
harassing alternations of anticipation, and hope, and doubt,
and fear — not without a considerable leavening of triumph,
and a slight tinge of shame: while Myrrhina set herself
energetically to work on the task she had undertaken ; which,
indeed, appeared to possess its difficulties, when she had
ascertained at the first place she sought, namely, the house
of Licinius, that Esca was abroad, and no one knew in what
direction he was likely to be found.

A woman's wit, however, usually derives fresh stimulus
from opposition. Myrrhina was not without a large circle
of acquaintances ; and amongst others owned a staunch friend,
and occasional admirer, in the person of Hirpinus, the gladiator.
That worthy took a sufficient interest in the athletic Briton
to observe his movements, and was aware that Esca had
spent some two or three hours by the Tiber-side on the

MYRRHINA

previous evening — a fact which he imparted to Myrrhina, on
cross-examination by the latter, readily enough, professing
at the same time his own inability to account for it, inasmuch
as there was neither wineshop nor quoit-ground in the
vicinity. Not so his intriguing little questioner. "A man
does not wait two or three hours in one spot," thought
Myrrhina, "for anything but a woman. Also, the woman,
if she comes at all, is never so far behind her time. The
probability then is, that she disappointed him ; and the
conclusion, that he will be there again about sunset the
following day."

Thus arguing, she resolved to attend at the trysting-place,
and make a third in the interview, whether welcome or not ;
killing the intervening time, which might otherwise have
hung heavily on her hands, by a series of experiments
on the susceptibility of Hirpinus — an amusing pastime, but
wanting in excitement from its harmlessness ; for the gladiator
had arrived at that period of life when outward charms, at
least, are esteemed at their real value, and a woman must
possess something more than a merry eye and a saucy lip
if she would hope to rival the attraction of an easy couch and
a flagon of old wine. Nevertheless, she laughed, and jested,
and ogled, keeping her hand in, as it were, for practice against
worthier occasions, till it was time to depart on her errand,
when she made her escape from her sluggish admirer, with
an excuse as false and as plausible as the smile on her lip.

Hirpinus looked after her as she flitted away, laughed,
shook his head, and strode heavily off to the wineshop, with
an arch expression of amusement on his brave, good-humoured,
and somewhat stupid face. Myrrhina, drawing a veil about
her head and shoulders so as effectually to conceal her
features, proceeded to thread her way through the labyrinth
of impoverished streets that led to the riverside, as if familiar
with their intricacies. When she reached her destination at
last, she easily hid herself in a convenient lurking-place, from
which she took care not to emerge till she had learned all
she wished to know about Esca and his companion.

"What do you want with me?" asked the Briton, a
little disturbed by this saucy apparition, and not much
pleased with the waiting-maid's familiar and malicious air.

" I am unwelcome, doubtless," answered the girl, with
another peal of laughter ; " nevertheless you must come with
me whether you will or no. We Roman maidens take no
denial, young man ; we are not like your tall, pale, frozen
women of the north."

EROS

Subscribing readily to this opinion, Esca felt indignant
at the same time to be so completely taken possession of.
" I have no leisure," said he, " to attend upon your fancies.
I must homeward ; it is already nearly supper time."

" And you are a slave, I know," retorted Myrrhina with
a gesture of supreme and provoking contempt. "A slave!
You, with your strength, and stature, and courage, cannot
call an hour of this fine cool evening your own."

" I know it," said he, bowing his head to conceal the flush
of indignation that had risen to his brow. " I know it. A
slave must clean his master's platter, and fill his cup to
drink."

She could see that her thrust had pierced home; but
with all her predilections for his handsome person, she cared
not how she wounded the manly heart within.

" And being a slave," she resumed, " you may be loaded
and goaded like a mule ! You may be kicked and beaten
like a dog ! You cannot even resent it with hoofs and fangs
as the dumb animal does when his treatment is harsher than
he deserves ! You are a man, you know, though a barbarian !
You must cringe, and whine, and bite your lips, and be
patient ! "

Every syllable from that sharp tongue seemed to sting
him like a wasp : his whole frame quivered with anger at
her taunts ; but he scorned to show it, and putting a strong
constraint upon his feelings, he only asked quietly —

" What would you with me ? It was not to tell me this
that you watched and tracked me here."

Myrrhina thought she had now brought the metal to a
sufficiently high temperature for fusion. She proceeded to
mould it accordingly.

" I tracked you here," she said, " because I wanted you.
I wanted you, because it is in my power to render you a
great service. Listen, Esca ; you must come with me. It
is not every man in Rome would require so much persuasion
to follow the steps of a pretty girl."

She looked very arch and tempting while she spoke, but
her attractions were sadly wasted on the preoccupied Briton ;
and if she expected to win from him any overt act of
admiration or encouragement, she was wofully disappointed.

" I cannot follow yours," said he ; " my way lies in another
direction. You have yourself reminded me that I am not
my own master."

"That is the very reason," she exclaimed, clapping her
hands exultingly. " I can show you the way to freedom.

MYRRHINA

No one else can help you but Myrrhina ; and if you attend
to her directions you can obtain your liberty without delay."

"And why should you be disposed to confer on me such
a benefit ? " he asked, with instinctive caution, for the impulsive
nature that jumps so hastily to conclusions, and walks open-
eyed into a trap, is rarely born north of the Alps. " I am
a barbarian, a stranger, almost an enemy. What have you
and I in common ? "

" Perhaps I have fallen in love with you myself," she laughed
out ; " perhaps you may be able to serve me in return. Come,
you are as cold as the icy climate in which you were bred.
You shall take your choice of the two reasons ; only waste
no more time, but gird yourself and follow me."

Though it had never been dormant, the desire for liberty
had, within the last two days, acquired a painful intensity
in Esca's breast. He had not indeed yet confessed to
himself that he cherished an ardent attachment for Mariamne ;
but he was conscious that her society possessed for him an
undefinable attraction, and that without her neither liberty
nor anything else would be worth having. This new sensation
made his position more galling than it had ever been before.
He could not ignore the fact, that it was absurd for one
whose existence was not his own, to devote that existence
to another ; and the degradation of slavery, which his lord's
kindness had veiled from him as much as possible while
in his household, now appeared in all its naked deformity.
He felt that no effort would be too desperate, no sacrifice too
costly, to make for liberty; and that he would readily risk
life itself, and lose it, to be free, if only for a week.

" You have seen my mistress," resumed Myrrhina, as they
hurried on through the now darkening streets ; " the fairest
lady and the most powerful in Rome; a near kinswoman,
too, of your master. It needs but a word from her to make
of you what she pleases. But she is wilful, you must know,
and imperious, and cannot bear to be contradicted. Few
women can."

Esca had yet to learn this peculiarity of the sex ; but he
heard Myrrhina mention her mistress with vague misgivings,
and forebodings of evil far different from the unmixed
feelings of interest such a communication would have called
forth a while ago.

" Did she send for me expressly ? " he asked, with some
anxiety of tone. " And how did you know where to find me
in such a town as this ? "

" I know a great many things," replied the laughing

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damsel ; " but I do not choose everyone to be as wise as
myself. I will answer both your questions, though, if you
will answer one of mine in return. Valeria did not mention
you by name, and yet I think there is no other man in Rome
would serve her turn but yourself; and I knew that I should
find you by Tiber -side, because you cannot keep a goose
from the water, nor a fool from his fate. Will you answer
my question as frankly? Do you love the dark pale girl
that fled away so hastily when I discovered you together ? "

This was exactly what he had been asking himself the
whole evening, with no very conclusive result; it was not
likely, therefore, that Myrrhina should elicit a satisfactory
reply. The Briton coloured a little, hesitated, and gave an
evasive answer.

" Like tends to like," said he. " What is there in common
between two strangers, from the two farthest extremities
of the empire?"

Myrrhina clapped her hands in triumph.

" Like tends to like, say you ? " she exclaimed exultingly.
" You will tell another tale ere an hour be past. Hush ! be
silent now, and step softly ; but follow close behind me. It
is very dark in here, under the trees."

Thus cautioning him, she led Esca through a narrow
door out of the by -street, into which they had diverged,
and stepped briskly on, with a confidence born of local
knowledge that he imitated with difficulty. They were now
in a thickly planted shrubbery which effectually excluded
the rays of a rising moon, and in which it was scarce possible
to distinguish even Myrrhina's white dress. Presently they
emerged upon a smooth and level lawn, shut in by a black
group of cedars, through the lower branches of which peeped
the crescent moon that had not long left the horizon, and
turning the corner of a colonnade, under a ghostly-looking
statue, traversed another door, which opened softly to
Myrrhina's touch, and admitted them into a long carpeted
passage, with a lamp at the farther end.

" Stay here while I fetch a light," whispered the damsel ;
and, gliding away for that purpose, returned presently to
conduct Esca through a large dark hall into another passage ;
where she stopped abruptly, and lifting some silken hangings,
that served for the door of an apartment, simply observed,
" You will find food and wine there," and pushed him in.

Floods of soft and mellow light dazzled his eyes at first ;
but he soon realised the luxurious beauty of the retreat into
which he had been forced. It was obvious that all the

MYRRHINA

resources of wealth had been applied to its decoration with
a lavish hand, guided by a woman's sensibility and a woman's
taste. The walls were painted in frescoes of the richest
colouring, and represented the most alluring scenes. Here
the three jealous goddesses flashed upon bewildered Paris,
in all the lustre of their immortal charms. A living envy
sat on Juno's brow ; a living scorn was stamped on Minerva's
pale, proud face; and the living smile that won her the
golden apple, shone in Aphrodite's winning eyes. There
glowed imperial Circe1 in her magic splendour ; and the very
victims of her spell seemed yet to crave, with fiery glances
and with thirsty lips, for one more draught from the tempting;
luscious, and degrading cup. A shapely Endymion lay
stretched in dreams of love. A frightened Leda shrank
while she caressed. Here fair Adonis bled to death, ripped
by the monster in the forest glade ; there, where the broad-
leaved lilies lay sleeping on the shady pool, bent fond
Narcissus, to look and long his life away ; an infant Bacchus
rolled amongst the grapes, in bronze ; a little Cupid mourned
his broken bow, in marble. Around the cornices a circle of
nymphs and satyrs, in bas-relief, danced hand-in-hand — wild
woodland creatures, exulting in all the luxuriance of beauty,
all the redundancy of strength ; and yonder, just where the
lamp cast its softest light on her attractions, stood the like-
ness of Valeria herself, depicted by the cunning painter in a
loose flowing robe that enhanced, without concealing, the
stately proportions of her figure, and in an attitude essentially
her own — an attitude expressive of dormant passion, lulled
by the languid insolence of power, and tinged with an
imperious coquetry that she had found to be the most
alluring of her charms.

It was bad enough to sit in that voluptuous room, under
that mellow light, drinking the daintiest produce of Falernia.n
vineyards, and gazing on such an image as Valeria's — an
image of one who, beyond all women, was calculated to
madden a heated brain, whose beauty could scarcely fail to
captivate the outward senses, and take the heart by storm.
It was bad enough to press the very couch of which the
cushions still retained the print of her form — to see the shawl
thrown across it, and trailing on the floor as though but now
flung off — to touch the open bracelet hastily unclasped, yet
warm from its contact with her arm. All this was bad
enough, but worse was still to come.

Esca was in the act of setting down the goblet he had
drained, and his eye was resting with an expression of

EROS

admiration, not to be mistaken, on the picture opposite, when
the rustling of the hangings caused him to turn his head.
There was no more attraction now in bounding nymph or
brilliant enchantress; haughty Juno, wise Minerva, and
laughing Venus with her sparkling girdle, had passed into
the shade. Valeria's likeness was no longer the masterpiece
of the apartment, for there in the doorway appeared the
figure of Valeria herself. Esca sprang to his feet, and thus
they stood, that noble pair, confronting each other in the
radiant light. The hostess and her guest — the lady and the
slave — the assailant and the assailed.

CHAPTER XIII

NOLENS — VOLENS

ALERIA trembled in every limb ;
yet should she have remained the
calmer of the two, inasmuch as
hers could scarcely have been the
agitation of surprise. Such a step,
indeed, as that on which she now
ventured, had not been taken
without much hesitation and many
changes of mind.

No woman, we believe, ever be-
comes utterly unsexed ; and the
process by which even the boldest
lose their instinctive modesty, is gradual in the extreme.
The power, too, of self-persuasion, which is so finely developed
in the whole human race, loses none of its efficacy in the
reasonings of the less logical and more impulsive half.
People do not usually plunge headlong into vice. The
shades are almost imperceptible by which the love of
admiration deepens into vanity, and vanity into imprudence,
and imprudence, especially if thwarted by advice and en-
couraged by opportunity, into crime. Nevertheless, the
stone that has once been set in motion, is pretty sure to reach
the bottom of the hill at last ; and " I might " grows to " I
will," and " I will," ere long, becomes " I must." Valeria's
first thought had only been to look again upon an exterior
that pleased her eye ; then she argued that having sent for
her kinsman's slave, there could be no harm in speaking to
him — indeed, it would seem strange if she did not ; and
under any circumstances, of course there was no occasion
that her colloquy should be overheard by all the maidens
of her establishment, or even by Myrrhina, who, trusty as
she might be, had a tongue of surpassing activity, and a love
of gossip not to be controlled.

She ignored, naturally enough, that any unusual interest

EROS

in the Briton should have caused her thus to summon him
into her own private and peculiar retreat ; thus to surround
him with all that was dazzling to the eye, and alluring to the
senses; thus to appear before him in the full glow of her
personal beauty, set off by all the accessories of dress, jewels,
lights, flowers, and perfumes, that she could command. If
she sent for him, it was but natural that he should find her
encircled by the usual advantages of her station. It was
no fault of hers, that these were gorgeous, picturesque, and
overpowering. He might as well blame the old Falernian
for its seduction of the palate, and its confusion of the brain.
Let him take care of himself! she would see him, speak to
him, smile on him, perhaps, and be guided by circumstances. A
wise resolution this last in all cases, and by no means difficult
to keep when the circumstances are under our own control.

Valeria, womanlike, was the first to speak, though she
scarcely knew what to say. With a very becoming air of
hesitation she kept clasping and unclasping a bracelet, the
fellow of the one on the couch. She was doubtless conscious
that her round white arm looked rounder and whiter in the
process.

" I have sent for you," she began, " because I am informed
I can rely implicitly on your truth and secrecy. You are
one, they tell me, who is incapable of betraying a trust. Is
it not so ? "

It is needless to say that Esca was already somewhat
bewildered with the events of the evening, and in a mood
not to be surprised at anything. Nevertheless, he could only
bow his head in acknowledgment of this tribute to his honesty,
and murmur a few indistinct syllables of assent. She seemed
to gain confidence now the ice was broken, and went on more
fluently.

"I have a secret to confide — a secret that none but
yourself must know. Honour, reputation, the fame of a
noble family, depend on its never being divulged. And yet
I am going to impart this secret to you. Am I not rash,
foolish, and impulsive, thus to place myself in the power of
one whom I know so little ? What must you think of me ?
What do you think of me ? "

The latter question, propounded with a deepening colour
and a glance that conveyed volumes, was somewhat difficult
to answer. He might have said, " Think of you ? Why, that
you are the most alluring mermaiden who ever tempted a
mariner to shipwreck on the rocks ! " But what he did say
was this —

NOLENS— VOLENS

" I have never feared man, nor deceived woman yet. I
am not going to begin now."

She was a little disappointed at the coldness of his
answer ; yet her critical eye could not but approve the proud
attitude he assumed, the stern look that came over his face,
while he spoke. She edged a little nearer him and went on
in a softened tone.

" A woman is always somewhat lonely and helpless, what-
ever may be her station, and oh ! how liable we are to be
deceived, and how we weep and wring our hands in vain
when it is so ! But I knewjjw* from the first. I can read
characters at a glance. Do you remember when I called
you to my litter in the street while you were walking with
Hirpinus, the gladiator ? "

Again that warm crimson in the cheek — again that
speaking flash from those dangerous eyes. Esca's head
was beginning to turn, and his heart to beat with a strange
sensation of excitement and surprise.

" I am not likely to forget it," said he, with a sort of
proud humility. " It was such an honour as is seldom paid
to one in my station."

She smiled on him more kindly than ever.

" I looked for you again," she murmured, " and saw you
not. I wanted one in whom I could confide. I have no
counsellor, no champion, no friend. I said what has
become of him? who else will do my bidding, and keep
my secret? Then Myrrhina told me that you would be
here to-night."

She seemed to have something more to say that would
not out. She looked at the Briton with expectant, almost
imploring eyes ; but Esca was young and frank and simple,
so he waited for her to go on, and Valeria, discouraged and
intimidated for the first time, proceeded in a colder and more
becoming tone.

" The packet with which I intrust you must be delivered
by yourself into the hands of Licinius. Not another creature
must set eyes on it. No one must know that you have
received it from me, nor, indeed, that you have been here
to-night. If necessary you must guard it with your life !
Can I depend upon you?"

He was beginning to feel that he could not depend upon
himself much longer. The lights, the perfumes, the locality,
the seductive beauty near him, so lovely and so kind, were
making wild work with his senses and his reason. Never-
theless, the whole position seemed so strange, so impossible,

G 97

EROS

that he could hardly believe he was awake. There was
plenty of pride in his character, but no leavening of vanity;
and, like many another gentle and inexperienced nature, he
shrank from offending a woman's delicacy, with a repugnance
that in some cases is exceedingly puzzling and provoking to
the woman herself. So he put a strong constraint upon his
feelings, and undertook the delivery of the missive with
incredible simplicity and composure. The statue of Hermes
at the door could not have looked colder and more impene-
trable. She was a little at a loss. She must detain him at
all hazards, for she felt that when once gone he would be gone
for ever. She determined to lead him into conversation ;
and she chose the topic which, originating, perhaps, in the
instinctive jealousy of a woman, was of all others the most
subversive of her plans."

" I saw you once again," she said, " but it was in the hurry
and confusion of that sudden broil. It was no fault of mine
that the priests committed so gross an outrage on the poor
thing you rescued. I would have helped you myself had you
required assistance, but you carried her off as an eagle takes
a kid. What became of the girl ? "

The question was accompanied by a sharp inquisitive
glance, and a forced smile of very perceptible annoyance
wreathed her lip when she perceived Esca's embarrassed
manner and reddening brow ; but she had unwittingly called
up the Briton's good genius, and for all women on earth, save
one, he was a man of marble once more.

" I placed her in safety with her father," he replied ;
adding, with an assumption of deep humility, "Will you
please to give me your commands and let me depart?"

Valeria was so totally unused to opposition in any of her
whims or caprices that she could scarcely believe this obvious
indifference was real. She persuaded herself that the Briton
was so overpowered by her condescension, as to be only
afraid of trespassing too far on such unexpected kindness,
and she resolved that it should be no fault of hers if he were
not quickly undeceived. She sank upon the couch in her
most bewitching attitude, and, looking fondly up in his face,
bade him fetch her tablets from the writing-stand. " For,"
said she, " I have not yet even prepared my communication
to Licinius. Shall you be very weary of me, if I keep you
my prisoner so long? "

Was it accident or design that entangled those rosy
fingers with Esca's, as she took the tablets from his hand ?
Was it accident or design that shook the hair off her face,

NOLENS— VOLENS

and loosed the rich brown clusters to fall across her glowing
neck and bosom ? It was surely strange that when she bent
over the tablets her cheek turned pale, and her hand shook
so that she could not form a letter on the yielding wax. She
beckoned him nearer and bent her head towards him till the
drooping curls trailed across his arm.

" I cannot write," said she, in trembling accents. " Some-
thing seems to oppress me — I am faint — I can scarcely
breathe — Myrrhina shall give you the missive to-morrow.
In the meantime, we are alone. Esca, you will not betray
me. I can depend upon you. You are my slave, is it not
so ? This shall be your manacle ! "

While she yet spoke, she took the bracelet from her arm
and tried to clasp it round his wrist ; but the glittering fetter
was too narrow for the large-boned Briton, and she could not
make it meet. Pressing it hard with both hands, she looked
up in his face and laughed.

One responsive glance, the faintest shadow of yielding on
those impassible features, and she would have told him all.
But it came not. He shook the bracelet from his arm ; and
while he did so, she recovered herself, with the instantaneous
self-command women seem to gather from an emergency.

" It was but to try your honesty ! " she said, very haughtily,
and rising to her feet. " A man who is not to be tempted,
even by gold, can be safely trusted in such an affair as mine.
You may go now," she added, with the slightest bend of her
head. " To-morrow, if I require you, I shall take care that
you hear from me through Myrrhina."

She looked after him as he disappeared under the silken
hangings of the portal, her face quivered, her bosom heaved,
and she clenched both hands till the round white arms grew
hard as marble. Then she bit her lip once, savagely, and so
seemed to regain her accustomed composure, and the usual
dignity of her bearing. Nevertheless, when the despised
bracelet caught her eye, lying neglected on the couch, she
dashed it fiercely down, and stamped upon it, and crushed
and ground the jewel beneath her heel against the floor.

CHAPTER XIV

CLESAR

WHEN a woman feels herself scorned, her first impulse
seems to be revenge at any price. Some morbid
sentiment, which the other sex can hardly fathom, usually
prompts her in such cases to select for her instrument the
man whom in her heart she loathes and despises, whose
society is an insult, and whose attentions are a disgrace.
Thus lowering herself in her own esteem, she knows that she
inflicts a poisoned wound on the offender.

With all Valeria's self-command, her feelings had nearly
got the better of her before Esca left the house. Had it
been so, she would never have forgiven herself. But she
managed to restrain them, and preserved an outward com-
posure even while Myrrhina prepared her for repose. That
damsel was much puzzled by the upshot of her manoeuvres.
From a method of her own, which long practice rendered
familiar, she had made herself acquainted with all that
occurred between her mistress and the handsome slave.
Why their interview should have had no more definite result,
she was at a loss to conceive. Altogether, Myrrhina was
inclined to think that Esca had been so captivated by her
own charms, as to be insensible to those of Valeria. This
flattering supposition opened up a perspective of hazard,
intrigue, and cross-purposes, that it was delicious to con-
template. The maid retired to her couch exulting. The
mistress writhed in an agony of wounded pride and shame.

Morning, however, brought its unfailing accession of
clear-sightedness and practical resolve. There are hours
of the night in which we can abandon ourselves to love,
hatred, despair, or sorrow with a helplessness that possesses
in it some of the elements of repose ; but with dawn reality
resumes her sway, and the sufferer is indeed to be pitied, who
can turn away from daylight without an impulse to be up
and doing, who wishes only, in the lethargy of utter desola-
tion, that it was evening once more.

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C^SAR

Valeria was not a woman to pass over the slight she had
sustained. Few of them but will forgive an injury more
readily than an insult. Long before she rose she had made
up her mind where, and when, and how to strike; nothing
remained but to select the weapon, and put a keener edge
upon the steel. Now Valeria had long been aware, that, as
far as was compatible with his disposition, Julius Placidus
was devoted to her service. Indeed, he had told her so
many a time, with an assumption of off-hand gallantry
which, perhaps, she estimated at less than its proper value.
Nevertheless, the compliments she received from the tribune
were scarcely so well turned as might be expected from a
man of his outward polish, refined manners, and general bad
character. The woman's ear could detect the ring of truth,
amidst all the jingle that accompanied it; and Valeria felt
that the tribune loved her as much as it was possible for him
to love anything but himself. To do her justice, she liked
him none the better on that account. He was a man whom
she must have hated under any circumstances, but perhaps
she despised him a little less for this one redeeming quality
of good taste. Here was a weapon, however, keen, and
strong, and pliant, placed moreover, so to speak,' within reach
of her hand. She rose and dressed, languid, haughty, and
composed as usual ; but Myrrhina, who knew her, remarked a
red spot burning on either cheek, and once a shudder, as of
intense cold, passed over her, though it was a sunny morning
in Rome.

Julius Placidus received a letter ere noon that seemed to
afford him infinite satisfaction. The gilded chariot flashed
brighter than ever in the sun, the white horses whirled it like
lightning through the streets. Automedon's curls floated on
the breeze, and the boy was even more insolent than usual
without rebuke. Lolling on his velvet cushions the tribune's
smile seemed to have lost something of its malice ; and though
the tiger-look was on him still, it was that of the sleek and
satisfied tiger who has been fed. That look never left him
all day, while he transacted business in the Forum, while he
showed his grace and agility at ball in the Fives' Court, while
he reposed after his exertions at the bath ; but it was more
apparent still when the hour of supper arrived, and he took
his place in the banqueting-hall of Csesar, with some of the
bravest soldiers, the noblest senators, the greatest statesmen,
wits, gluttons, and profligates in the empire.

A banquet with Vitellius was no light and simple repast.
Leagues of sea and miles of forest had been swept to furnish

101

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the mere groundwork of the entertainment. Hardy fishermen
had spent their nights on the heaving wave, that the giant
turbot might flap its snowy flakes on the Emperor's table
broader than its broad dish of gold. Many a swelling hill,
clad in the dark oak coppice, had echoed to ringing shout of
hunter, and deep-mouthed bay of hound, ere the wild boar
yielded his grim life by the morass, and the dark grisly
carcass was drawn off to provide a standing-dish that was
only meant to gratify the eye. Even the peacock roasted in
its feathers was too gross a dainty for epicures who studied
the art of gastronomy under Caesar ; and that taste would
have been considered rustic in the extreme, which could
partake of more than the mere fumes and savour of so sub-
stantial a dish. A thousand nightingales had been trapped
and killed, indeed, for this one supper, but brains and tongues
were all they contributed to the banquet, while even the wing
of a roasted hare would have been considered far too coarse
and common food for the imperial board.

There were a dozen of guests reaching round the ivory
table, and so disposed that the head of each was turned
towards the giver of the feast. Caesar was, indeed, in his
glory. A garland of white roses crowned his pale and bloated
face, enhancing the unhealthiness of its aspect. His features
had originally been well-formed and delicate, expressive of
wit, energy, and great versatility of character. Now the eyes
were sunken, and the vessels beneath them so puffed and
swollen as to discolour the skin ; the jowl, too, had become
large and heavy, imparting an air of sensual stupidity to the
whole countenance, which brightened up, however, at the
appearance of a favourite dish, or the smack of some rich
luscious wine. He was busy at present with the eager,
guzzling avidity of a pig ; and he propped his unwieldy body,
clad in its loose white gown, on one flabby arm, while with
the other he fed himself on sharp-biting salads, salted herrings,
pickled anchovies, and such stimulants as were served in the
first course of a Roman entertainment, to provoke the hunger
that the rest of the meal should satisfy. Now and then his
eye wandered for an instant through the long shining vistas
of the hall, amongst its marble pillars, its crimson hangings,
its vases crowned with blushing fruit and flowers, its side-
boards blazing with chalices, and flagons, and plates of
burnished gold, as though he expected and winced from a
blow ; but the restless glance was sure to return to the table,
and quench itself once more in the satisfaction of his favourite
employment.

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C^SAR

Next to the Emperor was placed Paris, the graceful panto-
mimist, whose girlish face was already flushed with wine, and
who turned his dark laughing eyes from one to another of the
guests with the good-humoured insolence of incipient intoxi-
cation. The young actor's dress was extravagant in the
extreme, and he wore a collar of pearls, the gift of an empress,
that would have purchased a province. He was talking
volubly to a fat, coarse-featured man, his neighbour, who
answered him at intervals with a grunt of acquiescence, but
in whose twinkling eye lurked a world of wit and sarcasm,
and from whose thick sensual lips, engrossed as they were
with the business of the moment, would drop ever and anon
some pungent jest, that was sure to be repeated to-morrow
at every supper-table in Rome. Montanus was a crafty
statesman and a practised diplomatist, whose society was
sought for at the Court, whose opinions carried weight in the
Senate ; but the old voluptuary had long discovered that
there was no safety under the Empire for those who took a
leading part in the council, but that certain distinction awaited
proficiency at the banquet — so he devoted his powerful
intellect to the study of gastronomy and the fabrication of
witty sayings ; nor did he ever permit the outward expression
of his countenance to betray a consciousness of the good
things that went into and came out of his mouth.

Beyond him again reclined Licinius ; his manly face and
noble bearing presenting a vivid contrast to those who sur-
rounded him, and who treated him, one and all, including
Caesar himself, with marked deference and respect. The old
soldier, however, appeared somewhat weary, and out of his
element. He loathed these long entertainments, so opposed
to his own simple habits ; and regarded the company in his
secret heart with a good-humoured, yet very decided, con-
tempt. So he sat through the banquet as he would have
kept watch on an outpost. It was tedious, it was disagree-
able. There was nothing to be gained by it ; but it was duty,
and it must be done.

Far different, in the frank joyous expression he knew so
well how to put on, was the mien of Julius Placidus, as he
replied to a brief, indistinct question from the Emperor
(murmured with his mouth full), by a sally that set everyone
near him laughing, and even raised a smile on the pale face
of Vitellius himself. It was the tribune's cue to make his
society universally popular — to be all things to all men,
especially to win the confidence of his imperial host. There
is an art in social success, no less than in any other triumph

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of natural ability. The rein must never be completely loosed,
the bow never stretched to its full compass. Latent power
ready to be called forth, is the secret of all grace ; and while
the observed does well, it must be apparent to the observer
that he could do better if he chose. Also, to be really
popular, a man, though a good deal liked, should be a little
feared. Julius Placidus excelled in the retort courteous, which
he could deliver without the slightest hesitation or change of
countenance; and a nickname or a sarcasm once inflicted
by the ready-witted tribune clung afterwards to its object like
a burr. Then he possessed besides the invaluable qualifica-
tion of a discriminating taste in seasonings, the result of a
healthy palate, refined, but not destroyed by the culture
bestowed on it ; and could drink every man of them, except
Montanus, under the table, without his stomach or his brain
being affected by the debauch.

Our acquaintance Spado was also of the party. Generally
a buffoon of no mean calibre, and one whose special talent
lay in such coarse and practical jests as served to amuse
Vitellius when his intellects had become too torpid to
appreciate the nicer delicacies of wit, the eunuch was to-night
peculiarly dull and silent. He reclined, with his head resting
on his hand, and seemed to conceal as much as he could of
his face, one side of which was swollen and discoloured as
from a blow. His fat unwieldy form looked more disgusting
than usual in its sumptuous dress, fastened and looped up at
every fold with clasps of emeralds and pearls ; and though
he ate slowly and with difficulty, he seemed determined to
lose none of the gratifications of the meal.

There were a few more guests — one or two senators — who,
with the caution, but not the genius of Montanus, were con-
spicuous for nothing but their fulsome adulation of the
Emperor. A tall sullen-looking man, commander of the
Praetorian Guard, who never laid aside the golden breast-
plate in which he was encased, and who seemed only anxious
for the conclusion of the entertainment. Three or four un-
known and undistinguished persons, called in Roman society
by the expressive term " Shades," whose social position, and,
indeed, whose very existence, depended on the patrons they
followed. Amongst these were two freedmen of the Emperor,
pale anxious-looking beings, with haggard eyes and careworn
faces. It was their especial duty to guard against poison, by
tasting of every dish served to their employer. It might be
supposed that, as in previous reigns, one such functionary
would have been enough ; but the great variety of dainties in

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which the enormous appetite of Vitellius enabled him to
indulge, rendered it impossible for any one stomach to keep
pace with him throughout the whole of a meal, and these
devoted champions took it by turns to guard their master
with their lives. Keen appetites and jovial looks were not
to be expected from men engaged on such a duty.

The first course, though long protracted, came to an end
at last. Its greatest delicacy, consisting of dormice sprinkled
with poppy-seed and honey, had completely disappeared.
The tables were cleared by a band of Asiatic youths, richly
habited, who entered to the sounds of wild Eastern music,
and bore off the fragments that remained. As they emerged
at one door, a troop of handsome fair-haired maidens —
barbarian captives — simply clad in white muslin, and gar-
landed with flowers, entered at another, carrying the golden
dishes and vessels that contained the second course. In the
meantime, hanging curtains parted slowly from before a recess
in the middle of the hall, and disclosed three Syrian dancing-
girls, grouped like a picture, in different attitudes of voluptuous
grace. Shaded lamps were so disposed as to throw a rosy
light upon their limbs and faces ; while soft thin vapours
curled about them, rising from braziers burning perfumed
incense at their feet. Simultaneously they clashed their
cymbals, and bounded wildly out upon the floor. Then began
a measure of alternate languor and activity, now swelling
into frantic bacchanalian gestures, now sinking into tender
lassitude or picturesque repose. The warm blood glowed in
the dark faces of these daughters of the sun, the black eyes
flashed under their long eyelashes, and their white teeth
showed like pearls between the rich red lips ; while the
beautifully turned limbs, and the flexible, undulating forms,
writhed themselves into attitudes suggestive of imperious
conquest, coy reluctance, or yielding love.

The dance was soon over; wilder and faster flitted the
glancing feet, and tossed the shapely hands, encircled with
bracelets and anklets of tiny silver bells. When the measure
was whirling at its speediest, the three stopped short, and at
once, as if struck into stone, formed a group of rare fantastic
beauty at the very feet of Caesar's guests ; who one and all
broke into a murmur of unfeigned applause. As, touching
their mouths and foreheads with their hands in Eastern
obeisance, they retired, Placidus flung after them a collar of
pearls, to be picked up by her who was apparently the leader
of the three. One of the Emperor's freedmen seemed about
to follow his example, for he buried his hand in his bosom,

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but either changed his mind or else found nothing there,
since he drew it forth again empty ; while Vitellius himself,
plucking a bracelet from his arm, threw it after the retreating
dancers, remarking that it was intended as a bribe to go
away, for they only distracted attention from matters of real
importance, now that the second course had come in ; to
which Montanus gave his cordial approval, fixing his eyes at
the same time on the breast of a flamingo in which the skilful
carver had just inserted the point of his long knife.

It would be endless to go into the details of such a
banquet as that which was placed before the guests of Caesar.
Wild boar, pasties, goats, every kind of shellfish, thrushes,
beccaficoes, vegetables of all descriptions, and poultry, were
removed to make way for the pheasant, the guinea-hen, the
turkey, the capon, venison, ducks, woodcocks, and turtle-
doves. Everything that could creep, or fly, or swim, and
could boast a delicate flavour when cooked, was pressed
into the service of the Emperor ; and when appetite was
appeased and could do no more, the strongest condiments
and other remedies were used to stimulate fresh hunger and
consume a fresh supply of superfluous dainties. But the
great business of the evening was not yet half finished.
Excess of eating was indeed the object ; but it was to excess
of drinking that the gluttons of that period looked as the
especial relief of every entertainment, since the hope of each
seemed to be, that when thoroughly flooded, and, so to speak,
washed out with wine, he might begin eating again. The
Roman was no drunkard like the barbarian, for the sake of
that wild excitement of the brain which is purchased by
intoxication. No, he ate to repletion that he might drink
with gratification. He drank to excess that he might eat
again.

Another train of slaves now cleared the table. These
were Nubian eunuchs, clad in white turbans and scarlet
tunics, embroidered with seed pearls and gold. They brought
in the dessert — choice fruits heaped upon vases of the rarest
porcelain, sweetmeats in baskets of silver filigree, Syrian dates
borne by miniature golden camels of exquisite workmanship
— masses of flowers in the centre, and perfumes burning at
the corners of the table. Behind each couch containing its
three guests stood a sable cup-bearer, deaf and dumb, whose
only business it was to fill for his especial charge. These
mutes were procured at vast expense from every corner of
the empire ; but Caesar especially prided himself on their
similarity in face and figure. To-day he would be served by

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Germans, to-morrow by Gauls, the next by Ethiopians, and
so on ; nor, though deprived of the organs of speech and
hearing, were these ministers of Bacchus unobservant of what
took place amongst the votaries on whom they waited ; and
it was said that the mutes in the palace heard more con-
fidences, and told more secrets, than all the old women in
Rome put together.

And now, taking his cue from the Emperor, each man
loosened the belt of his tunic, shifted the garland of flowers
off his brows, disposed himself in an easier attitude on his
couch, and proffered his cup to be filled by the attendant.
The great business of eating was for the present concluded,
and deep drinking about to commence. When marvelling,
however, at the quantity of wine consumed by the Romans
in their entertainments, we must remember that it was the
pure and unadulterated juice of the grape, that it was in
general freely mixed with water, and that they thus imbibed
but a very small portion of alcohol, which is in reality the
destructive quality of all stimulants, to the welfare of the
stomach and the brain.

107

CHAPTER XV

RED FALERNIAN

CESAR'S eye, though dim and sunken, flashed up for a
moment with a spark of enthusiasm.

" The beccaficoes," said he, " were a thought over-seasoned,
but the capon's liver stewed in milk was perfection. Varus,
see that it is served again at the imperial table within the
week."

The freedman took out his tablets and made a note of
the royal commands with a somewhat unsteady hand, while
Vitellius, draining his cup to the dregs, smacked his lips, and
let his great chin sink on his breast once more.

The other guests conversed freely. Licinius and one of
the senators were involved in an argument on military
matters, with which the man of peace seemed almost as con-
versant as the man of war, and on which he laid down the
law with far more confidence. Placidus was describing
certain incidents of the campaign in Judaea, with an air of
unassuming modesty and a deference to the opinions of
others, which won him no little favour from those who sat
near and listened, throwing in, every now and then, a chance
expression or trifling anecdote, derogatory, by implication, to
Vespasian's military skill, and eulogistic of Vitellius ; for this
reason doubly sweet in the ears of him at whose board the
tribune sat. Montanus, whose cup was filled and emptied
with startling rapidity, looked about him for a subject on
which to vent some of the sarcasm with which he was charged,
and found it in the woebegone appearance of Spado, who,
despite the influence of food and wine, seemed unusually
depressed and ill at ease. The eunuch on ordinary occasions
was a prince of boon-companions, skilled in all the niceties of
gastronomy, versed in the laws of drinking, overflowing with
mirth and jollity, an adroit flatterer where flattery was
acceptable, and a joyous buffoon who could give and take
with equal readiness and good-humour, when banter was the
order of the day. Now, less thirsty than usual, the feast

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seemed to have no enlivening effect on his disposition. He
was silent, preoccupied, and, to all appearance, intent only on
concealing his bruised cheek from the observation of those
about him. He had never been struck in anger, never even
stood face to face with a man before, and it had cowed him.
The soft self-indulgent voluptuary could neither forget nor
overcome his feelings of combined wrath, dismay, and shame.
Montanus turned round and emptied a brimming goblet to
his health.

" You are cheerless to-night, man ! " quoth the senator ;
"you drink not, neither do you speak. What, has the red
Falernian lost its flavour? or has some Canidia bewitched
you with her evil eye? You used to be a prince of boon-
companions, Spado, thirsty as a camel in the Libyan desert,
insatiate as the sand on which he travels, and now your eye
is dull, your face dejected, and your cup stands untasted,
unnoticed, though bubbling to the brim. By the spear of
Bacchus, 'tis not the fault of the liquor!" and Montanus
emptied his own goblet with the air of a man who thoroughly
appreciated the vintage he extolled.

Vitellius looked up for an instant, roused by the congenial
theme.

" There is nothing the matter with the wine," said Caesar.
" Fill round."

The imperial hint was not to be disregarded, and Spado,
with a forced smile, put his goblet to his lips and drained it
,to the last drop. In doing so the discoloration of his face
was very apparent ; and the guests, who had now arrived at
that stage of conviviality where candour takes the place
of politeness, proceeded to make their remarks without
reserve.

" You have painted too thick," said one of the freedmen,
alluding to an effeminacy of the times which the male sex
were not ashamed to practise.

"You have taken off the paste and the skin with it,"
continued the other, whose own mistress was in the daily
habit of spreading a kind of poultice over her whole counten-
ance, and who might therefore be a good judge of the pro-
cess and its results.

" You have been in the wars ! " sneered one guest. " Or
the amphitheatre ! " echoed another. " 'Tis a love-token from
Chloe ! " laughed a third. " Or a remembrance from Lydia ! "
added a fourth. " Nay," interposed Montanus, " our friend is
too experienced a campaigner to come off second-best with
a foe of that description. There must have been a warm

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encounter to leave such traces as those. She must have been
a very Amazon, Spado, that could maul thee thus."

The eunuch looked from one to another of his tormentors
with rather an evil smile. He well knew, however, that any
appearance of annoyance would add tenfold to the ridicule
which he must make up his mind to undergo, and that the
best way for a man to turn a jest, even when to his own dis-
advantage, is to join in it himself; so he glanced at the
Emperor, took a long draught of red Falernian, and assumed a
face of quaint and good-humoured self-commiseration.

" Talk not to me of Amazons," said he, whereat there was
a general laugh. " Tell me not of Chloes, and Lydias, and
Lalages, and the rest. What's a Helen of Troy compared to
a flask of this red Falernian ? Why good wine gets better
the longer you keep it, while woman loses her flavour year
by year. 'Faith, if you only wait till she is old enough, she
becomes very sour vinegar indeed. Even in the first flush of
her beauty, I doubt whether any of you in your hearts think
she is worth the trouble of catching. Still, you know, a man
likes to look at a pretty face. Mine had not otherwise been
so disfigured now. I had an adventure on that score but two
nights ago. Would Caesar like to hear it ? "

Caesar gave a nod and a grunt that signified acquiescence.
Thus encouraged, Spado went on —

" It was the feast of Isis. I was coming from the worship
of the goddess, and the celebration of those sacred rites,
which may not be disclosed to the vulgar and the profane —
mysteries too holy to be mentioned, save to pure and
virgin ears." Here the countenance of Montanus assumed
an expression that made even Caesar smile, and caused the
rest to laugh outright. " The procession was returning filled
with inspiration from the goddess. The acolytes leaping
and dancing in the van, the priests marching majestically
under her symbols, and some of the noblest matrons in
Rome bringing up the rear. The noblest and the fairest,"
repeated Spado, glancing round him complacently. " I name
no names ; but you all know that ours is not a vulgar wor-
ship, nor an illiberal creed."

Here Placidus stirred somewhat uneasily on his couch,
and buried his face in his cup.

" The Roman people have ever paid the highest honours
to our Egyptian goddess," proceeded the eunuch ; " we lack
the support of the plebeian no more than the worship of the
patrician. Thus we flourish and drain draughts of plenty
from the silver udders of our sacred cow. Well, they made

RED FALERNIAN

way for us in the streets, both men and women — all but one
slender girl dressed in black, who, coming quickly round a
corner, found herself in the midst of us, and seemed too
frightened to move. In another minute she would have
been trampled to death by the crowd, when I seized hold of
her in order to draw her into a place of safety while they
passed."

" Or to see what sort of a face she hid under her black
hood ? " interrupted Montanus.

" Not so," replied the narrator, though obviously gratified
by the impeachment. " Such follies I leave to senators, and
statesmen, and soldiers. My object was simply to afford
her my protection. I had better have plucked a nettle with
my naked hand. The girl screamed and struggled as if she
had never looked in a man's face before."

" She was frightened at your beard," said one of the freed-
men, looking at Spado's smooth fat face. The latter winced,
but affected not to hear. " Coax a frightened woman," said
he, "and frighten an angry one. I flatter myself I know
how to deal with them all. The girl would have been quiet
enough had I been let alone; when just as she began to
look kindly in my face, up comes an enormous barbarian,
a hideous giant with waving yellow hair, and tries to snatch
the maiden by main force from my grasp. I am a strong
man, as you may perhaps have observed, my friends, and a
fierce one when my blood is up. I showed fight. I struck
him to the earth. He rose again with redoubled fury, and
taking me at a disadvantage while I was protecting the girl,
inflicted this injury on my face. I was stunned for an in-
stant, and he seized that opportunity to make his escape.
Well for him that he did so. Let him keep out of the way
if he be wise. Should he cross my path again, he had better
be in Euchenor's hands than mine; I will show him no
mercy ; " and Spado quaffed off his wine and squared his
fat shoulders with the air of a gladiator.

" And what became of the girl ? " asked Paris, who had
hitherto listened to the recital with utter indifference.

" She was carried off by the barbarian," replied Spado.
" Poor thing ! I believe sorely against her will. Neverthe-
less, she was borne off by the Briton."

" A Briton ! " exclaimed Licinius, whose intense contempt
for Spado had hitherto kept him silent, and who had already
heard the truth of the story from his slave.

" A Briton," repeated the eunuch. " It was impossible
he could be otherwise from his size and ferocity. The Gaul,

EROS

you see, is bigger than the Roman. The German than the
Gaul. The Briton, by the same argument, must be bigger
than the German ; and this hideous giant must consequently
have been one of those savage islanders. I take my logic
from the Greeks."

" But not your boxing, it seems," observed Montanus,
" We must have Euchenor to give you some lessons, if you
run your head into these street brawls whenever you come
across a woman with a veil."

" Nay," answered the eunuch, " he took me at a disadvan-
tage ; nevertheless he was a large and powerful athlete — there
is no denying it."

" They are the finest men we have in the empire," said
Licinius, thinking in his heart that the women were the
fairest too.

"Their oysters are better than ours," observed Caesar,
with an air of profound and impartial judgment.

" I grant the oysters, but I deny the men," said Placidus,
reflecting that his patriotism would be acceptable to his
audience. " The Roman is the natural conqueror of the
world. They cannot stand against our countrymen in the
arena." The guests all joined in a cordial assent. Had it
not been so, perhaps Licinius would have scarce thought
it worth while to continue the argument. Now, though
half ashamed of his warmth, he took up the matter with
energy.

" There is a Briton in my house at this moment," said he,
" who is a stronger and finer man than you will produce in
Rome."

" You mean that long-legged lad with the mop of light
hair ? " said Placidus contemptuously. " I have seen him.
I call him a boy, not a man."

Licinius felt somewhat irritated. He did not particularly
like his company ; and between two such opposite natures
as his own and the tribune's there existed a certain hidden
repugnance, which was sure sooner or later to break forth.
He answered angrily —

" I will match him against any one you can produce to
run, leap, wrestle, throw the quoit, and swim."

" Those are a boy's accomplishments," retorted the other
coolly. "What I maintain is this, that, whether from want
of courage or skill or both, these islanders are of no use with
the steel. I would wish no better sport than to fight him
myself in the arena, with the permission of Caesar " — and the
tribune bowed gracefully to his imperial host, who looked

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RED FALERNIAN

from one to the other of the disputants, without the slightest
apparent interest in their discussion.

At this period of the Empire, when, although manners had
become utterly dissolute, something was still left of the old
audacity that had made the Roman a conqueror wherever he
planted his foot, it was by no means unusual for men of
patrician rank to appear in their own proper persons, a
spectacle for the vulgar, in the amphitheatre. It was, per-
haps, not unnatural that a desire for imitation should at
last be aroused by the excessive fondness for these games
of bloodshed, which pervaded all classes of the community.
We have nothing in modern times that can at all convey to
us the passion of the Roman citizen for the amusements of
his circus. They were as necessary to his existence as daily
bread. Panem et Circenses had passed into a familiar pro-
verb. He would leave his home, neglect his business, forfeit
his bath, to sit for hours on the benches of the amphitheatre,
exposed to heat and crowding, and every sort of incon-
venience, and would bring his food with him rather than run
the risk of losing his place. And all this to see trained
gladiators shedding each other's blood, wild beasts tearing
foreign captives limb from limb, and imitation battles which
differed in no respect from real, save that the wounded were
not spared, and the slaughter consequently far greater in
proportion to the number of combatants engaged. If a
statesman wished to court popularity, if an emperor desired
to blot out a whole page of enormities and crimes, he had
but to give the people one of these free entertainments of
blood — the more victims the better — and they were ready
to approve of any measure, and to pardon any atrocity.

Ere long some fierce spirits panted to take part in the
sports they so loved to contemplate; and the disgraceful
exhibition ceased to be confined to hireling gladiators or
condemned slaves. Knights and patricians entered the
arena, to contend for the praises of the vulgar; and the
noblest blood in Rome was shed for the gratification of
plebeian spectators, who, sitting at ease munching cakes and
sausages, could contemplate with placid interest the death-
agonies of the Cornelii or the Gracchi.

Julius Placidus, like many other fashionable youths of
the period, prided himself on his skill in the deadly exercises
of the circus. He had appeared before the Roman public
at different times, armed with all the various weapons of the
gladiator ; but the exercise in which he considered himself
most perfect was that of the trident and the net. The

H 113

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contest between the retiarius and the secutor was always a
favourite spectacle with the public. The former carried an
ample casting-net upon his shoulders, a three-pronged spear
in his hand ; beyond this he was totally unarmed either for
attack or defence. The latter with a short sword, vizored
helmet, and oblong shield, would at first sight appear to have
fought at great advantage over his opponent. Nevertheless
the arts of the retiarius in entangling his adversary had
arrived at such perfection that he was constantly the con-
queror. Once down, and involved in the fatal meshes, there
was no escape for the swordsman ; and from some whim-
sical reason the populace seldom granted him quarter when
vanquished. Great activity and speed of foot were the
principal qualities required by the retiarius^ for if he failed
in his cast he was compelled to fly from his adversary while
preparing his net for a fresh attempt, and if overtaken his
fate was sealed. Placidus possessed extraordinary personal
activity. His eye was very correct, and his throw generally
deadly. It may be, too, that there was something pleasing
to the natural cruelty of his disposition in the contemplation
of an antagonist writhing and helpless on the sand. It was
his delight to figure in the arena with the deadly net laid
in careful festoons upon his shoulder, and the long barbed
trident quivering in his grasp. Licinius fell into the snare, if
snare it was, readily enough.

" I would wager a province on Esca," said he, " against
anyone but a trained gladiator; and I think he could hold
his own with the best of them, after a month's practice."

" Then you accept my challenge ? " exclaimed Placidus,
with a studied carelessness of manner that dissembled an
eagerness he could scarcely control.

" Let us hear the terms over a fresh flask of Falernian,"
observed the Emperor, glad of such a stimulant with his
wine.

" I ask for no weapons but the trident and the net," said
Placidus, looking fixedly at Licinius. " Esca, if you so call
him, may be armed as usual with sword and helmet."

" And shield," interrupted the other ; too old a soldier,
even in the excitement of the moment, to throw a chance
away.

Placidus affected to demur.

"Well," said he, "after a few moments' hesitation, "'tis
but a young swordsman, and a barbarian; I give you the
shield in."

A vision crossed the brain of Licinius, that already made

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RED FALERNIAN

him repent of his rashness. He saw the fine form writhing
in those pitiless meshes, like a beast taken in the toils. He
saw the frank blue eyes, looking upward, brave and kindly
even in their despair. He saw the unsparing arm raised to
strike, and the bright curling locks dabbled all in blood. But
then he remembered the Briton's extraordinary strength and
activity, his natural courage and warlike education — he was
irritated, too, by the insolent malice that gleamed in the
tribune's eyes; and he persuaded himself that nothing but
renown and triumph could accrue to his favourite from such
a contest.

" Be it so," said he ; " retiarius and secutor. You will
have no child's play, I can tell you ; and now for the terms of
the wager. I stake no man's life against a morsel of tinsel or
a few polished pebbles, I warn you at once."

He glanced while he spoke, somewhat contemptuously,
over the costly ornaments that decorated the tribune's dress.
The latter laughed good-humouredly.

" A dozen slaves would scarce fetch the value of my
sleeve-clasps. At least, a dozen of these islanders, whom
you may capture by scores every time a legion moves its
camp. Listen, I will wager two of my white horses against
your picture of Daphne, or the bust of Euphrosyne that
stands in your bath-room. Nay, I will give you more
advantage still. I will stake the whole team, and the chariot
into the bargain, against the British slave himself!"

Again had the other been watching him narrowly ; he
must have perceived a strange suppressed eagerness on the
tribune's face, but he was preoccupied and annoyed ; he had
gone too far to retract, and a murmur from the listening
guests denoted their opinion of the generosity displayed in
this last proposal. When a man has placed himself in a false
position, his efforts at extrication generally plunge him
deeper than before. Quick as lightning, Licinius bethought
him that the present bargain might probably save Esca's life,
in the unlikely event of his being conquered, so he closed
with it unhesitatingly, though he regretted doing so a
moment afterwards.

The match was accordingly made upon the following
terms : That Esca should enter the amphitheatre during the
approaching games of Ceres, armed with sword, shield, and
helmet, to oppose Placidus, whose only weapons were to be
the trident and the net. That in the event of the latter being
worsted, his four white horses and gilded chariot should
become the property of Licinius ; but that if he obtained

EROS

the victory, and the populace permitted him to spare the
vanquished, then his late antagonist should become his slave ;
and how enviable would be that position could only be known
to the tribune himself and one other person from whom he
had that day received kinder looks and smiles than she had
ever before granted to an unwelcome suitor.

The business of drinking, which had been somewhat
interrupted by these complicated discussions, was now
resumed with greater energy than before ; Placidus emptying
his goblet with the triumphant air of one who has successfully
accomplished a difficult task ; Licinius like a man who seeks
to drown anxiety and self-reproach in wine. The Emperor
quaffed and quaffed again with his habitual greediness ; and
the remainder of the guests acted studiously in imitation of
the Emperor.

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CHAPTER XVI

THE TRAINING-SCHOOL

BUT Licinius had an ordeal to go through on the following
day, which was especially painful to the kind heart of
the Roman general. When the terms of the combat were
explained to the person chiefly interested, that young warrior
eagerly accepted the challenge as affording an opportunity
for indulgence in those feats of arms which early education
had rendered so pleasing to his martial disposition. He
could vanquish two such men as the tribune, he thought, at
any exercise and with any weapons ; but his face sank when
he learned the penalty of failure, and a shudder passed
through his whole frame at the bare possibility of becoming
a slave to anyone but his present master. It nerved him,
however, all the more in his resolution to conquer ; and when
Licinius, reproaching himself bitterly the while, promised him
his liberty in the event of victory, Esca's heart beat fast with
joy and hope and exultation once more.

A thousand vague possibilities danced through his brain ;
a thousand wild and visionary schemes, of which Mariamne
formed the centre figure. Life that had seemed so dull but
one short week ago, now shone again in the rosy light with
which youth — and youth alone — can tinge the long per-
spective of the future. Alas for Licinius ! he marked the
glowing cheek and the kindling eye with a sensation of
despondency weighing at his heart. Nevertheless the lot
was cast, the offer was accepted. It was too late for looking
back. Nothing remained but to strain every nerve to win.

In all bodily contests, in all mental labours, in everything
which human nature attempts, systematic and continuous
training is the essential element of success. The palm, as
Horace says, can only flourish where the dust is plentiful;
and he who would attain a triumph either as an athlete or a
scholar, must cultivate his natural abilities with the utmost
attention, and the most rigid self-denial, ere he enters for the
prize. It is curious, too, how the mind, like the body,

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acquires vigour and elasticity by graduated exertion. The
task that was an impossibility yesterday, is but a penance
to-day, and will become a pleasure to-morrow. Let us follow
Esca into the training-school, where his muscles are to be
toughened, and his skill perfected for the deadly exercises of
the arena.

It is a large square building, something like a modern
riding-house, lighted and ventilated at the top, and is laid
down three inches deep in sand, an arrangement which
increases, indeed, the labour of all pedestrian exertion, but
renders a fall comparatively harmless, and accustoms the
pupil, moreover, to the yielding surface on which hereafter
he will have to struggle for his life. Quoits, dumb-bells,
ponderous weights, and massive clubs are scattered in the
corners, or propped against the walls of the edifice, and a
horizontal leaping-bar, placed at the height of a man's breast,
denotes that activity is not neglected in the acquisition of
strength. Beside these insignia of peaceful gymnastics, the
cestus hangs conspicuous, and racks are placed at intervals
supporting the deadly weapons and defensive armour with
which the gladiator plies his formidable trade. There are
also pointless spears, and blunted swords for practice, and a
wooden figure, hacked and hewed out of all similitude to an
enemy, on which the cuts and thrusts most in request have
been dealt over and over again with increasing skill and
severity.

At one end of the building paces the master to and fro ;
now glancing with wary eye at the movements of his pupils ;
now pausing to adjust some implement of instruction ; now
encouraging or chiding with a gesture ; and anon catching
up, as though in sheer absence of mind, one of the idle
weapons, and whirling it round his head with a flourish that
displays all the power and skill of the practised professional.
Hippias, the retired gladiator, is a man of middle age, and of
somewhat lofty stature, rendered more commanding by its
lengthy proportions,' and the peculiar setting on of the head.
Constant exercise, pushed, indeed, to the verge of toil, and
continued for many years, has toughened each shapely limb
into the hardness and consistency of wire, and has rendered
his large frame lean and sinewy, like a greyhound's. All his
gestures have the graceful pliant ease which results from
muscular strength, and his very walk — light, smooth, and
noiseless — is like that of a panther traversing the floor of its
cage. His swarthy complexion has been deeply tanned by
exposure to heat and toil, but the blood courses healthfully

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THE TRAINING-SCHOOL

beneath, and imparts a warm mellow tint to the skin. The
fleshless face, in spite of a worn eager look, and a dash of
grey in the hair and beard, is not without a wild defiant
beauty of its own ; and though its expression is somewhat
dissolute and reckless, there is a bold keen flash in the eye,
and the man is obviously enterprising, courageous, and steel
to the backbone.

The Roman ladies, with that depravity of taste which
marks a general deterioration of manners and morality,
delighted at this period to choose their favourites from the
ranks of the amphitheatre. There was a rage for warlike
exercises, Amazonian dresses, imitations of the deadly sports,
played out with considerable skill and ferocity, nay, for the
very persons of the gladiators themselves. It was no wonder
then, that the handsome fencing-master, with his reputation
for strength and courage, should have been a marked man
with the proud capricious matrons of the Imperial City. The
favour of each, too, was doubtless his best recommendation to
the good graces of the rest ; and Hippias might have sunned
himself in the smiles of the noblest ladies in Rome.

He made but little account, however, of his good fortune.
The peaches fallen on the ground are doubtless the ripest, yet
they never seem so tempting as those which sun themselves
against the wall, a hand's-breadth above our reach. Nor can
a man pay implicit obedience to more than one dominion
(at a time) ; and unless the yoke be very heavy, it is scarce
worth while to carry it at all. Hippias was neither dazzled
nor flattered by the bright eyes that looked so kindly into his
war-worn face. He loved a flask of wine nearly as well as
a woman's beauty — two feet of pliant steel and a leathern
buckler far better than either ; nevertheless, amongst all the
dainty dames of his acquaintance, he was least disposed to
undervalue Valeria's notice, the more so, that she rarely
condescended to bestow it on him ; and he took more pains
with her fencing lessons, than those of any other female pupil,
and stayed longer in her house than in that of any lady in
Rome. He approved of her strength, her resolution, her
quickness, above all her cold manner and her pride, besides
admiring her personal charms exceedingly, in his own
practical way. There is a gleam of interest, almost of
tenderness in his eyes, as he pauses every now and then in
his walk, and reads a line or two from a scroll he carries
in his hand, which Myrrhina brought him not an hour
ago.

The scroll is from Valeria. She has heard of Esca's peril

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EROS

— nay, she has herself brought it on his head ; and who knows
the price it cost her haughty wilful heart ? Yet in all her
bitter anger, vexation, shame, she cannot bear to think of the
noble Briton down on the sand, writhing and helpless at the
mercy of his enemy. It is the weapon now she hates, and
not the victim. It would give her intense pleasure, she feels,
to see Placidus humbled, defeated, slain. Such is the sense
of justice in a woman's breast; such are the advantages
gained by submission at any sacrifice to do her bidding. We
need not pity the tribune, however, in his dealings with either
sex ; he is well able to take care of himself.

Valeria accordingly sat her down and wrote a few friendly
lines to the fencing-master, who had always stood high in her
favour, and whose frank bold nature she felt she could trust.
Womanlike, she thought it necessary to fabricate an excuse
for her interest in the Briton, by affirming that she had staked
heavily on his success in the coming contest. She adjured
Hippias to spare no pains in counsel or instruction, and bade
him come to see her without delay, and report the progress
of his pupil. He raised his eyes from the scroll, and watched
the said pupil holding his own gallantly at sword and buckler
with Lutorius.

" One, two — Disengage the blade ! A feint at the head, a
cut at the legs, and come in over the shield with a lunge !
Good ! but scarce quick enough. Try that again — the elbow
turned outwards, the wrist a little higher. So — once more.
Now, look at me. Thus."

The combatants paused for breath, Hippias seized a
wooden foil, and, beckoning to Hirpinus, engaged him in the
required position, for Esca's especial benefit. Trained and
wary, the old gladiator knew every feint and parry in the
game. Yet had those blades been steel, Hirpinus would have
been gasping his life out, at the master's feet, ere the close of
their second encounter. Hippias never shifted his ground,
never seemed to exert himself much, yet the quickest eye in
Rome was puzzled to follow the movements of his point, the
readiest hand to intercept it where it fell. Again he pitted
Esca and Lutorius in the mimic strife, and stood with well-
pleased countenance to watch the result. The Briton had,
indeed, lost no time in beginning a course of instruction which
he hoped was to ensure him victory and its reward — his much
desired freedom. That morning Hirpinus had brought him
to the school ; and the veteran gladiator watched, with an
interest that was almost touching, the preparations which
were to fit his young friend for a career that at best must end

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THE TRAINING-SCHOOL

ere long in a violent death. Hippias was delighted with the
stature and strength of his new pupil. He had matched him
at once with Lutorius, a wiry Gaul, who was supposed to be
the most scientific swordsman of " the Family," and smiled to
observe how completely, with an occasional hint from himself,
the Briton was a match for his antagonist, who had expected
an easy victory, and was even more disgusted than surprised.
As the encounter was prolonged, and the combatants,
warming to their work, advanced, retreated, struck, lunged
and parried; now traversing warily at full distance — now
dashing boldly in to close, the other gladiators gathered
round, excited to unusual interest, by the excellence of the
play, and the dexterity of the barbarian.

" He is the best we've seen here for a lustre at least,"
exclaimed Rufus, a gigantic champion from Northern Italy,
proud of his stature, proud of his swordsmanship, but above
all, proud that he was a Roman citizen, though a gladiator ;
" those thrusts come home like lightning, and when he misses
his parry, see, he jumps away like a wild-cat. Faith, Manlius,
if they match him against thee at the games, thou wilt have
a handful. I would stake my rights as a Roman citizen on
him, toga and all, barbarian though he be. What, man !
he would have thee down and disarmed in a couple of

passes

Manlius seemed to think so too, though he was loth to
confess it. He turned the subject by vowing that Lutorius
must be masking his play, and not fighting his best, or he
never could be thus worsted by a novice.

" Masking his play ! " exclaimed Hirpinus indignantly,
" let him unmask, then, as soon as he will ! I tell thee this
lad of mine hath not his match in the empire. I shall see
him champion of the amphitheatre, and first swordsman in
Rome, ere they give me the wooden foil with the silver guard,1
and lay old Hirpinus on the shelf. I shall be satisfied to
retire then, for I shall leave some good manhood to take my
place."

" Well crowed ! " replied Manlius, not quite pleased at the
value placed on his own prowess in comparison. " To hear
thee, a man would say there never was but one gladiator in
Rome, and that this young mastiff must pull us all down by
the throat, because he fences like thyself, wild and wide, and
by main strength."

" It is no swordsmanship to run in like a bull and take

1 The form by which a gladiator, who had repeatedly distinguished himself,
received his dismissal and immunity from the arena for life.

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EROS

more than you give," observed Euchenor, listening with his
arms folded, and an expression of supreme contempt on his
handsome features.

" Nevertheless his blows fall thick and fast, like a hail-
storm, and Lutorius shifts his ground every time the young
one makes the attack," argued honest Rufus, who had not a
grain of either fear or jealousy in his disposition ; and who
considered his profession as a mere trade by which he could
obtain a livelihood for wife and children in the meantime,
and a remote chance of independence with a vineyard of his
own beyond the Apennines, should he escape a violent death
in the amphitheatre at last.

" He thrusts too often overhand," observed Manlius, " and
his guard is always open for the wrist."

" He is a strong fencer, but he has no style," added
Euchenor ; and the boxer looked around him with the air
of a man who closes a controversy by an unanswerable
argument.

Hirpinus was boiling over with indignation ; but his
eloquence was by no means in proportion to his corporeal
gifts, and he could not readily find words to express his
dissent and his disdain. Banter, too, and a coarse, good-
humoured sort of wrangling, was the usual form by which
difference of opinion found expression in the training-school.
Quarrelling, amongst men whose very trade it was to fight
to the death, seemed simply absurd ; and to come to blows
except in public and for money, a mere childish waste of
time. Indeed, with all their contempt for death, and their
extraordinary courage when pitted against each other to
amuse the populace, these gladiators, perhaps from the very
nature of their profession, seem to have been unsuited for any
sustained efforts of energy and endurance. When banded
together under the eagles, they were often so undisciplined
in camp, as by no means to be relied on before an enemy.
Perhaps there was something of bravado in the flourish with
which they entered the circus, and hailed Caesar with their
greetings from those about to die!^- Moreover, they had
to fight in a corner, and with the impossibility of escape.
Courage is of many different kinds. Men are brave from
various motives — from ambition, from emulation, from the
habit of confronting danger ; some from a naturally chivalrous
disposition, backed by strong physical nerves. The last alone
are to be trusted in an emergency ; and a really courageous
man faces an unexpected and unaccustomed peril, if not with
1 The well-known " Morituri te salutant ! "
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THE TRAINING-SCHOOL

confidence, at least with an unflinching determination to do
his best.

Hirpinus turned upon Euchenor, for whom he had no
great liking at any time.

" You talk of your science," said he, " and your Greek
skill, against which even our Roman thews and sinews are of
no avail. Dare you stand up to this barbarian with the cestus
on? Only to exchange half a dozen friendly buffets, you
know, in sheer sport."

But Euchenor excused himself with great disdain. Like
many another successful professor, be owed no inconsider-
able share of his fame to his own assumption of superiority,
and the judgment with which, when practicable, he matched
himself against inferior performers. Champions who exist on
their reputation, such as it is, are not to peril it lightly against
the first tyro that comes, who has everything to gain and
nothing to lose by an encounter with the celebrity ; whereas
the celebrity derives no additional laurels from a triumph, and
a defeat tends to take the very bread out of his mouth.
Euchenor said as much ; but Hirpinus was not satisfied, till
the subtle Greek, who had learned the terms of the match in
which Esca was engaged, observed carelessly, that all the
time the Briton had to spare should be devoted to practice
in the part he was about to play before the Emperor. The
suggestion took effect upon Hirpinus at once. He sprang
across the school to where the master had resumed his walk.
The old gladiator positively turned pale while he entreated
Hippias to instruct his pupil in all the scientific devices by
which those deadly meshes could be foiled.

"Nothing but art can save him," said he, in imploring
accents, which seemed almost ludicrous from one of his
Herculean exterior. "Courage and strength, ay, and the
activity of a wild-cat, are all paralysed when that accursed
twine is round your limbs. I know it ! I have felt it ! I
was down under the net myself once. If a man is to die, he
should die like a man, not like a thrush caught in a springe.
He must learn, Hippias, he must practise day by day, and
hour by hour ; he must study every movement of the caster.
Pit him against Manlius, he is the best netsman in the
Family. If he learns to foil him, he will take the conceit
out of Placidus readily enough. I tell you I shall not be
easy till I see him with his foot on the gay tribune's breast ! "

" Patience, man," replied Hippias, " thou fearest but one
thing in the world, and that is a fathom of twine. Thinkest
thou all others are scared at the same bugbear ? Mind thine

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EROS

own training, — thou art yet too lusty by half to go into the
circus, — and leave this young barbarian to me."

The master kept up his influence amongst these lawless
pupils, partly by a reserved demeanour and a silent tongue,
partly by never suffering his authority to be disputed for a
moment. To have said as much as he now did was tanta-
mount to a confession of interest in the Briton's success ; and
Hirpinus resumed his own labours with a lightened heart,
whilst Esca, in all the delightful flush of youth and health,
and muscular strength developing itself by scientific practice,
plied his antagonist with redoubled vigour, and enjoyed his
pastime to the utmost.

It was like taking an old friend by the hand to grasp a
sword once more.

124

CHAPTER XVII

A VEILED HEART

OR three whole days Mariamne had not
set eyes on the Briton, so she felt
listless and dispirited. Not that she
acknowledged, even to herself, the
necessity of Esca's presence, nor that
she was indeed aware how much it
had influenced her thoughts and actions
ever since she had known him — a period
that seemed now of indefinite length.
She found herself perpetually recalling
the origin and growth of their acquaint-
ance ; she dwelt with a strange pleasure on the gross insult
offered her by Spado, which scarce seemed an agreeable sub-
ject of contemplation ; nor, be sure, did she forget its prompt
and satisfactory redress. She remembered every step of her
subsequent walk home, and every syllable of their conversa-
tion in that hasty and agitated progress ; nay, every look and
gesture of her companion's and of her own. It pleased her
to think of the favourable impression made on her father and
his brother by their guest ; and the earthen pitcher, from
which she gave the latter to drink, assumed a new and un-
accountable value in her eyes. Also she strolled to Tiber-
side, whenever she had a spare half-hour, and sat her down
under the shadow of a broken column, with a strange
persistency, and a vague expectation of something, she knew
not what For the first day this dreamy imaginative exist-
ence was delightful. Then came a feeling of want ; a
consciousness that there was a void, which it would be a great
happiness to fill. Soon this grew to a thirst — a craving for a
repetition of those hours which had glided by so sweetly and
so fast. At rare intervals arose the startling thought,
" suppose she should never see him again," and her heart
stopped beating, and her cheek paled with the bare possibility ;

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EROS

yet was there something not wholly painful in a consciousness
of the sorrow such a privation would create.

Though young, Mariamne was no foolish and inexperienced
girl. Her life had been calculated to elicit and bring to
perfection some of woman's loftiest qualities. She had early
learned the nobility of self-sacrifice, the necessity of self-
reliance and self-denial. Like the generality of her nation
she possessed considerable pride of race ; suppressed, indeed,
and kept down by the exigencies in which the Jews had
so often found themselves, but none the weaker nor the
less cherished on that account. Notwithstanding his many
chastisements and reverses, — from his pilgrimage through the
wilderness to his different captivities by the great Oriental
powers, and final subjection under Rome, — the Jew never
forgot that he sprang from a stem more especially planted by
the hand of the Almighty ; that he could trace his lineage
back, unbroken and unstained, to those who held converse
with Moses under the shadow of Mount Sinai ; nay, to the
Patriarch himself, who held his authority direct from Heaven,
and who was thought worthy to entertain angels at his tent
door on the plains of Mamre. Such a conviction imparted a
secret pride to every one of his descendants. Man, woman,
and child, were persuaded that to them belonged of right the
dominion of the earth.

It may be supposed that one of Eleazar's disposition was
not likely to bring up his family in any humble notions of
their privileges and their importance. Mariamne had been
early taught to consider her nationality as the first and dearest
of her advantages ; and, womanlike, she clung to it all the
closer that her people had been forced to submit to the
Roman yoke. Habits of patience, of reflection and endurance,
had been engendered by the everyday life of the Jewish
maiden, witnessing her father's continued impatience of the
existing state of things, and his energetic, though secret,
efforts to change the destinies of his countrymen ; whilst all
that such an education might have created of hard, cunning,
and unfeminine in his daughter's mind, the society and
counsels of Calchas were eminently qualified to counteract.
Losing no opportunity of sowing the good seed ; of teaching,
both by precept and example, the lessons he had learned from
those who had them direct from the Fountain-head ; it was
impossible to remain long uninfluenced by the constant
kindliness and gentle bearing of one who understood
Christianity to signify, not only faith, and purity, and
devotion even to the death, but also that peace and goodwill

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A VEILED HEART

amongst men, which its first teachers inculcated as its funda-
mental principle and essential element. Calchas, indeed,
lacked not the fiery energy and the tameless instincts of his
race. His nature, perhaps, was originally fierce and warlike
as his brother's, but it had been subdued, softened, exalted
by his religion ; and, while his heart was pitiful and kindly,
nothing remained of the warrior but his loyalty, his courage,
and his zeal.

Cherishing a true attachment for that brother, it was
doubtless a cause of daily sorrow to observe how totally
Eleazar's principles and conduct were opposed to the meek
and holy precepts of the new faith. It seemed to human
reasoning impossible to convert the Jew from his grand and
simple creed, to modify or to explain it, to add to it, or to
take away from it, in the slightest degree to alter his belief
in that direct thearchy, to which he was bound by the ties of
gratitude, of tradition, of national isolation and characteristic
pride of race. A religion which accepts the first great
principles of truth, the omnipotence and eternity of the Deity,
the immortality of souls, and the rewards and punishments
of a life to come, stands already upon a solid basis from which
it has little inclination to be removed ; and in all ages, the
Jew, as in a somewhat less degree the Mahometan, has been
most unwilling to add to his own stern tenets the mild and
loving doctrines of our revealed religion. Eleazar's was a
character to which the outward and tangible ceremonials of
his worship were essentially acceptable. To him the law, in
its severest and most literal sense, was the only true guide
for political measures as for private conduct ; and where
its burdens were multiplied or its severities enhanced by
tradition, he upheld the latter gladly and inflexibly. To
offer the sacrifices ordained by Divine command ; to exact
and rigidly fulfil the minutest points of observance which the
priests enjoined ; to keep the Sabbath inviolate by word and
deed ; also, when opportunity offered, to smite the heathen
hip-and-thigh with the edge of the sword ; these were the
points of faith and practice on which Eleazar took his stand,
and from which no consideration of affection, no temptation
of ambition, no exigency of the times, would have induced
him to waver one hair's-breadth. The fiercest soldier, the
wildest barbarian, the most frivolous and dissolute patrician
of the Imperial Court, would have been a more promising
convert than such a man as this. Yet did not Calchas
despair : well he knew that there is a season of seed-time and a
season of harvest, that the soil once choked with weeds, or sown

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with tares, may thereafter produce a good crop ; that waters
have been known to flow freely from the bare rock, and that
nothing is impossible under heaven. So he loved his brother
and prayed for him, and took that brother's daughter to his
heart as though she had been his own child.

It must have required no small patience, no small amount
of self-control and humility, to engraft in Mariamne the good
fruit, which her father held in such hatred and disdain.
These, too, were difficulties with which the early Christians
had to contend, and of which we now make small account
We read of their privations, their persecutions, their imprison-
ments, and their martyrdoms, with a thrill of mingled horror
and indignation — we pity and admire, we even glorify them
as the heroic leaders of that forlorn hope which was destined
to head the armies of the only true conqueror, but we never
consider the daily and harassing warfare in which they must
have been engaged, the domestic dissensions, the insults of
equals, the alienation of friends ; above all, the cold looks and
estranged affections of those whom they loved best on earth ;
whom they must give up here, and whom, with the new light
that had broken in on them, they could scarce hope to see
hereafter. So-called heroic deeds are not always deserving
of that superiority which they claim over mortal weakness,
when emblazoned on the glowing page of history. Many a
man is capable, so to speak, of winding himself up for one
great effort, even though it be to perish on the scaffold or the
breach; but day after day, and year after year, to wage
unceasing war against our nearest and dearest, our own
comforts, our own prosperity, nay, our own weaknesses and
inclinations, requires the aid of a sustaining power that is
neither without nor within, nor anywhere below on earth,
but must reach the suppliant directly and continuously from
above.

Nevertheless the example of a true Christian, in the real
acceptation of the word, is never without its effect on those
who live under its constant influence. Even Eleazar loved
and respected his brother more than anything on earth, save
his ambition and his creed ; while Mariamne, whose trusting
and gentle disposition rendered her a willing recipient of
those truths which Calchas lost no opportunity of imparting,
gradually, and almost insensibly, imbibed the opinions and
the belief of one whose everyday practice was so pure, so
elevated, and so kindly; to whom, moreover, she was
accustomed to look as her counsellor in difficulty, and her
refuge in distress.

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A VEILED HEART

It was Calchas, then, whose studies she interrupted as he
sat with the scroll before him, that was seldom out of his
hand, perusing those Syriac characters again and again, as a
mariner consults his chart, never weary of storing information
for his future course, and verifying the progress he has
already made. It was to Calchas she had determined to
apply for comfort because Esca came not, and for assistance
to see him again — not that she admitted, even to herself,
that this was her intention or her wish. Nevertheless, she
hovered about the old man's seat, more caressingly than
usual, and finding his attention still riveted on his employ-
ment, she laid one hand lightly on his shoulder, and with
the other parted the thin grey hair that strayed across his
forehead. He looked up with a pleasant smile.

"What is it, little one?" said he, with the endearing
diminutive he had used in addressing her from her childhood.
" You seem unusually busy with your household affairs
to-day. Is this room to be decorated for a guest? My
brother makes no acquaintances here in Rome ; and we have
given no stranger so much as a mouthful of food since we
arrived, save that goodly barbarian you brought home with
you the other evening. Is he coming again to-night ? " *

A bright blush swept over her face, yet when it faded,
Calchas could not but remark that she was paler than her
wont ; and her manner, usually so gentle and composed, was
now restless, anxious, and ill at ease.

" Nay," she replied, " what should I know of the barbarian's
movements ? It was but a chance meeting that led him to
our quiet dwelling in the first instance; and save by the
merest accident we are never likely to see him more."

She turned away while she spoke, trying to steady her
voice and give it a tone of cold indifference, but failing
utterly in the attempt.

"There is no such power as chance," said Calchas,
looking her keenly in the face.

" I know it," replied Mariamne, smiling sadly ; " and I
know, too, that whatever befalls us is for the best. Yet some
things are hard to bear, nevertheless. Not that I have aught
to complain of," she added, shrinking instinctively from the
very topic she wanted to bring on, " save my constant anxiety
for my father in these tumultuous times."

" He is in God's hand," said Calchas, " who will bring him

safe through all his perils, though they seem now to environ

him as the breakers boil round a stranded galley, when the

wild Adriatic is leaping and dashing for its prey. Take

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comfort, little one ; I cannot bear to see your step so listless
and your cheek so pale."

" How can they be otherwise ? " returned the girl, not
very candidly. " It is a weary lot to be a soldier's daughter.
I could even find it in my heart to wish we had never left
Judaea ; never come to Rome."

He tried his best to soothe and comfort her — his best
such as it was, for the good old man knew but little of a
woman's heart — its wild hopes, its indefinite aims, its way-
ward feelings, and its inexplicable tendency to self-torture.
He thought in his simplicity the real grievance was that
which she avowed, and he strove to remove it in his own
kind hopeful way.

" My child," said he, " the evils that are raging in Italy,
the horrors that we hear of every day, cannot but make
Eleazar's position more important and less hazardous, as
they increase the difficulties of the imperial councils. It is,
indeed, no child's play to bridle such a nation as ours with
one hand, and to grasp at the imperial diadem with the other.
It takes a bold heart to draw the sword against Judah, and
a long arm to buffet Caesar across the seas. Vespasian will
have little leisure to persecute our race ; and the Emperor,
sore beset as he is, will surely lend a favourable ear to my
brother's proposals for peace. Even now the legions are
declaring, far and wide, against Vitellius ; and civil war, the
most dreadful of all scourges, is desolating the provinces and
entering Italy herself. It was but yesterday that news reached
Rome of the revolt of the whole fleet at Ravenna — and ere
this Cremona has perhaps fallen into the power of Antonius,
that soldier-orator, with the iron arm and the silver tongue.
Well we know, for we have been told by One whose words
shall never be forgotten, that a house divided against itself
cannot stand ; and is this a time, think you, my child, for the
worn-out sensualist who wears the purple here, to make
conditions with such a man as your father ? It is all in God's
hand, as I never cease to insist ; yet I cannot but feel that a
better day must at last be dawning upon Judaea, that her
enemies will be confounded, her armies victorious, and her
chiefs — but what have we to do with the sword ? " he broke
off abruptly, while his kindling eye and animated gestures
bore witness to the ardent spirit that would flash out here
and there even now. " Our weapon is the Cross, our warfare
is not of this world, our triumph is in our humility, and when
most we are brought low, then are we most exalted. Oh,
that the time were come, as come it surely will, when Caesar

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A VEILED HEART

shall be content to take only that which is Caesar's, and men
shall be gathered under one banner, and in one brotherhood,
from all corners of the world ! "

It was no exaggerated account Calchas thus gave of the
dilemma in which the empire was placed at this juncture.
Vespasian, with great political talents, with coolness, patience,
and audacity, was playing a game against which the besotted
brains of Vitellius were powerless to compete. The former,
adored by the army, who saw in him a successful general, an
intrepid soldier, and a man of simple virtuous habits, con-
trasting nobly with the luxurious gluttony and sensuality
of his rival, lost none of his influence by the moderation he
displayed, and the modesty, real or affected, with which he
declined the purple. Not afraid to wait till advantage
ripened into opportunity, he could seize it when the time
came with a bold and tenacious grasp, could turn it deftly
to his own profit and guide those circumstances of which he
seemed to be the mere puppet, with a master-hand. Though
at a distance from the scene of warfare, and to all appearance
little more than an unwilling observer of the disturbances
carried on in his name, he directed as it were from behind a
curtain the operations of his generals, and pulled the strings
that set in motion his numerous partisans with a clear head,
a delicate touch, and that tenacity of purpose which is the
essential element of success. Vitellius, on the other hand,
whose natural abilities had been weakened, nay destroyed,
by an unceasing course of sensual gratification, wavered in
council and hesitated in action ; now determined to abdicate
the diadem and retire into obscurity; anon persuaded to
fight for dominion to the death; and ever paralysing the
energies of his warmest partisans by the distrust he enter-
tained for honest advisers, and the reliance he placed on the
counsels of those traitors who surrounded him.

The empire was, perhaps, at this period in a more dis-
heartening position than even under the ferocious sway of
Nero. Monster as the latter was, he at least held the reins
with a firm hand ; and tyranny, however oppressive, is
doubtless one degree better than anarchy and confusion.
Now, the mighty fabric, of which Romulus laid the first stone
and Augustus completed the pinnacle — the work of seven
centuries, to which every generation had added its labours
and its enterprise, till it embraced the confines of the known
world — was beginning perceptibly to sink and crumble from
its own enormous size and weight. The legions (and it must
xiever be forgotten that the dominion of Rome was essentially

EROS

that of the sword) were now recruited from natives of her
distant colonies. The Syrian and the Ethiop guarded the
eagles as well as the tall turbulent sons of Germany, and the
ever - changing, ever - faithless Gaul. Armies thus gathered
under one standard from such various climates could have
but little in common save a certain, professional ferocity, and
an ardent liking for plunder, no less than pay. Mercenaries
have in all ages been easily bought by the one and seduced
by the other. Each legion gradually came to consider itself
a separate and independent power, to be sold to the highest
bidder. Perhaps the fairest vision of all was a march upon
Rome, and a ten hours' sack of the city they were sworn to
defend. A great and good man, backed by the glory of
name, race, and illustrious actions, could alone have ruled
such discordant elements, and united these conflicting
interests for the common good ; but fate ordained that the
weak, worn-out, besotted Vitellius should be seated on the
throne of the Caesars, and that the cool, unflinching, and
far-seeing Vespasian should be watching with sleepless eye
and ready hand to snatch the diadem from his bewildered
predecessor, and place it firmly on his own head.

While the destinies of the world were thus trembling in
the balance, while her own nation was fighting for its very
existence, and the storm gathering all around, obviously to
burst in its greatest fury on the Imperial City, the care that
weighed heaviest at Mariamne's heart was that she had that
day noticed a barbarian slave walk into the training-school
of a Roman gladiator.

" Is it true, then," asked the girl, " that civil war is indeed
raging here, as we have seen it at home? That we shall
have an enemy ere long at the very gates of the city?"

" Too true, my child," replied Calchas ; " and the Roman
people seem, as usual, to make light of the emergency, to eat,
drink, buy, sell, and feast their eyes on bloodshed in the
circus, as though their idolatrous temple, where Janus over-
looks the usurers and money-changers of the city, were shut
up once for all, never to be opened again."

She turned pale and shuddered at the mention of the
circus.

" Are they making no preparations ? " she asked timidly.
" Did I not hear my father say they were collecting the
gladiators, and — and — some of the nobles had enrolled their
German and British slaves, and were arming them against an
attack ? "

" It may be so," answered Calchas ; " but a slave can

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A VEILED HEART

scarcely be expected to fight very stoutly for a cause which
only serves to rivet his chains. As for the gladiators, those
tigers in human form, it were surely better for them to perish
in open warfare, than to tear one another to pieces in the
arena, like the very beasts against which I have seen them
pitted. Yet these, too, have souls to be saved."

" Surely have they," exclaimed Mariamne, with kindling
eyes, " and none to help them ; none to show them so much
as a glimpse of the true light. These men go out to die
as the citizen goes to his business or his bath; and who is
answerable to man for their blood ? who is answerable to God
for their souls ? "

His eye brightened while she spoke, and he raised his
head like a soldier who hears the trumpet summoning him to
the front.

" If I have a well in my court," said he, "and a man fall
down and die of thirst at my gate, who is answerable ?
Surely I am guilty of my brother's blood, that I never so
much as reached him the pitcher to drink. Shall these men
go down daily to death, and shall I not stretch out a finger
lest they perish everlastingly ? Mariamne, it seems there is a
task set to my hand, and I must accomplish it."

She was far from wishing to hinder him. Actuated as
human nature too often is by mixed motives, she could yet
respond, in her womanly generosity of heart, to that noble
self-sacrifice which was so distinguishing a characteristic
of the new religion ; and could appreciate the devotion of
Calchas, while she hoped through his intervention to obtain
some alleviation of her anxiety on Esca's behalf. She had
caught a glimpse of the slave's figure that very day as it
entered the portals of the training-school ; and this rapid
glance had not served to quiet her misgivings on his
account.

If Calchas should now think it right to interest himself
about a class of men the most reckless and desperate of the
whole Roman population, it was probable that he would at
the same time learn something of Esca's movements ; perhaps
be able to dissuade him from joining the fierce band in which
she now feared he was about to be enrolled. " It may be that
he has some wild hope of thus obtaining his liberty," thought
the girl ; and her heart throbbed while she reflected that it
was for her sake liberty had now become so dear to the
barbarian. "It may be that he has extorted some vague
promise from his lord, and, in his pride of strength and
courage, he never dreams of danger or defeat ; but oh ! if he

133

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should come to harm lor my sake, what will become of me ?
I would rather die a thousand times than that his white skin
should be disfigured with a scratch ! "

" They are practising for their deadly pastime in the next
street," said she ; " I can hear the blows as I go down to draw
water. Blows dealt, as it were, in sport ; what must they be
in earnest ? "

" There is no time to be lost," said Calchas. " The games
of Ceres are to be soon celebrated, and the Roman crowd will
think it but a poor show if some hundreds of gladiators are
not slaughtered at the least. Child, I will visit these men
to-morrow ; they will revile me, but after a time they will
listen. If I can even gain over one, be he the lowest and
most degraded of the band, it will be a triumph greater than
a thousand victories ; a gain infinitely more precious than all
the treasures of Rome."

"To-morrow may be too late," she returned, moving
across the room at the same time so as to hide her face.
" The school is full to-day. I — I think I saw that barbarian
who was here lately go into it an hour or two ago."

" The Briton ! " exclaimed Calchas, starting from his seat.
" Why did you not tell me so before ? Quick, girl, fetch me
my gown and sandals. I will go there without delay."

She helped him, nothing loth. In a few minutes Calchas
was ready to go forth, and as she watched him from the door,
and saw him turn the corner of the street, Mariamne clasped
her hands and muttered a thanksgiving for the success of her
well-meant artifice; while the old man strode boldly to his
destination, confident in the integrity of his purpose, and
rejoicing in the breastplate of proof which covers a good
heart bound on a pious mission. " It is no business of mine,"
was a maxim unknown to the early Christian. Fresh in his
memory was the parable of the Good Samaritan ; and it never
occurred to him that, like the Pharisee, he might pass by on
the other side. The world is some centuries older, yet is that
tale of the friendless wounded wayfarer less suggestive now
than it was then ?

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CHAPTER XVIII

WINGED WORDS

r I "'HE gladiators were pausing from their toil. Brawny
JL chests heaved and panted, deep voices laughed and
swore with returning breath ; strong arms looked heavier and
stronger as the athlete rested his wide hands upon his hips,
and not unconsciously brought his huge muscles into full
relief in the attitude. Esca and his late antagonist were
wiping the sweat from their brows, and looking at one another
with wistful eyes, as if by no means loth to renew the contest,
so equally had the last bout been waged. Hirpinus laid
down the weighty clubs he had been wielding, with a grunt of
relief. No unpractised arm could have lifted those cumbrous
instruments from the ground, yet they were but as reeds in
the hands of the gladiator ; nevertheless, he lamented pit-
eously the tendency of his mighty frame to increasing bulk,
which rendered such heavy and uninteresting work necessary
to fit him for the arena.

" By the body of Hercules ! " complained the giant, " I
would I were but such a half-starved ape as thou, my Lutorius !
See what the master calls training for a man of some solidity,
and thank the gods that an hour's girls'-play with sword and
buckler is enough to keep that slender waist of thine within
the compass of a knight's finger-ring."

" Girls'-play, call you it ? " answered Lutorius. " In faith
'tis a game that would put thy fat carcass on the sand, from
sheer want of breath, in a quarter of the time. No more
girls'-play for us, my lads, till after the feast of Ceres. The
school will be thinner then, or I am mistaken. How many
pairs are promised by the Consul for this coming bout ? I
heard the crier tell us in the street, but I have forgotten."

" One hundred at least, for sword and buckler alone. And
twenty of them out of the Family ! " answered Euchenor
readily, and with a malicious smile. His profession as a
boxer freed him from any fatal apprehensions ; but he took
none the less pleasure in recalling to his comrades the more

135

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deadly nature of their encounters. Rufus alone looked grave ;
perhaps he was thinking of his wife and children while he
listened ; perhaps that humble cottage in the Apennines
seemed farther off than ever, and the more desirable on that
account. The others smiled grimly, and a wolfish expression
gleamed for an instant from their eyes — all but Esca, whose
glowing young face displayed only courage, excitement, and
hope.

" Bird of ill-omen ! " said Hippias sternly. " What do you
know of the clash of steel ? Keep to your own boys'-play,
and do not meddle with the game that draws blood at every
stroke. I think I am master here ! "

Euchenor would have answered sullenly, but a knock at
the door arrested his attention. As it swung open, to the
surprise of all, and of none more than Esca, Calchas stood
before them.

" Salve ! " said the old man kindly, as he looked around,
his venerable head and calm dignified bearing contrasting
nobly with the brute strength and coarser faces of the
gladiators. " Salve ! " he repeated, smiling at the astonish-
ment his appearance seemed to call forth.

Hippias was not lacking in a certain rough courtesy of the
camp. He advanced to the new-comer, bade him welcome
as a stranger, and inquired the cause of his visit ; " for," said
he, " judging by your looks, O my father ! it can scarcely be
a mission connected either with me or my disciples here,
whose trade, you may observe, is war."

" I too am a soldier," answered Calchas quietly, looking
the astonished fencing-master full in the face. The gladiators
had by this time gathered round ; like schoolboys at play
they were ripe for mischief, and, like schoolboys, it needed
but the merest trifle to urge them into any extreme, either of
good or evil.

" A soldier ! " exclaimed Euchenor, " then you fear not
steel ! " — at the same moment he snatched a short two-edged
sword from the wall, and delivered a thrust with it full at
the old man's breast. Calchas moved not a muscle ; [his
colour neither rose nor fell ; his eyelash never quivered as he
looked steadily at the Greek, who probably only intended a
brutal jest, and cared but little how dangerous might be its
result. The point had reached the folds of the visitor's gown,
when Rufus dashed it aside with his hand, while Hippias
dealt the offender a buffet, which sent him reeling to the
opposite wall.

" What now ? " exclaimed the professor, in a tone with

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WINGED WORDS

which a man rates a disobedient hound. " What now ? Am
I not master here ? "

The others looked on approvingly. The jest was wel
suited to their habits. They were amused at the discom-
fiture of the Greek, and pleased with the coolness shown by
an old man of such unwarlike exterior. Esca, however,
strode up to his friend's side, and glared about him in a
manner that boded no good to the originator of any more
such aggressions, either in sport or earnest.

"Thou hast hurt the youth," remarked Calchas, in as
unmoved a tone as would have become the fiercest gladiator
of the school. " Thou hast hurt him, and he was but in jest
after all. In truth, Hippias, I have not seen so goodly a
buffet dealt since I came to Rome. That arm of thine can
strike to some purpose, and thy pupils are, like their master,
brave, and strong, and skilful. I have heard of the legion
called Invincible, surely I have found it here. My sons, are
you not the Invincibles ? "

He spoke so quietly they knew not whether he was
jesting with them ; but the flattering title tickled their ears
pleasantly enough, and the gladiators crowded round him,
with shouts of encouragement and mirth.

" Invincibles ! " they laughed. " Invincibles ! Well said,
old man ! yes, we are the Invincibles. Who can stand
against the Family ? Hast come to join us ? We shall have
plenty of space in the ranks ere another moon be old."

" Give him a sword, one of you ! " exclaimed Rufus ; " let
us see what he can do with Lutorius. The Gaul has had
a bellyful already; press him, old man, and he must go
down ! "

" Nay, let him have a bout with the wooden foils," laughed
Hirpinus. " He is but young and tender. He would sicken
at the sight of blood."

" Or a cast with the net and trident," continued Manlius.

" Or a round with the cestus" observed Euchenor ; adding
with a sneer, " I myself am ready to exchange a buffet or two
with him, for sheer goodwill."

" Hold ! my new comrades," interposed Esca, with rising
colour. " In my country we are taught to venerate grey
hairs. If ye are so keen for cestus, lance, and sword-play,
here am I, untried and inexperienced, willing to stand against
the best of you, from now till sundown."

The gladiators gathered round the last speaker some-
what angrily ; the challenge was indeed a bold one in such
company, and a contest begun in play amongst those

137

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turbulent spirits, might end, not improbably, in too fatal
earnest; but Hippias cut the matter short by commanding
silence, in loud imperious tones, and, turning to the new-
comer, bade him state at once the business that had brought
him there and have done with it.

" I came here," said the old man, looking round with a
glance of mingled pity and admiration ; " I came here to see,
with my own eyes, the band of Invincibles. I have already
told you that I too am a soldier, whose duty it is to go down,
if need be, daily unto death."

There was something so quiet and earnest in the speaker's
manner, such an absence of self-consciousness or apprehension,
a sincerity and goodwill so frank and evident, that the rude
fierce men whom he addressed could not but give him their
attention. There was all the interest of novelty in beholding
one whose appearance and habits were so at variance with
their own, thus throwing himself fearlessly on their forbear-
ance, and trusting, as it were, to that higher nature, which,
dormant though it might be, each man felt to exist within
himself. Even Hippias acknowleged the influence of his
visitor's confidence, and answered graciously enough —

" If you are a soldier, I need not tell you that we are but
on the drill-ground here. You will see my band to better
advantage when they defile by Caesar at the games of
Ceres."

Calchas looked inquiringly round.

" And the chorus," said he, " that I have heard ring out
in such a warlike tone, as your ranks marched past the
imperial chair ; are you perfect in it, my friends ? Do you
practise the chant as you do your sword-play and your
wrestling? "

He had fixed their attention now. Half-interested, half-
amused at his strange persistency, they looked laughingly at
each other, and their deep voices burst out into the wild and
thrilling cadence of their fatal dirge —

Ave, Ccesar ! Morituri te salutant !

As the last notes died away, silence pervaded the school ;
to the rudest and most reckless, there was something sugges-
tive in the sounds they knew too well would be the last music
they should hear on earth. Calchas turned suddenly upon
Hippias.

" And the wages Caesar gives your men ? " said he ; " since
he buys them body and bones, they must be very costly.
How many thousand sesterces doth he pay for each?"

A brutal laugh echoed round him at the question.

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WINGED WORDS

"Sesterces!" answered Hippias. "Nay; Caesar's gener-
osity provides handsomely for the training and nourishment
of his swordsmen."

" True enough ! " added Rufus, at which there was
another laugh. " He finds us in meat, and drink, and
burial!"

" No more ? " said Calchas. " Yet I have been told that
in Rome everything fetches its price ; but little did I think
such men as these could be bought for less money than a
Syrian dancing-girl, or a senator's white horses. So you are
willing to toil day after day, harder than the peasant on the
hillside, or the oarsman in the galley, to live simply, temper-
ately, ay, virtuously, for months together, and then to face
certain death, often in its ghastliest form, for the wages a
Roman citizen gives his meanest slave — a morsel of meat
and a draught of wine ! If you conquer in the struggle, a
branch of palm may be added to a handful of silver, and you
deem your reward is more than enough. Truly, I am old
and feeble, these hands are little worth to strike or parry,
yet would I grudge to sell this worn-out body of mine at so
mean a price."

" You told us you were a soldier," observed Rufus, on
whom the argument of relative value seemed to make no
slight impression.

" So I am," replied Calchas ; " but not at such a low rate
of pay as yours. My duties are not heavy. I am not forced
to toil all day, nor to watch all night. My head aches with
no weighty helmet ; breastplate and greaves of steel do not
gall my body nor cumber my limbs. I have neither trench
to dig, nor mound to raise, nor eagles to guard. I need not
stand, like you, against my comrade and my friend, with my
point at his throat, and slay the man who has been to me
even as a brother, lest he slay me. Yet, though my labours
be so easy, and my service be so deficient and inadequate, all
the gold and jewels you have seen glistening in a triumph, all
the treasures of Caesar and of Rome, would not equal the
reward I hope to earn."

The gladiators looked from one to the other with glances
of astonishment and curiosity. This was a subject that
spoke to their personal interest, and roused their feelings
accordingly.

" Are there vacancies in your ranks, comrade ? " asked
Hirpinus, using the military form of speech habitually
affected by his profession. " Will you enrol a man of
muscle like myself, who has been looking all his life for a

139

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service in which there is little to do and plenty to get?
Take my word for it, you will not long want for recruits."

" There is room for all, and to spare," answered Calchas,
raising his voice till it rung through every corner of the
building. " My Captain will enlist you freely, and without
reserve. Only you come to Him and range yourselves under
His banner, and stand by Him for a few short watches, a
week, a month, a decade or two of years at the most, and
He will stand by you when Caesar and his legions are
scattered to the four winds of heaven; ay, and long after
that, for ages and ages rolling on in a circle that has no
end ! Will you come, brave hearts ? I have authority to
receive you, man by man."

" Where is your Captain ? " asked Hirpinus. " He must
needs have a large following. Is he here in Rome? Can
we see him ere we take the oaths and raise the standard ?
Comrades ! " he added, looking round, " this old man speaks
as though he were in earnest. Nay, he would scarcely dare
to laugh in our very beards ! "

" You might have seen Him," answered Calchas, " not forty
years ago, as I myself did, on the sunny plains of Syria. You
will not see Him now, till a pinch of dust has been sprinkled
on your brow, and the death-penny put into your mouth.
Then, when you have crossed the dark river, He will be
waiting for you on the other side."

The gladiators looked at one another. "What means
he ? " said they. " Is he mad ? " " Is he an augur ? "
" Doth he deal in magic ? " Rufus reared his tall head
above the throng. " Would you have us believe in what
we cannot see ? " was the apposite question of that practical
swordsman. The old man drew his mantle round his
shoulders with the air of one who prepares for argument.
All he wanted was a fair hearing.

" Which is the nobler gift," he asked, " a strong body, or
a gallant heart ? Ye have fought many times, most of you,
in the arena. Answer me truly — which is the conqueror,
courage or strength?"

" Courage," they exclaimed, with one voice ; all except
Euchenor, who muttered something about skill and good
fortune being preferable to either.

" And yet you cannot see it," resumed Calchas. " Will
you therefore argue that it cannot exist? Is there one of
you here that doth not feel a something wanting to complete
his daily existence? Why do you long for the smiles of
women, and the bubble of the winecup? Why can you

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WINGED WORDS

not rest when the training of to-day is over, for thinking
of the labours of to-morrow ? Why are you always anxious,
always anticipating, always dissatisfied ? Because a man
consists of two parts, the body and the spirit ; because his
life is made up of two phases, the present and the future.
Your bodies belong to Caesar, let him have them to do with
them what he likes, to-day, to-morrow, at the games of
Ceres, at the feast of Neptune, what matter? But the
spirit, the man within you, is your own. He it is who doth
not wince when the javelin pierces to the quick, or the wild
beast rends to the marrow. He it is who quails not when
the level sweep of sand seems to rock beneath him, and
heave up against his face ; when the white garments and
eager faces of the crowd spin round him faster and faster as
they fade upon his darkening eye. He is the better man of
the two, and he will live for ever. Shall you not provide
for him'} What is your present? Much trouble, many
hours of toil. A foot or two of steel in the hand, and a
dash at a comrade's throat, then a back - fall below the
equestrian benches, and so the future begins. Do you
think there is nothing better there than old Charon's ferry-
boat, and the pale misty banks of the uncertain river? I
know the way to a golden land far brighter and fairer than
the fabled islands of the West. There is a high wall round
it, and the gate is low and narrow; but the key stands
in the lock, and you need no death-penny to purchase
entrance for the poorest of you. Go to the door in rags,
with no other possession but the hope and trust that you
may crawl in upon your knees, and it opens ere you have
knocked."

Something in each man's heart told him, as he listened,
that if he could but believe this, the conviction was worth
more than all the treasures of the empire put together.
Liable as were these gladiators to stand in the jaws of death
at a day's notice, there was something inexpressibly elevating
in the idea that the supreme moment which the most careless
of them could not but sometimes picture to himself, was the
mere passage to a nobler state of existence. The words of
a man who is telling what he himself implicitly believes to
be the truth, carry with them no small amount of persuasion ;
and when Calchas paused, the swordsmen looked doubtingly
at him with eyes in which incredulity and admiration were
strangely mingled ; not without a certain wistful gleam of
hope. Hippias, indeed, whose tastes inclined him to
materialism, and his reflections to utter disbelief in every-

141

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thing save the temper of a blade, seemed disposed to cut
the matter short, as being a waste of valuable time ; but the
anxiety of his pupils, and especially of Esca, to hear more
of the glowing promises held out, induced him to fold his
arms and listen, with a smile of conscious superiority, not
devoid of contempt.

" And the Captain who leads us ? " asked the Gaul, after
a whisper and a push from Hirpinus. " What of him ?
Your promises are fair enough, I grant you, but I would
fain know with whom I serve."

Not one of them but noted the gleam on the old man's
face, as he replied —

" The Captain went up to death with a patient, calm, and
kindly face, for you, and you, and you, and me — for those
who had never seen Him ; for those who mistrusted Him ;
for those who failed Him, and turned back from Him at His
need. Nay, for those who tortured and slew Him, and
whom He forgave with the free full forgiveness of a God ! —
ay, of a God ! Which of your gods has done as much for
you? When did one of them leave their Mount Olympus,
save for some human need, or some human mission of blood-
shed and crime? Where is the king who would give up
an earthly throne, and go voluntarily to a shameful death
for the sake of his people? You are men, my friends —
brave, resolute, hearty men ; what would you have in him
whom you serve ? courage, patience, mercy, goodwill to all ?
What think ye of Him who left the rulership of the whole
universe, and went so willingly to die, that He might buy
you to be His own here and hereafter? Come and range
yourselves under His standard. I will tell you of Him day
by day. There is no jealousy amongst His soldiers. The
service is easy ; He has told us so Himself; and neither mine
nor any mortal tongue can calculate the reward."

" Enough of this ! " interrupted Hippias, noting the eager
looks and excited gestures of the swordsmen ; interpreting,
as he did, the words of Calchas in their literal sense, and
fearing lest he might, indeed, lose the services of the daring
band, on whose blood it was his trade to live. " Enough ot
this, old man ! We have heard you patiently, and now
begone ! My gladiators have enlisted under Caesar, and
they will not desert their standard for any inducement you
can offer. I know not why I have listened to you so long ;
but trespass not further on my forbearance. This building
is no Athenian school of rhetoric ; and the only arguments
acknowledged by Hippias, are those which may be parried

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WINGED WORDS

with two foot of steel. Nevertheless, go in peace, old man,
and fare you well."

So Calchas went out from amongst these fierce and
turbulent spirits, unharmed and well satisfied. He had sown
a handful of the good seed, and knew that somewhere it
would take root. More than one of the gladiators was
already pondering on his words; and the young Briton,
with his ardent nature, his kind heart, and his predisposition
in favour of Mariamne's kinsman, had resolved that he
would hear more of these new doctrines, which seemed to
dawn upon him like light from another world.

CHAPTER XIX

THE ARENA

A HUNDRED thousand tongues, whispering and mur-
muring with Italian volubility, send up a busy hum
like that of an enormous beehive into the sunny air. The
Flavian amphitheatre, Vespasian's gigantic concession to
the odious tastes of his people, has not yet been constructed ;
and Rome must crowd and jostle in the great circus, if she
would behold that slaughter of beasts, and those mortal
combats of men, in which she now takes far more delight
than in the innocent trials of speed and skill for which the
enclosure was originally designed. That her luxurious
citizens are dissatisfied even with this roomy edifice, is
sufficiently obvious from the many complaints that accom-
pany the struggling and pushing of those who are anxious
to obtain a good place. To-day's bill -of -fare is indeed
tempting to the morbid appetites of high and low. A
rhinoceros and tiger are to be pitted against each other;
and it is hoped that, notwithstanding many recent failures
in such combats, these two beasts may be savage enough
to afford the desired sport. Several pairs of gladiators, at
least, are to fight to the death, besides those on whom the
populace may show mercy, or from whom they may with-
hold it at will. In addition to all this, it has been whispered
that one well-known patrician intends to exhibit his prowess
on the deadly stage. Much curiosity is expressed, and many
a wager has been already laid, on his name, his skill, the
nature of his conflict, and the chances of his success.
Though the circus be large enough to contain the popula-
tion of a thriving city, no wonder that it is to-day full to
the very brim. As usual in such assemblages, the hours of
waiting are lightened by eating and drinking, by jests,
practical and otherwise, by remarks, complimentary, sar-
castic, or derisive, on the several notabilities who enter at
short intervals, and take their places with no small stir and
assumption of importance. The nobility and distinguished

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characters of this dissolute age are better known than
respected by their plebeian fellow-citizens.

There is, however, one exception. Though Valeria's
Liburnians lay themselves open to no small amount of
insolence, by the emphatic manner in which they make
way for their mistress, as she proceeds with her usual
haughty bearing to her place near the patrician benches —
an insolence of which some of the more pointed missiles
do not spare the scornful beauty herself — it is no sooner
observed that she is accompanied by her kinsman, Licinius,
than a change comes over the demeanour even of those
who feel themselves most aggrieved, by being elbowed out
of their places, and pushed violently against their neigh-
bours, while admiring glances and a respectful silence denote
the esteem in which the Roman general is held by high
and low.

It wants a few minutes yet of noon. The southern sun,
though his intensity is modified by canvas awnings stretched
over the spectators wherever it is possible to afford them
shade, lights and warms up every nook and cranny of the
amphitheatre; gleams in the raven hair of the Campanian
matron, and the black eyes of the astonished urchin in her
arms ; flashes off the golden bosses that stud the white
garments on the equestrian benches; bleaches the level
sweep of sand so soon to bear the prints of mortal struggle,
and flooding the lofty throne where Caesar sits in state,
deepens the broad crimson hem that skirts his imperial
garment, and sheds a deathlike hue over the pale bloated
face, which betrays even now no sign of interest, or animation,
or delight. Vitellius attends these brutal exhibitions with
the same immobility that characterises his demeanour in
almost all the avocations of life. The same listlessness, the
same weary vacancy of expression, pervades his countenance
here, as in the senate or the council. His eye never glistens
but at the appearance of a favourite dish ; and the emperor
of the world can only be said to live once in the twenty-four
hours, when seated at the banquet.

Insensibility seems, however, in all ages to be an affecta-
tion of the higher classes ; and here, while the plebeians
wrangle, and laugh, and chatter, and gesticulate, the patricians
are apparently bent on proving that amusement is for them
a simple impossibility, and suffering or slaughter matters of
the most profound indifference. And on common occasions
who so impassible, so cold, so unmoved by all that takes
place around her, as the haughty Valeria ? but to-day there

K 145

EROS

is an unusual gleam in the grey eyes, a quiver of the lip, a
fixed red spot on either cheek ; adding new charms to her
beauty, not lost upon the observers who surround her.

Quoth Damasippus to Oarses (for the congenial rogues
stand, as usual, shoulder to shoulder) —

" I would not that the patron saw her now. I never knew
her look so fair as this. Locusta must have left her the
secret of her love philtres."

" Oh, innocent ! " replies the other. " Knowest thou not
that the patron fights to-day ? Seest thou her restless hands,
and that fixed smile, like the mask of an old Greek player ?
She loves him ; trust me, therefore, she has lost her power,
were she subtle as Arachne. Dost not know the patron?
To do him justice, he never prizes the stakes when he has
won the game."

And the two fall to discussing the dinner they have
brought with them, and think they are perfectly familiar with
the intricacies of a woman's feelings. Meantime Valeria
seems to cling to Licinius as though there were some spell
in her kinsman's presence to calm that beating heart of which
she is but now beginning to learn the wayward and indomit-
able nature. For the twentieth time she asks : " Is he pre-
pared at all points ? Does he know every feint of the deadly
game? Are his health and strength as perfect as training
can make them ? And oh, my kinsman ! is he confident in
himself? Does he feel sure that he will win ? "

To which questions, Licinius, though wondering at the
interest she betrays in such a matter, answers as before —

" All that skill, and science, and Hippias can do, has been
done. He has the advantage in strength, speed, and height.
Above all, he has the courage of his nation. As they get
fiercer they get cooler, and they are never so formidable as
when you deem them vanquished. I could not sit here if I
thought he would be worsted."

Then Valeria took comfort for a while, but soon she
moved restlessly on her cushions.

" How I wish they would begin ! " said she ; yet every
moment of delay seemed at the same time to be a respite of
priceless value, even while it added to the torture of suspense.

Many hearts were beating in that crowd with love, hope,
fear, and anxiety ; but perhaps none so wildly as those of
two women, separated but by a few paces, and whose eyes
some indefinable attraction seemed to draw irresistibly
towards each other. While Valeria, in common with many
ladies of distinction, had encroached upon the space originally

146

THE ARENA

allotted to the vestal virgins, and established, by constant
attendance in the amphitheatre, a prescriptive right to a
cushioned seat for herself and her friends, women of lower
rank were compelled to station themselves in an upper gallery
allotted to them, or to mingle on sufferance with the crowd
in the lower tier of places, where the presence of a male
companion was indispensable for protection from annoyance,
and even insult. Nevertheless, within speaking distance of
the haughty Roman lady stood Mariamne, accompanied by
Calchas, trembling with fear and excitement in every limb,
yet turning her large dark eyes upon Valeria, with an ex-
pression of curiosity and interest that could only have been
aroused by an instinctive consciousness of feelings common
to both. The latter, too, seemed fascinated by the gaze of
the Jewish maiden, now bending on her a haughty and
inquiring glance, anon turning away with a gesture of affected
disdain ; but never unobservant, for many seconds together,
of the dark pale beauty and her venerable companion.

When she was at last fairly wedged in amongst the crowd,
Mariamne could hardly explain to herself how she came
there. It had been with great difficulty that she persuaded
Calchas to accompany her ; and, indeed, nothing but his
interest in Esca, and the hope that he might, even here, find
some means of doing good, would have tempted the old man
into such a scene. It was with many a burning blush and
painful thrill that she confessed to herself, she must go mad
with anxiety were she absent from the death-struggle to be
waged by the man whom she now knew she loved so dearly ;
and it was with a wild defiant recklessness that she resolved
if aught of evil should befall him to give herself up thence-
forth to despair. She felt as if she was in a dream ; the sea
of faces, the jabber of tongues, the strange novelty of the
spectacle, confused and wearied her; yet through it all
Valeria's eye seemed to look down on her with an ominous
boding of ill ; and when, with an effort, she forced her senses
back into self-consciousness, she felt so lonely, so frightened,
and so unhappy, that she wished she had never come.

And now, with peal of trumpets and clash of cymbals, a
burst of wild martial music rises above the hum and murmur
of the seething crowd. Under a spacious archway, supported
by marble pillars, wide folding-doors are flung open, and two
by two, with stately step and slow, march in the gladiators,
armed with the different weapons of their deadly trade.
Four hundred men are they, in all the pride of perfect strength
and symmetry, and high training, and practised skill. With

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EROS

head erect and haughty bearing, they defile once round the
arena, as though to give the spectators an opportunity of
closely scanning their appearance, and halt with military
precision to range themselves in line under Caesar's throne.
For a moment there is a pause and hush of expectation over
the multitude, while the devoted champions stand motionless
as statues in the full glow of noon ; then bursting suddenly
into action, they brandish their gleaming weapons over their
heads, and higher, fuller, fiercer, rises the terrible chant that
seems to combine the shout of triumph with the wail of
suffering, and to bid a long and hopeless farewell to upper
earth, even in the very recklessness and defiance of its
despair —

" Ave, Caesar ! Morituri te salutant ! "

Then they wheel out once more, and range themselves on
either side of the arena ; all but a chosen band who occupy
the central place of honour, and of whom every second man
at least is doomed to die. These are the picked pupils of
Hippias ; the quickest eyes and the readiest hands in the
Family ; therefore it is that they have been selected to fight
by pairs to the death, and that it is understood no clemency
will be extended to them from the populace.

With quickened breath and eager looks, Valeria and
Mariamne scan their ranks in search of a well-known figure :
both feel it to be a questionable relief that he is not there ;
but the Roman lady tears the edge of her mantle to the seam,
and the Jewish girl offers an incoherent prayer in her heart,
for she knows not what

Esca's part is not yet to be performed, and he is still in
the background, preparing himself carefully for the struggle.
The rest of the Family, however, muster in force. Tall Rufus
stalks to his appointed station with a calm business-like air
that bodes no good to his adversary, whoever he may be.
He has fought too often not to feel confident in his own
invincible prowess ; and when compelled to despatch a fallen
foe, he will do it with sincere regret, but none the less dexter-
ously and effectually for that. Hirpinus, too, assumes his
usual air of jovial hilarity. There is a smile on his broad
good-humoured face ; and though, notwithstanding the severity
of his preparation, his huge muscles are still a trifle too full
and lusty, he will be a formidable antagonist for any fighter
whose proportions are less than those of a Hercules. As the
crowd pass the different combatants in review, none, with the
exception perhaps of Rufus, have more backers than their
old favourite. Lutorius, too, notwithstanding his Gallic origin,

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THE ARENA

which places him but one remove, as it were, from a barbarian,
finds no slight favour with those who pride themselves on
their experience in such matters. His great activity and
endurance, combined with thorough knowledge of his weapon,
have made him the victor in many a public contest. As
Damasippus observes to his friend, "Lutorius can always
tire out an adversary and despatch him at leisure ; " to which
Oarses replies, " If he be pitted to-day against Manlius, I will
wager thee a thousand sesterces blood is not drawn in the
first three assaults."

The pairs had already been decided by lot ; but amongst
the score of combatants who were to fight to the death, these
formidable champions were the most celebrated, and as such
the especial favourites of the populace. Certain individuals
in the crowd, who were sufficiently familiar with the gladiators
to exchange a word of greeting, and to call them by their
names, derived, in consequence, no small increase of import-
ance amongst the bystanders. The swordsmen, although
now ranged in order round the arena, are destined, for a time
at least, to remain inactive. The sports are to commence
with a combat between a lately imported rhinoceros, and
a Libyan tiger, already familiarly known to the public, as
having destroyed two or three Christian victims and a negro
slave. It is only in the event of these animals being unwilling
to fight, or becoming dangerous to the spectators, that Hippias
will call in the assistance of his pupils for their destruction.
In the meantime, they have an excellent view of the conflict,
though perhaps it might be seen in greater comfort from the
farther and safer side of the barrier.

Vitellius, with a feeble inclination of his head, signs to
begin, and a portable wooden building which has been
wheeled into the lists, creating no little curiosity, is now
taken to pieces by a few strokes of the hammer. As the
slaves carry away the dismembered boards, with the rapidity
of men in terror of their lives, a huge, unwieldy beast stands
disclosed, and the rhinoceros of which they have been talking
for the last week bursts on the delighted eyes of the Roman
public. These are perhaps a little disappointed at first, for
the animal seems peaceably, not to say indolently, disposed.
Taking no notice of the shouts which greet his appearance,
he digs his horned muzzle into the sand in search of food, as
though secure in the overlapping plates of armour that sway
loosely on his enormous body, with every movement of his
huge ungainly limbs. So intent are the spectators on this
rare monster, that their attention is only directed to the

149

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farther end of the arena by the restlessness which the
rhinoceros at length exhibits. He stamps angrily with his
broad flat feet, his short pointed tail is furiously agitated, and
the gladiators who are near him observe that his little eye is
glowing like a coal. A long, low, dark object lies coiled up
under the barrier as though seeking shelter, nor is it. till the
second glance that Valeria, whose interest, in common with
that of the multitude, is fearfully excited, can make out the
fawning, cruel head, the glaring eyes, and the striped sinewy
form of the Libyan tiger.

In vain the people wait for him to commence the attack.
Although he is sufficiently hungry, having been kept for more
than a day without food, it is not his nature to carry on an
open warfare. Damasippus and Oarses jeer him loudly as
he skulks under the barrier; and Calchas cannot forbear
whispering to Mariamne, that "a curse has been on the
monster since he tore the brethren limb from limb, in that
very place, for the glory of the true faith." The rhinoceros,
however, seems disposed to take the initiative ; with a short
labouring trot he moves across the arena, leaving such deep
footprints behind him, as sufficiently attest his enormous bulk
and weight. There is a flash like real fire from the tiger's
eyes, hitherto only sullen and watchful — his waving tail
describes a semicircle in the sand — and he coils himself more
closely together, with a deep low growl ; even now he is not
disposed to fight save at an advantage.

A hundred thousand pairs of eyes, straining eagerly on
the combatants, could scarce detect the exact moment at
which that spring was made. All they can now discern is
the broad mailed back of the rhinoceros swaying to and fro,
as he kneels upon his enemy, and the grating of the tiger's
claws against the huge beast's impenetrable armour can be
heard in the farthest corner of the gallery that surrounds the
amphitheatre. The leap was made as the rhinoceros turned
his side for an instant towards his adversary; but with a
quickness marvellous in a beast of such prodigious size, he
moved his head round in time to receive it on the massive
horn that armed his nose, driving the blunt instrument, from
sheer muscular strength, right through the body of the tiger,
and finishing his work by falling on him with his knees, and
pressing his life out under that enormous weight. Then he
rose unhurt, and blew the sand out of his nostrils, and left, as
it seemed, unwillingly, the flattened, crushed, and mangled
carcass, turning back to it once and again, with a horrible,
yet ludicrous, pertinacity, ere he suffered the Ethiopians who

150

ryove<$ acrcm rt?(? arer?a

THE ARENA

attended him to lure him out of the amphitheatre with a
bundle or two of green vegetable food.

The people shouted and applauded loudly. Blood had
been drawn, and their appetite was sharpened for slaughter.
It was with open undisguised satisfaction that they counted
the pairs of gladiators, and looked forward to the next act of
the entertainment.

Again the trumpets sound, and the swordsmen range
themselves in opposite bodies, all armed alike with a deep
concave buckler, and a short, stabbing, two-edged blade ; but
distinguished by the colour of their scarves. Wagers are
rapidly made on the green and the red ; so skilfully has the
experienced Hippias selected and matched the combatants,
that the oldest patrons of the sport confess themselves at a
loss which to choose.

The bands advance against each other, three deep, in
imitation of the real soldiers of the empire. At the first
crash of collision, when steel begins to clink, as thrust and
blow and parry are exchanged by these practised warriors,
the approbation of the spectators rises to enthusiasm ; but
men's voices are hushed, and they hold their breath when the
strife begins to waver to and fro, and the ranks open out and
disengage themselves, and blood is to be seen in patches on
those athletic frames, and a few are already down, lyfng
motionless where they fell. The green is giving way, but
their third rank has been economised, and its combatants are
as yet fresh and untouched ; these now advance to fill the
gaps made among their comrades, and the fortunes of the
day seem equalised once more.

And now the arena becomes a ghastly and forbidding
sight; they die hard, these men, whose very trade is
slaughter ; but mortal agony cannot always suppress a groan,
and it is pitiful to see some prostrate giant, supporting
himself painfully on his hands, with drooping head and fast-
closing eye fixed on the ground, while the life-stream is
pouring from his chest into the thirsty sand. It is real sad
earnest, this representation of war, and resembles the battle-
field in all save that no prisoners are taken and quarter is
but rarely given. Occasionally, indeed, some vanquished
champion, of more than common beauty, or who has dis-
played more than common address and courage, so wins on
the favour of the spectators, that they sign for his life to be
spared. Hands are turned outwards, with the thumb point-
ing to the earth, and the victor sheathes his sword, and retires
with his worsted antagonist from the contest; but more

EROS

generally the fallen man's signal for mercy is neglected ; ere
the shout " A hit ! " has died upon his ears, his despairing
eye marks the thumbs of his judges pointing upwards, and
he disposes himself to welcome the steel with a calm courage,
worthy of a better cause.

The reserve, consisting of ten pairs of picked gladiators,
has not yet been engaged. The green and the red have
fought with nearly equal success ; but when the trumpet has
sounded a halt, and the dead have been dragged away by
grappling-hooks, leaving long tracks of crimson in their wake,
a careful enumeration of the survivors gives the victory by
one to the latter colour. Hippias, coming forward in a suit
of burnished armour, declares as much, and is greeted with a
round of applause. In all her preoccupation, Valeria cannot
refrain from a glance of approval at the handsome fencing-
master; and Mariamne, who feels that Esca's life hangs on
the man's skill and honesty, gazes at him with mingled awe
and horror, as on some being of another world. But the
populace have little inclination to waste the precious moments
in cheering Hippias, or in calculating loss and gain. Fresh
wagers are, indeed, made on the matches about to take
place ; but the prevailing feeling over that numerous
assemblage is one of morbid excitement and anticipation.
The ten pairs of men now marching so proudly into the
centre of the lists, are pledged to fight to the death.

It would be a disgusting task to detail the scene of
bloodshed ; to dwell on the fierce courage wasted, and the
brutal useless slaughter perpetrated in those Roman shambles ;
yet, sickening as was the sight, so inured were the people to
such exhibitions, so completely imbued with a taste for the
horrible, and so careless of human life, that scarcely an eye
was turned away, scarcely a cheek grew paler, when a dis-
abling gash was received, or a mortal blow driven home; and
mothers with babies in their arms would bid the child turn
its head to watch the death-pang on the pale stern face of
some prostrate gladiator.

Licinius had looked upon carnage in many forms, yet a
sad, grave disapproval sat on the general's noble features.
Once, after a glance at his kinswoman's eager face, he turned
from her with a gesture of anger and disgust; but Valeria
was too intent upon the scene enacted within a few short
paces to spare attention for anything besides, except, perhaps,
the vague foreboding of evil that was gnawing at her heart,
and to which such a moment of suspense as the present
afforded a temporary relief.

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THE ARENA

Rufus and Manlius had been pitted against each other by
lot. The taller frame and greater strength of the former
were supposed to be balanced by the latter's exquisite skill.
Collars and bracelets were freely offered at even value
amongst the senators and equestrians on each. While the
other pairs were waging their strife with varying success in
different parts of the amphitheatre, these had found them-
selves struggling near the barrier close under the seat
occupied by Valeria. She could hear distinctly their hard-
drawn breath ; could read on each man's face the stern set
expression of one who has no hope save in victory; for
whom defeat is inevitable and instant death. No wonder
she sat, so still and spell-bound, with her pale lips parted and
her cold hands clenched.

The blood was pouring from more than one gash on the
giant's naked body, yet Rufus seemed to have lost neither
coolness nor strength. He continued to ply his adversary
with blow on blow, pressing him, and following him up, till
he drove him nearly against the barrier. It was obvious that
Manlius, though still unwounded, was overmatched and
overpowered. At length Valeria drew in her breath with a
gasp, as if in pain. It seemed as if she, the spectator, winced
from that fatal thrust, which was accepted so calmly by the
gladiator whom it pierced. Rufus could scarcely believe he
had succeeded in foiling his adversary's defence, and driving
it deftly home, so unmoved was the familiar face looking over
its shield into his own — so steady and skilful was the return
which instantaneously succeeded his attack. But that face
was growing paler and paler with every pulsation. Valeria,
gazing with wild fixed eyes, saw it wreathed in a strange sad
smile, and Manlius reeled and fell where he stood, breaking
his sword as he went down, and burying it beneath his body
in the sand. The other strode over him in act to strike. A
natural impulse of habit or self-preservation bade the fallen
man half raise his arm, with the gesture by which a gladiator
was accustomed to implore the clemency of the populace,
but he recollected himself, and let it drop proudly by his side.
Then he looked kindly up in his victor's face.

" Through the heart, comrade," said he quietly, " for old
friendship's sake;" and he never winced nor quailed when
the giant drove the blow home with all the strength that he
could muster.

They had fed at the same board, and drunk from the
same winecup for years ; and this was all he had it in his
power to bestow upon his friend. The people applauded

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loudly, but Valeria, who had heard the dead man's last
appeal, felt her eyes fill with tears ; and Mariamne, who had
raised her head to look, at this unlucky moment, buried it
once more in her kinsman's cloak, sick and trembling, ready
to faint with pity, and dismay, and fear.

154

CHAPTER XX

THE TRIDENT AND THE NET

BUT a shout was ringing through the amphitheatre that
roused the Jewish maiden effectually to the business of
the day. It had begun in some far-off corner, with a mere
whispered muttering, and had been taken up by spectator
after spectator, till it swelled into a wild and deafening roar.
" A Patrician ! a Patrician ! " vociferated the crowd, thirsting
fiercely for fresh excitement, and palled with the vulgar
carnage, yearning to see the red blood flow from some scion
of an illustrious house. The tumult soon reached such a
height as to compel the attention of Vitellius, who summoned
Hippias to his chair, and whispered a few sentences in his ear.
This somewhat calmed the excitement; and while the
fencing-master's exertions cleared the arena of the dead and
wounded, with whom it was encumbered, a general stir
might have been observed throughout the assemblage, while
each individual changed his position, and disposed himself
more comfortably for sight-seeing, as is the custom of a
crowd when anything of especial interest is about to take
place. Ere long Damasippus and Oarses were observed to
applaud loudly ; and their example being followed by
thousands of imitators, the clapping of hands, the stamping
of feet, the cheers, and other vociferations rose with re-
doubled vigour, while Julius Placidus stepped gracefully
into the centre of the arena, and made his obeisance to
the crowd with his usual easy and somewhat insolent
bearing.

The tribune's appearance was well calculated to excite the
admiration of the spectators, no mean judges of the human
form, accustomed as they were to scan and criticise it in its
highest state of perfection. His graceful figure was naked
and unarmed, save for a white linen tunic reaching to the
knee, and although he wore rings of gold round his ankles,
his feet were bare to ensure the necessary speed and activity
demanded by his mode of attack. His long dark locks,

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carefully curled and perfumed for the occasion, and bound by
a single golden fillet, floated carelessly over his neck, while
his left shoulder was tastefully draped, as it were, by the folds
of the dangling net, sprinkled and weighted with small leaden
beads, and so disposed as to be whirled away at once
without entanglement or delay upon its deadly errand. His
right hand grasped the trident, a three-pronged lance, some
seven feet in length, capable of inflicting a fatal wound ; and
the flourish with which he made it quiver round his head
displayed a practised arm and a perfect knowledge of the
offensive weapon.

To the shouts which greeted him — " Placidus !
Placidus!" "Hail to the tribune!" "Well done the
patrician order ! " and other such demonstrations of welcome
— he replied by bowing repeatedly, especially directing his
courtesies to that portion of the amphitheatre in which
Valeria was placed. With all his acuteness, little did the
tribune guess how hateful he was at this moment to the very
woman on whose behalf he was pledged to engage in mortal
strife — little did he dream how earnest were her vows for his
speedy humiliation and defeat. Valeria, sitting there with
the red spots burning a deeper crimson in her cheeks, and
her noble features set in a mask of stone, would have asked
nothing better than to have leapt down from her seat,
snatched up sword and buckler, of which she well knew the
use, and done battle with him, then and there to the death.

The tribune now walked proudly round the arena, nodding
familiarly to his friends, a proceeding which called forth
raptures of applause from Damasippus, Oarses, and other
of his clients and freedmen. He halted under the chair of
Caesar, and saluted the Emperor with marked deference ;
then, taking up a conspicuous position in the centre, and
leaning on his trident, seemed to await the arrival of his
antagonist. He was not kept long in suspense. With his
eyes riveted on Valeria, he observed the fixed colour of her
cheeks gradually suffusing face, neck, and bosom, to leave
her as pale as marble when it faded, and turning round he
beheld his enemy, marshalled into the lists by Hippias and
Hirpinus — the latter, who had slain his man, thus finding
himself at liberty to afford counsel and countenance to his
young friend. The shouts which greeted the new-comer were
neither so long nor so lasting as those that did honour to the
tribune; nevertheless, if the interest excited by each were to
be calculated by intensity rather than amount, the slave's
suffrages would have far exceeded those of his adversary.

156

THE TRIDENT AND THE NET

Mariamne's whole heart was in her eyes as she welcomed
the glance of recognition he directed exclusively to her ; and
Valeria, turning from one to the other, felt a bitter pang shoot
te her very marrow, as she instinctively acknowledged the
existence of a rival. Even at that moment of hideous
suspense, a host of maddening feelings rushed through the
Roman lady's brain. Many a sunburnt peasant woman,
jostled and bewildered in the crowd, envied that sumptuous
dame with her place apart, her stately beauty, her rich
apparel, and her blazing jewels ; but the peasant woman
would have rued the exchange had she been forced to take,
with these advantages, the passions that were laying waste
Valeria's heart. Wounded pride, slighted love, doubt, fear,
vacillation, and remorse, are none the more endurable for
being clothed in costly raiment, and trapped out with gems
and gold. While Mariamne, in her singleness of heart, had
but one great and deadly fear — that he should fail — Valeria
found room for a thousand anxieties and misgivings, of con-
flicting tendencies, and chafed under a distressing conscious-
ness that she could not satisfy herself what it was she most
dreaded or desired.

Unprejudiced and uninterested spectators, however, had
but one opinion as to the chances of the Briton's success.
If anything could have added to the enthusiasm called forth
by the appearance of Placidus, it was the patrician's selection
of so formidable an antagonist. Esca, making his obeisance
to Caesar, in the pride of his powerful form, and the bloom of
his youth and beauty, armed, moreover, with helmet, shield,
and sword, which he carried with the ease of one habituated
to their use, appeared as invincible a champion as could have
been chosen from the whole Roman Empire. Even Hirpinus,
albeit a man experienced in the uncertainties of such contests,
and cautious, if not in giving, at least in backing his opinion,
whispered to Hippias that the patrician looked like a mere
child by the side of their pupil, and offered to wager a flagon
of the best Falernian " that he was carried out of the arena
feet foremost within five minutes after the first attack, if he
missed his throw ! " To which the fencing-master, true to
his habits of reticence and assumed superiority, vouchsafed
no reply save a contemptuous smile.

The adversaries took up their ground with exceeding
caution. No advantage of sun or wind was allowed to either,
and having been placed by Hippias at a distance often yards
apart in the middle of the arena, neither moved a limb for
several seconds, as they stood intently watching each other,

157

EROS

themselves the centre on which all eyes were fixed. It was
remarked that while Esca's open brow bore only a look of
calm resolute attention, there was an evil smile of malice
stamped, as it were, upon the tribune's face — the one seemed
an apt representation of Courage and Strength — the other of
Hatred and Skill.

" He carries the front of a conqueror," whispered Licinius
to his kinswoman, regarding his slave with looks of anxious
approval. " Trust me, Valeria, we shall win the day. Esca
will gain his freedom ; the gilded chariot and the white horses
shall bring him and me to your door to-morrow morning, and
that gaudy tribune will have had a lesson, that I for one shall
not be sorry to have been the means of bestowing on him."

A bright smile lighted up Valeria's face, but she looked
from the speaker to a dark-haired girl in the crowd below,
and the expression of her countenance changed till it grew as
forbidding as the tribune's, while she replied with a careless
laugh —

" I care not who wins now, Licinius, since they are both in
the lists. To tell the truth, I did but fear the courage of this
Titan of yours might fail him at the last moment, and the
match would not be fought out after all. Hippias tells me
the tribune is the best netsman he ever trained."

He looked at her with a vague surprise; but following
the direction of his kinswoman's eyes, he could not but
remark the obvious distress and agitation of the cloaked
figure on which they were bent. Mariamne, when she saw
the Briton fairly placed, front to front with his adversary, had
neither strength nor courage for more. Leaning against
Calchas, the poor girl hid her face in her hands and wept
as if her heart would break.

Myrrhina, who no more than her mistress could have
borne to be absent from such a spectacle, had forced her
way into the crowd, accompanied by a few of Valeria's
favourite slaves. Standing within three paces of the Jewess,
that voluble damsel expatiated loudly on the appearance of
the combatants, and her careless jests and sarcasms cut
Mariamne to the quick. It was painful to hear her lover's
personal qualities canvassed as though he were some hand-
some beast of prey, and his chance of life and death balanced
with heartless nicety by the flippant tongue of a waiting-
maid ; but there was yet a deeper sting in store for her even
than this. Myrrhina, having got an audience, was nothing
loth to profit by their attention.

" I'm sure," said she, " whichever way the match goes I

158

THE TRIDENT AND THE NET

don't know what my mistress will do. As for the tribune,
he would get out of his chariot any day on the bare stones
to kiss the very ground she walks on ; and yet, if he dare so
much as to leave a scratch upon that handsome youth's skin,
he need never come to our doors again. Why, time after
time have I hunted that boy all over the city to bring him
home with me. And it's no light matter for a slave and a
barbarian to have won the favour of the proudest lady in
Rome. See how he looks up at her now, before they
begin!"

The light words wounded very sore ; and Mariamne
raised her head for one glance at the Briton, half in fond
appeal, half to protest, as it were, against the slander she
had heard. What she saw, however, left no room in her
loving heart for any feeling save intense horror and suspense.

With his eye fixed on his adversary, Esca was advancing,
inch by inch, like a tiger about to spring. Covering the
lower part of his face and most of his body with his buckler,
and holding his short two-edged sword with bended arm and
threatening point, he crouched to at least a foot lower than
his natural stature, and seemed to have every muscle and
sinew braced, to dash in like lightning when the opportunity
offered. A false movement, he well knew, would be fatal,
and the difficulty was to come to close quarters, as, directly
he was within a certain distance, the deadly cast was sure
to be made. Placidus, on the other hand, stood perfectly
motionless. His eye was unusually accurate, and he could
trust his practised arm to whirl the net abroad at the exact
moment when its sweep would be irresistible. So he remained
in the same collected attitude, his trident shifted into the
left hand, his right foot advanced, his right arm wrapped in
the gathered folds of the net which hung across his body, and
covered the whole of his left side and shoulder. Once he
tried a scornful gibe and smile to draw his enemy from his
guard, but in vain ; and though Esca, in return, made a feint
with the same object, the former's attitude remained immov-
able, and the latter's snake -like advance continued with
increasing caution and vigilance.

An inch beyond the fatal distance, Esca halted once more.
For several seconds the combatants thus stood at bay, and
the hundred thousand spectators crowded into that spacious
amphitheatre held their breath, and watched them like one
man.

At length the Briton made a false attack, prepared to
spring back immediately and foil the netsman's throw, but

IS9

EROS

the wily tribune was not to be deceived, and the only result
was that, without appearing to shift his ground, he moved
an arm's length nearer his adversary. Then the Briton dashed
in, and this time in fierce earnest. Foot, hand, and eye, all
together, and so rapidly, that the tribune's throw flew harmless
over his assailant's head, Placidus only avoiding his deadly
thrust by the cat-like activity with which he leaped aside ;
then, turning round, he scoured across the arena for life,
gathering his net for a fresh cast as he flew. " Coward ! "
hissed Valeria, between her set teeth ; while Mariamne
breathed once more — nay, her bosom panted, and her eye
sparkled with something like triumph at the approaching
climax.

She was premature, however, in her satisfaction, and
Valeria's disdain was also undeserved. Though apparently
flying for his life, Placidus was as cool and brave at that
moment as when he entered the arena. Ear and eye were
alike on the watch for the slightest false movement on the
part of his pursuer ; and ere he had half crossed the lists,
his net was gathered up, and folded with deadly precision
once more.

The tribune especially prided himself on his speed of foot.
It was on this quality that he chiefly depended for safety in
a contest which at first sight appeared so unequal. He argued
from the great strength of his adversary, that the latter
would not be so pre-eminent in activity as himself; but he
omitted to calculate the effects of a youth spent in the daily
labours of the chase amongst the woods and mountains of
Britain. Those following feet had many a time run down
the wild goat over its native rocks. Faster and faster fly the
combatants, to the intense delight of the crowd, who specially
affect this kind of combat for the pastime it thus affords.
Speedy as is the tribune, his foe draws nearer and nearer,
and now, close to where Mariamne stands with Calchas, he
is within a stride of his antagonist. His arm is up to strike !
when a woman's shriek rings through the amphitheatre,
startling Vitellius on his throne, and the sword flies aimlessly
from the Briton's grasp as he falls forward on his face, and
the impetus rolls him over and over in the sand.

There is no chance for him now. He is scarcely down
ere the net whirls round him, and he is fatally and helplessly
entangled in its folds. Mariamne gazes stupefied on the
prostrate form, with stony face and a fixed unmeaning stare.
Valeria springs to her feet in a sudden impulse, forgetting
for the moment where she is.

1 60

THE TRIDENT AND THE NET

Placidus, striding over his fallen enemy with his trident
raised, and the old sneering smile deepening and hardening
on his face, observed the cause of his downfall, and inwardly
congratulated himself on the lucky chance which had alone
prevented their positions being reversed. The blood was
streaming from a wound in Esca's foot. It will be remem-
bered that where Manlius fell, his sword was buried under
him in the sand. On removing his dead body the weapon
escaped observation, and the Briton, treading in hot haste
on the very spot where it lay concealed, had not only been
severely lacerated, but tripped up and brought to the ground
by the snare.

All this flashed through the conqueror's mind, as he
stood erect, prepared to deal a blow that should close all
accounts, and looked up to Valeria for the fatal sign.

Maddened with rage and jealousy ; sick, bewildered, and
scarcely conscious of her actions, the Roman lady was about
to give it, when Licinius seized her arms and held them
down by force. Then, with a numerous party of friends
and clients, he made a strong demonstration in favour of
mercy. The speed of foot, too, displayed by the vanquished,
and the obvious cause of his discomfiture, acted favourably
on the majority of spectators. Such an array of hands
turned outwards and pointing to the earth met the tribune's
eye, that he could not but forbear his cruel purpose, so he
gave his weapon to one of the attendants who had now
entered the arena, took his cloak from the hands of another,
and, with a graceful bow to the spectators, turned scornfully
away from his fallen foe.

Esca, expecting nothing less than immediate death, had
his eyes fixed on the drooping figure of Mariamne ; but the
poor girl had seen nothing since his fall. Her last moment
of consciousness showed her a cloud of dust, a confused
mass of twine, and an ominous figure with arm raised in
act to strike ; then barriers and arena, and eager faces and
white garments, and the whole amphitheatre, pillars, sand,
and sky, reeled ere they faded into darkness ; sense and
sight failed her at the same moment, and she fainted help-
lessly in her kinsman's arms.

161

Hnteros

CHAPTER I

OUNDED, vanquished, trans-
ferred from his kind master,
and farther from liberty than
ever, Esca's was now indeed a
pitiable lot. The tribune, en-
titled by the very terms of his
wager to the life and person of
his antagonist, was not the man
to forego this advantage by any
act of uncalled-for generosity.
In the Briton he believed he
now possessed a tool to use with
effect, in furtherance of a work
which the seductive image of
Valeria rendered every day more engrossing; an auxiliary
by whose aid he might eventually stand first in the good
graces of the only woman who had ever obtained a mastery
over his unyielding disposition and selfish heart. None
the more on this account did he cherish the captive, nor
alleviate his condition as a slave. From the effects of his
injury, Esca could not be put to any harder kinds of labour,
but in all menial offices, however degrading, he was compelled
to take his share. Different, indeed, was his condition here
from what it had been in the service of the high-minded
Licinius, and bitterly did he feel the exchange.

Submitting to sarcasm, insult, continued ill-treatment, and
annoyance, the noble barbarian would have failed under the
trial, had it not been for a few well-remembered words, on
the truth of which Calchas had so often insisted, and in
which (for- when were human thoughts without an earthly
leavening ?)sMariamne seemed to cherish an implicit belief.

ANTEROS

Those words breathed hope and consolation under the very
worst misfortunes that life could offer ; and Esca suffered on,
very silent, and tolerably patient, although, perhaps, there was
a fiercer fire smouldering in his breast than would have been
approved by his venerable monitor — a fire that only waited
occasion to blaze out all the more dangerously for being thus
forcibly suppressed.

With a malicious pleasure, natural to his disposition,
Placidus compelled the Brition to perform several domestic
offices which brought him about his person. It flattered the
tribune's vanity to have continually before his eyes the
athletic frame he was so proud to have overcome; and it
pleased him that his friends, guests, and clients should be thus
led to converse upon his late encounter, which had created no
small gossip in the fashionable world of Rome. It happened,
then, that Esca, while preparing his master's bath, was startled
to hear the name that was never long out of his own thoughts
spoken in accents of caution and secrecy by the tribune him-
self, who was in the adjoining apartment, holding close con-
sultation with Hippias the fencing - master and the two
freedmen, Damasippus and Oarses. All were obviously
interested in the subject under discussion, and, believing
themselves safe from eaves -droppers, spoke energetically,
though in tones somewhat lower than their wont.

He started, and the blood ebbed painfully from his heart.
" Mariamne ! " yes, the word was again repeated, and while
Oarses said something in a whisper, he could clearly dis-
tinguish the tribune's low mocking laugh. It was plain they
were unaware of his presence; and, indeed, it was at an
earlier hour than usual that he had made ready the unguents,
perfumes, strigil, and other appliances indispensable to the
luxurious ablutions of a Roman patrician. The bathroom
was inside the favourite apartment of Placidus, where he was
now holding counsel, and could only be entered through the
latter, from which it was separated by a heavy velvet curtain.
Esca, surrounded by the materials of the toilet, had been
sitting for a longer time than he knew, lost in thought, until
aroused by the mention of Mariamne's name. Thus it was
that the four others believed the bathroom empty, and their
conversation unheard.

Anxious and excited, the Briton scarcely dared to draw
his breath, but crept cautiously behind the folds of the heavy
curtain, and listened attentively. The tribune was walking
to and fro with the restless motions and stealthy gait of a
tiger in its cage. Hippias, seated at his ease upon a couch,

164

THE LISTENING SLAVE

was examining the device of a breastplate, with his usual air
of good-humoured superiority ; and Damasippus, appealing
with admiring looks to Oarses, who responded in kind,
seemed to endorse, as it were, with a dependant's mute
approval, the opinions and observations of his patron.

" Two-thirds of the legions have already come over," said
Placidus, rapidly enumerating the forces on which Vespasian's
party could count. " In Spain, in Gaul, in Britain, the
soldiers have declared openly against Vitellius. The
surrender of Cremona can no longer be concealed from the
meanest populace. Alexandria, the granary of the empire,
has fallen into the hands of Vespasian. Those dusky knaves,
thy countrymen, Oarses, will see us starve, ere they send us
supplies under the present dynasty ; and think ye our greasy
plebeians here will endure the girdle of famine, thus drawn
tighter, day by day, round their luxurious paunches ? The
fleet at Misenum was secured long ago, but the news that
Caesar could not count upon a single galley in blue water
only reached the capital to-day. Then the old Praetorians
are ripe for mischief; you may trust them never to forget nor
to forgive the disgrace of last year, when the chosen band
was broke, dismissed, and, worst of all, deprived of rations
and pay ; I tell thee, Hippias, those angry veterans are ready
to take the town without assistance, and put old and young
to the sword. Fail ! it is impossible we can fail ; the new
party outnumbers the old by ten to one ! "

"You have told off a formidable list," replied Hippias
quietly ; " I cannot see that you are in need of any further
help from me or mine."

Placidus shot a sharp questioning glance at the fencing-
master, and resumed —

" Half the numbers that have given in their adhesion to
Vespasian would serve to put my chariot-boy on the throne ;
Automedon's long curls might be bound by a diadem to-
morrow, were he the favourite of the hour, so far as Rome is
concerned. You know what the masses are, my Hippias, for
it is your trade to pander to their tastes, and rouse their
enthusiasm. It is true that the great general is, at this
moment, virtually ruler of the empire, but a pebble might
turn the tide in the capital. I would not trust Vespasian's
own son, young and dissipated as he is, could he but make a
snatch at the reins with any hope of holding them firmly
when once within his grasp. Titus Flavius Domitian might
be emperor to-morrow, if he would be satisfied to wear the
purple but for a week, and then make room for someone

165

ANTEROS

else. Nay, the people are fickle enough to be capable of
turning round at any moment, and retaining our present
admirable ruler on the throne. Rome must be coerced, my
Hippias ; the barbers, and cobblers, and water-carriers must
be kept down and intimidated ; if need be, we must cut a few
garlic -breathing throats. It may be necessary to remove
Caesar himself, lest the reactionary feeling should burst out
again, and we should find ourselves left with nothing for our
pains, but the choice of a cup of poison, a gasp in a halter, or
three inches of steel. We must succeed this time, for not a
man need hope for pardon if Caesar is thoroughly frightened.
Hippias, there must be no half-measures now ! "

" Well said ! " exclaimed the freedmen in a breath, with
very pale faces, nevertheless, and an enthusiasm obviously
somewhat against the grain.

Hippias looked quietly up from the breastplate resting
on his lap.

" There will be shows," said he, " and blood flowing like
water in the circus, whoever wears the purple. While Rome
stands, the gladiator need never want for bread."

" Now you speak like a man of sense," replied the tribune,
in the same tone; "for after all, the whole matter resolves
itself into a mere question of money. The shows are tolerably
lucrative, at least to their contriver, but it takes many a
festival ere the sesterces count by tens of thousands ; and
Hippias loves luxury and wine, and women too — nay, deny
it not, my comely hero ; and if the Family and their trainer
could be hired at a fair price, for an hour's work or so, why
they need never enter the arena again, save as spectators ;
nay, poorer men than their chief might be have sat in the
equestrian rows, ere now."

" You want to hire my chickens and myself for a forlorn
hope," retorted Hippias impatiently. " Better say so at once,
and be plain with me."

" It is even so," resumed Placidus, with an assumption of
extreme candour. " For real work I have few I can depend
upon but the old Praetorians ; and though they stick at
nothing, there are hardly enough of them for my purpose.
With a chosen two hundred of thine, my dealer in heroes, I
could command Rome for twenty-four hours ; and when
Placidus soars into the sky, he carries Hippias on his wings.
Speak out ; thy terms are high, but such a game as ours is
not played for a handful of pebbles or a few brass farthings.
What is the price, man by man ? "

"You would require two hundred of them," observed

166

THE LISTENING SLAVE

the other reflectively. " Five thousand sesterces x a man,
and his freedom, which would come to nearly as much
more."

" The killed not to count, of course," bargained the tribune.

" Of course not," repeated Hippias. " Listen, most illus-
trious; I will take all chances, and supply the best men I
have, for eight thousand a-head. Two hundred swordsmen
who would take Pluto by the beard without a scruple, if I
only lifted my hand. Lads who can hold their own against
thrice their number of any legion that was ever drilled. They
are ready at two hours' notice."

He was speaking truth, for Hippias was honest enough
in his own particular line. Amongst the thousands who
owed their professional standing, and the very bread they
ate, to the celebrated fencing-master, it was no hard task
to select a company of dare-devils, such as he described,
who would desire no better sport than to see their native
city in flames, with the streets knee-deep in blood and wine,
while they put men, women, and children indiscriminately to
the sword. The tribune's eye brightened, as he thought of
the fierce work he could accomplish with such tools as these
ready to his hand.

" Keep them for me, from to-day," he answered, looking
round the apartment, as though to assure himself that he
was only heard by those in his confidence. " My plan
cannot but succeed if we only observe common secrecy and
caution. Ten picked men, and thyself, my Hippias, I bid
to sup with me here, the rest of the band shall be distributed
by twenties amongst the different streets opening on the
palace, preserving their communication thus : one man at
a time must continually pass from each post to the next,
until every twenty has been changed. This secures us from
treachery, and will keep our cut-throats on the alert. At a
given signal, all are to converge on the middle garden-gate,
which will be found open. Then they may lead the old
Praetorians to the attack, and take the palace itself by
assault, in defiance of any resistance, however desperate, that
can be made. The German guard are stubborn dogs, and
must be put to the sword directly the outer hall is gained. I
would not have them burn down the palace if they can help
it ; but when they have done my work, they are welcome to
all they can carry out of it on their backs, and you may tell
them so."

Hippias noted in his own mind this additional incentive

1 About forty pounds sterling.
167

ANTEROS

with considerable satisfaction. After a moment's pause, he
looked fixedly in the tribune's face, and inquired —

" How would you wish your guests armed for the supper-
party ? Shall we bring our knives with us, kind host ? "

Placidus flushed a dark red, and then grew pale. He
averted his eyes from Hippias, while he answered —

" There are few weapons so true as the short two-edged
sword. There will be work for our brave little party inside
the palace, of which we must make no bungling. Is it such
a grave matter, my Hippias, to slay a fat old man?" he
added inquiringly.

The other's face assumed an expression of intense
disgust.

" Nay," said he, " I will have no murder done in cold
blood. As much fighting as you please, in the way of
business, but we are no hired assassins, my men and I. To
put one Caesar off the throne, and another on, is a pretty
night's amusement enough, and I have no objection to it ;
but to take an old man out of his bed, even though he be an
emperor, and slay him as you slay a fat sheep, I'll none of
it. Send for a butcher, tribune ; this is no trade of ours ! "

Placidus bit his lip, and seemed to think profoundly for
a moment, then his brow cleared, and he resumed with a
light laugh.

" Far be it from me to offend a gladiator's scruples. I
know the morals of the Family, and respect their prejudices.
Half the money shall be in your hands within an hour ; the
rest shall be paid when the job is done. I think we under-
stand each other well enough. Is it a bargain, Hippias ?
Can I depend upon you?"

The fencing-master was not yet satisfied.

" About the guests," he asked sternly ; " how are we to
pay for our supper ? "

Placidus clapped him on the shoulder, with a jovial
laugh.

" I will be frank with thee," said he, " old comrade. Why
should there be secrets between thee and me ? We go from
my supper-table to the palace. We enter with the storming-
party. I know the private apartments of the Emperor. I
can lead our little band direct to the royal presence. Here
we will rally round Vitellius, and take his sacred person into
our charge. Hippias, I will make it ten thousand sesterces
a man, for each of the ten, and thou shalt name thine own
price for thine own services. But the Emperor must not
escape. Dost thou understand me now?"

168

THE LISTENING SLAVE

" I like it not," replied the other ; " but the price is fair
enough, and my men must live. I would it could be so
arranged that some resistance might be made in the palace ;
you slay a man so much easier with his helmet on and his
sword in his hand ! "

" Pooh ! prejudice ! " laughed the tribune. " Professional
fancies that spring from thy coarse material trade. Blood
leaves no more stain than wine. You and I have spilt
enough of both in our time. What matter, a throat cut
or a cracked flagon of Falernian ? Dash a pitcher of water
over a marble floor like this, and you wash away the signs
of both at once. Said I not well, Damasippus ? Why, what
ails thee, man ? Thy face has turned as white as thy
gown ! "

Damasippus, indeed, whose eyes were fixed upon the
floor to which his patron had just alluded, presented, at this
juncture, an appearance of intense terror and amazement.
The freedman's mouth was open, his cheeks were deadly
pale, and his very hair seemed to bristle with dismay.
Pointing a shaking finger to the slabs of marble at his feet,
he could only stammer out in broken accents : " May the
gods avert the omen!" over and over again.

The others, following the direction of his gaze, were no
less astonished to see a narrow stream of crimson winding
over the smooth white floor, as though the very stones pro-
tested against the tribune's reckless and inhuman sentiments.
For an instant all stood motionless, then Placidus, leaping at
the velvet curtain, tore it fiercely open, and discovered the
cause of the phenomenon.

Listening attentively for some further mention of the
name that had roused his whole being, not a syllable of the
foregoing conversation had been lost upon Esca, who, kneel-
ing on one knee, with his wounded foot bent under him, and
his ear applied close to the heavy folds of the curtain, had
never moved a hair's-breadth from his attitude of fixed and
absorbing attention. In this constrained position, the wound
in his foot, which was not yet healed over, had opened afresh,
and though he was himself unconscious of all but the cruel
and treacherous scheme he overheard, it bled so freely that
a dark stream stole gradually beneath the curtains, and crept
gently along the marble to the very feet of the horror-
stricken Damasippus.

Esca sprang to his full height ; in that moment his blood
curdled, as it had done when he was down upon the sand,
with his enemy's eye glaring on him through the cruel net.

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ANTEROS

He knew the tribune, and he felt there was no hope. The
latter laughed loud and long. It was his way of covering all
disagreeable emotions, but it boded no good to the object
of his mirth. When Esca heard that laugh he looked
anxiously about him as though to seek a weapon. What
was the use? He stood wounded and defenceless in the
power of four reckless men, of whom two were armed.

" Hold him ! " exclaimed Placidus to his freedmen,
drawing at the same time a short two-edged sword from
its sheath. " It is unfortunate for the barbarian that he
has learned our language. The necessity is disagreeable,
but there is only one way of ensuring silence. My bath, too,
is prepared, so I can spare him for to-day, and my freedmen
will see that his place is supplied by to-morrow. Hold
him, cowards! I say; do you fear that he will bite you?"

Neither Damasippus nor Oarses, however, seemed much
inclined to grapple with the stalwart Briton. Wounded and
outnumbered as he was, without a chance of rescue or escape,
there was yet a defiant carriage of the head, a fierce glare
in the eye, that warned the freedmen to keep hands off him
as long as they could. They looked at each other irresolutely,
and shrank from the patron's glance. That moment's hesita-
tion saved him. Hippias, who regarded every six feet of
manhood with a brave heart inside it as his own peculiar
property, had besides a kindly feeling for his old pupil.
He put his muscular frame between the master and the
slave.

" Give him a day or two, tribune," said he carelessly.
" I can find a better use for him than to cut his throat here
on this clean white floor, and an equally safe one in the end,
you may be sure."

" Impossible, fool ! " answered Placidus angrily. " He has
heard enough to destroy every hair on the head of each of us.
He must never leave this room alive ! "

" Only twenty-four hours," pleaded the fencing-master,
who well knew how much at that time in Rome a day
might bring forth. " Put him in ward as close as you will,
but let him live till to-morrow. Hippias asks it as a favour
to himself, and you may not like to be refused by him, when
it is your turn. What if I should say ' No ' in the private
apartments of the palace? Come, let us make a com-
promise."

The tribune reflected for a moment. Then striking his
right hand into that of Hippias —

" Agreed," said he. " Twenty-four hours' grace on one

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THE LISTENING SLAVE

side, and the sharpest blade in Rome at my disposal on the
other. Ho ! Damasippus, call some of my people in. Bid
them put the new collar on the slave, and chain him to the
middle pillar in the inner court."

The order was punctually obeyed, and Esca found himself
a helpless prisoner, burdened with a secret that might save
the empire, and with maddening apprehensions on behalf
of Mariamne tearing at his heart.

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CHAPTER II

ATTACK AND DEFENCE

SUCH beauty as the Jewess's, although she seldom went
abroad, and led as sequestered a life as was compatible
with the domestic duties she had to perform, could not
pass unnoticed in a place like Rome. Notwithstanding the
utter contempt in which her nation was held by its proud
conquerors, she had been observed going to market in the
morning for the few necessaries of her household, or rilling
her pitcher from the Tiber at sunset; and amongst other
evil eyes that had rested on her fair young face were those
of Damasippus, freedman to Julius Placidus the tribune.
He had lost no time in reporting to his patron the jewel he
had discovered, so to speak, in its humble setting; for, like
the jackal, Damasippus never dared to hunt for himself, and
followed after evil, not for its own sake, but for the lust of
gold.

His patron, too, though he had only seen the girl once,
and then closely veiled, was so inflamed by the description
of her charms, on which the client dwelt at great length, that
he resolved to possess himself of her, in the sheer insolence
of a great man's whim, promising the freedman that after
the lion was served he should have the jackal's reward. It
was in consequence of this agreement that a plot was laid
of which Esca overheard but half a dozen syllables, and yet
enough to render him very uneasy when he reflected on the
recklessness and cruelty of him with whom it originated,
and the slavish obedience with which it was sure to be
carried out. It would have broken the spirit of a brave man
to be chained to a pillar, fasting and wounded, with only
twenty-four hours to live; and a keen suspicion that the
woman he loved was even then all unconsciously walking
into the toils, added a pang to bodily suffering which might
have turned the stoutest heart to water, but Esca never lost
hope altogether. Something he could not analyse seemed
to give him comfort and support, nor was he aware that the

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ATTACK AND DEFENCE

blind vague trust he was beginning to entertain in some
power above and beyond himself, yet on which he felt he
could implicitly rely, was the first glimmer of the true faith
dawning on his soul.

Perhaps the slave in his chain, under sentence of death,
bore a lighter heart than his luxurious master, washed,
perfumed, and tricked out in all the glitter of dress and
ornament, rolling in his gilded chariot to do homage to the
woman who had really mastered his selfish heart. Automedon,
whose eyes were of the sharpest, remarked that his lord was
nervous and restless, that his cheek paled, and his lip shook
more and more as they proceeded on their well-known way,
and that when they neared the portals of Valeria's house
the tribune's hand trembled so that he could scarcely fasten
the brooch upon his shoulder. How white against the
crimson mantle, dyed twice and thrice till it had deepened
almost into purple, looked those uncertain fingers, quivering
about the clasp of gold !

However reckless, unprincipled, and cunning a man may
be, he is inevitably disarmed by the woman he really loves.
This is even the case when his affection is returned ; but
when he has fallen into the hands of one who, disliking him
personally, has resolved to make him her tool, his situation
is pitiable indeed. These hopeless passions, too, have in
all ages been of the fiercest and the most enduring. Ill-
usage on the one side or the other has not produced the
effect that might be expected, and the figurative shirt of
Nessus, instead of being torn off in shreds and cast away,
has been far oftener hugged closer and closer to the skin,
burning and blistering into the very marrow. It generally
happens, too, that the suitor, whose whole existence seems
to hang upon his success, blunders into the course that leads
him in a direction exactly contrary to his goal. He is pretty
sure to say and do the wrong thing at the wrong time. He
offers his attentions with a pertinacity that wearies and
offends, or withdraws them with a precipitation so transparent
as to compel remark. When he should be firm, he is
plaintive ; when he is expected to be cheerful, he turns sulky.
To enhance his own value he becomes boastful to the extreme
verge, and sometimes beyond it, of the truth ; or in order to
prove his devotion, he makes himself ridiculous, and thereby
deals the final and suicidal blow, if such indeed be necessary,
that is to shatter like glass the fabric of his hopes.

The tribune knew women thoroughly. He could plead
no lack of experience, for ignorance of that intricate and

173

ANTEROS

puzzling labyrinth, a woman's heart. He had, indeed, broken
more than one in the process of examination, and yet the
boy Automedon, sitting by his side in the chariot, with the
wind lifting his golden curls, would hardly have been guilty
of so many false movements, such mistakes both of tactics
and strategy, as disgraced his lord's conduct of the unequal
warfare he waged with Valeria. Yet this engrossing affection,
stained and selfish as it was, constituted perhaps the one
redeeming quality of the tribune's character; afforded the
only incentive by which his better and manlier feelings could
be aroused.

Possibly Valeria expected him. Women have strange
instincts on such matters, which seldom deceive. She was
dressed with the utmost magnificence, as though conscious
that simplicity could have no charms for Placidus, and sat
in a splendour nearly regal, keeping Myrrhina and the rest
of her maidens within call. Lovers are acute observers ; as
he walked up the cool spacious court to greet her, he saw
that she was gentler, and more languid than her wont ; she
looked wearied and unhappy, as though she, too, acknowledged
the sorrows and the weaknesses of her sex. Lover-like, he
thought this unusual shade of softness became her well.

For days she had been fighting with her own heart, and
she had suffered as such undisciplined natures must. The
strife had left its traces on her pale proud face, and she felt
a vague unacknowledged yearning for repose. The wild-bird
had beat her wings and ruffled her plumage till she was
tired, and a skilful fowler would have taken advantage of the
reaction to lure her into his net. Perhaps she had been
thinking what happiness it must be to have one in the
world in whom she could confide, on whom she could rely ;
one loyal manly nature on which to rest her woman's heart,
with all its caprices, and weaknesses, and capacity for love ;
perhaps she may have been even touched by the tribune's
unshaken devotion to herself, by the constancy which could
withstand the allurements of vice, and even the distractions
of political intrigue ; perhaps to-day she disliked him less
than on any former occasion, though it could hardly have
been for his sake that her eye was heavy, and her bosom
heaved. If so, whatever favour he had unconsciously gained,
was as unconsciously destroyed by his own hand. He
approached her with an air of assumed confidence, that
masked only too well the agitation of his real feelings.

" Fair Valeria," said he, " I have obeyed your commands,
and I come like a faithful servant to claim my reward."

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ATTACK AND DEFENCE

Now a woman's commands are not always intended to
be literally obeyed. Under any circumstances she seldom
likes to be reminded of them ; and as for claiming anything
from Valeria, why the very word roused all the rebellion
that was dormant in her nature. At that instant rose on
her mind's eye the scene in the amphitheatre, the level sand,
the tossing sea of faces, the hoarse roar of the crowd, the
strong white limbs and the yellow locks lying helpless
beneath a dark vindictive face, and a glitter of uplifted
steel. How she hated the conqueror then ! How she hated
him now ! She was clasping a bracelet carelessly on her
arm, the fair round arm he admired so much, and that never
looked so fair and round as in this gesture. It was part
of his torture to make herself as attractive as she could.
Her cold eyes chilled him at once.

" I had forgotten all about it," said she. " I am obliged
to you for reminding me that I am in your debt"

Though somewhat hurt, he answered courteously, " There
can be no debt from a mistress to her slave. You know,
Valeria, that all of mine, even to my life, is at your disposal."

" Well ? " she asked, with a provoking persistency of mis-
apprehension.

He began to lose his head ; he, ordinarily so calm, and
cunning, and self-reliant.

" You bade me enter on a difficult and dangerous under-
taking. It was perhaps a lady's caprice, the merest possible
whim. But you expressed a wish, and I never rested till
I had accomplished it."

" You mean about that wretched slave ? " said she, and
the colour rose faintly to her cheek. " But you never killed
him after all."

How little he knew her ! This, then, he thought, was the
cause of her coldness, of her displeasure. Esca had in some
way incurred her ill-will, and she was angry with the conqueror
who had spared him so foolishly when in his power. What
a heart must this be of hers that could only quench its
resentment in blood ! Yet he loved her none the less.
How the fair round arm, and the stately head, and the turn
of the white shoulder maddened him with a longing that
was almost akin to rage. He caught her hand, and pressed
it fervently to his lips.

" How can I please you ? " he exclaimed, and his voice
trembled with the only real emotion he perhaps had ever
felt. " Oh ! Valeria, you know that I love the very ground
you tread on."

175

ANTEROS

She bade Myrrhina bring her some embroidery on which
the girl was busied, and thus effectually checked any further
outpouring of sentiments which are not conveniently expressed
within earshot of a third person. The waiting-maid took
her seat at her mistress's elbow, her black eyes dancing in
malicious mirth.

" Is that all you have to tell me?" resumed Valeria, with
a smile in which coquetry, indifference, and conscious power
were admirably blended. "Words are but empty air. My
favour is reserved for those who win it by deeds."

" He shall die ! I pledge you my word he shall die ! "
exclaimed the tribune, still misunderstanding the beautiful
enigma on which he had set his heart. " I have but spared
him till I should know your pleasure, and now his fate is
sealed. Ere this time to-morrow he will have crossed the Styx,
and Valeria will repay me with one of her brightest smiles."

A shudder she could not suppress swept over the smooth
white skin, but she suffered no trace of emotion to appear
upon her countenance. She had a game to play now, and it
must be played steadily and craftily to ensure success. She
bade Myrrhina fetch wine and fruit to place before her guest,
and while the waiting-maid crossed the hall on her errand,
she suffered the tribune to take her hand once more — nay,
even returned its caressing clasp, with an almost impercept-
ible pressure. He was intoxicated with his success, he felt
he was winning at last ; and the jewelled cup that Myrrhina
brought him, as he thought all too soon, remained for a while
suspended in his hand, while he uttered fervent protestations
of love, which were received with an equanimity that ought
to have convinced him they were hopelessly wasted on his idol.

" You profess much," said she, " but it costs men little to
promise. We have but one faithful lover in the empire, and
he is enslaved by a barbarian princess and another man's
wife. Would you have turned back from all the pleasures of
Rome, to fight one more campaign against those dreadful
Jews, for the sake of Berenice's sunburnt face?"

"Titus had consulted the oracle of Venus," replied the
tribune, with a meaning smile ; " and doubtless the goddess
had promised him a double victory. Valeria, you know there
is nothing a man will not dare to win the woman he loves."

" Could you be as true ? " she asked, throwing all the
sweetness of her mellow voice, all the power of her winning
eyes, into the question.

" Try me," answered he, and for one moment the man's
nature was changed, and he felt capable of devotion, self-

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ATTACK AND DEFENCE

sacrifice, fidelity, all that constitutes the heroism of love. The
next, nature reasserted her sway, and he was counting the cost.

" I have a fancy for your barbarian," said Valeria care-
lessly, after a pause. " Myrrhina loves him, and — and if you
will give him to me I will take him into my household."

Placidus shot a piercing glance at the waiting-maid, and
that well-tutored damsel cast down her eyes and tried to
blush. There was something, too, in Valeria's manner that
did not satisfy him, and yet he was willing to believe more
than he hoped, and nearly all he wished.

" I seldom ask for anything," resumed Valeria, raising her
head with a proud petulant gesture of which she knew the
full effect. " It is far easier for me to grant a favour than to
implore one. And yet, I know not why, but I do not feel it
painful to beg anything to-day from you ! "

A soft smile broke over the haughty face while she spoke,
and she raised her eyes and looked full into his for an instant,
ere she lowered them to toy with the bracelet once more. It
was the deadliest thrust she had in all her cunning of fence,
the antagonist could seldom parry or withstand it ; would it
foil him in their present encounter ? He loved her as much
as such a nature can love, but the question was one of life
and death, and it was no time for child's play now, as Esca
was in possession of a secret that might annihilate his lord in
an hour. The tribune was not a man to sacrifice his very
existence for a woman, even though that woman was Valeria.
He hesitated, and she, marking his hesitation, turned pale,
and shook with rage.

" You refuse me ! " said she, in accents that trembled
either with suppressed fury or lacerated feelings. " You
refuse me. You, the only man living for whom I would have
so lowered myself. The only man I ever stooped to entreat.
Oh ! it is too much, too much."

She bowed her head in her hands, and as the wealth of
brown hair showered over her white shoulders, they heaved as
if she wept. Myrrhina looked reproachfully at the tribune,
and muttered, " Oh ! if he knew, if he only knew ! "

In his dealings with the other sex Placidus had always
been of opinion that it is better to untie a knot than to cut it.

" Fair Valeria," said he, " ask me anything but this. I am
pledged to slay this man within twenty-four hours ; will not
that content you ? "

The exigency of the situation, the danger of him for
whom she had conceived so wild and foolish a passion,
sharpened her powers of deception, and made her reckless of
M 177

ANTEROS

her own feelings, her own degradation. Shaking the hair back
from her temples, beautiful in her disorder and her tears, she
looked with wet eyes in the tribune's face, while she replied —

" Do you think I care for the barbarian ? What difference
can it make to Valeria if such as this Briton were slain by
hecatombs ? It is for Myrrhina's sake I grieve ; and more,
far more than this, to think that you can refuse me anything
in the whole world ! "

Duplicity was no new effort for the tribune. He had
often, ere now, betaken himself to this mode of defence when
driven to his last ward. He raised her hands respectfully to
his lips.

" Be it as you will," said he ; "I make him over to you
to do with him what you please. Esca is your property,
beautiful Valeria, from this hour."

A dark thought had flitted through his brain, that it
would be no such difficult matter to destroy an inconvenient
witness, and retain the favour of an exacting mistress at the
same time. It was but a grain or two of poison in the slave's
last meal, and he might depart in peace, a doomed man, to
Valeria's mansio"n. He would take the chance of his silence
for the few hours that intervened, and after all, the ravings of
one whose brow was already stamped with death would
arouse little suspicion. Afterwards it would be easy to pacify
Valeria, and shift the blame on some over-zealous freedman,
or officious client. He did not calculate on the haste with
which women jump to conclusions. Valeria clapped her
hands with unusual glee. " Quick ! Myrrhina," said she, " my
tablets to the tribune. He shall write the order here, and
my people can go for the slave and bring him back, before
Placidus departs."

" Nay," interposed the latter in some confusion, " it is
indispensable that I go home at once. I have already
lingered here too long. Farewell, Valeria. Ere the sun goes
down you shall see that Placidus is proud and happy to obey
your lightest whim."

With these words, he made a low obeisance, and, ere his
hostess could stop him, had traversed the outer hall, and
mounted in his chariot. Valeria seemed half stupefied by this
sudden departure, but ere the rolls of his wheels had died
away, a light gleamed in her eyes, and summoning the little
negro, who had lain unnoticed and coiled up within call during
the interview, she bade him run out and see which direction
the chariot took, then she stared wildly in Myrrhina's face,
and burst into a strange, half-choking laugh.

178

CHAPTER III

"FURENS QUID FCEMINA"

" 'HP^HE chariot has turned into the Flaminian Way," sard
_L the urchin, running breathlessly back to his mistress.
" Oh ! so fast ! so fast ! " and he clapped his little black
hands with the indescribable delight all children take in
rapidity of movement.

" The Flaminian Way ! " repeated Valeria. " He must go
round by the Great Gate and the Triumphal Arches to get
home. Myrrhina, if we make haste, we shall yet be in
time."

In less than ten minutes the two women had crossed the
wide pleasure-grounds which skirted Valeria's mansion, and
had let themselves out by a pass-key into the street. So
complete, however, was their transformation that the most
intimate friend would have failed to recognise in these
shrouded, hurrying figures, the fashionable Roman lady
and her attendant. A wig of curling yellow hair covered
Valeria's nut-brown tresses, and the lower part of her face
was concealed by a mask, whilst Myrrhina, closely-veiled and
wrapped in a dark-coloured mantle, stained and threadbare
with many a winter's storm, looked like some honest child
of poverty, bound on one of the humble errands of daily
plebeian life. As they tripped rapidly along a narrow and
little frequented street, — one of the many inconvenient
thoroughfares which Nero's great fire had spared, and which
still intersected the magnificence of the Imperial City, — they
had to pass a miserable-looking house, with a low shabby
doorway, which was yet secured by strong fastenings of bolts
and bars, as though its tenant had sufficient motives for
affecting privacy and retirement. The women looked mean-
ingly at each other while they approached it, for the dwelling
of Petosiris the Egyptian was too well known to all who
led a life of pleasure or intrigue in Rome. He it was who
provided potions, love philtres, charms of every description,
and whom the superstitious of all classes, no trifling majority,

179

ANTEROS

youngrand old, rich and poor, male and female, consulted in
matters of interest and affection ; the supplanting of a rival,
the acquisition of a heart, and the removal of those who stood
in the way either of a fortune or a conquest. It is needless
to observe that the Egyptian's wealth increased rapidly ; and
that humbler visitors had to turn from his door disappointed,
day after day, waiting the leisure of the celebrated magician.

But if Valeria hurried breathlessly through the dirty and
ill-conditioned street, she stopped transfixed when she reached
its farthest extremity, and beheld the tribune's chariot, stand-
ing empty in the shade, as though waiting for its master.
The white horses beguiled their period of inaction in the heat,
by stamping, snorting, and tossing their heads, while Auto-
medon, now nodding drowsily, now staring vacantly about
him, scarcely noticed the figures of the two women, so well
were they disguised.

" What can he be doing there ? " whispered Valeria
anxiously ; and Myrrhina replied in the same cautious tones,
" If Placidus be trafficking for philtres with the Egyptian,
take my word for it, madam, there will be less of love than
murder in the draught ! "

Then they hurried on faster than before, as if life and
death hung upon the rapidity of their footsteps.

Far back, up a narrow staircase, in a dark and secluded
chamber, sat Petosiris, surrounded by the implements of his
art. Enormous as his wealth was supposed to be, he suffered
no symptoms of it to appear, either in his dwelling or his
apparel. The walls of his chamber were bare and weather-
stained, totally devoid of ornament, save for a mystic figure
traced here and there on their surface, while the floor was
scorched, and the ceiling blackened, with the burning liquids
that had fallen on the one, and the heavy aromatic vapours
that clung about the other. The magician's own robe, though
once of costly materials, and surrounded with a broad border,
on which cabalistic signs and numerals were worked in golden
thread, now sadly frayed, was worn to the last degree of
tenuity, and his linen head-dress, wound in a multiplicity of
folds, till it rose into a peak some two feet high, was yellow
with dirt and neglect. Under this grotesque covering peered
forth a pair of shrewd black eyes, set in a grave emaciated
face. They denoted cunning, audacity, and that restless
vigilance which argued some deficiency or warping of the
brain, a tendency, however remote, to insanity, from which,
with all their mental powers, these impostors are seldom free.
There was nothing else remarkable about the man. He had

1 80

"FURENS QUID FCEMINA"

the deep yellow tint with the supple figure and peculiar
nostril of the Egyptian, and when he rose in compliment to
his visitor, his low stature afforded a quaint contrast to his
trailing robes and real dignity of bearing.

The tribune — for he it was whose entrance disturbed the
calculations on which the magician was engaged — accosted
the latter with an air of abrupt and almost contemptuous
familiarity. It was evident that Placidus was a good
customer, one who bought largely while he paid freely ; and
Petosiris, throwing aside all assumption of mystery or pre-
occupation, laughed pleasantly as he returned the greeting.
Yet was there something jarring in his laugh, something
startling in his abrupt transition to the profoundest gravity ;
and though his small glittering eyes betrayed a schoolboy's
love of mischief, gleams shot from them at intervals which
expressed a diabolical malice, and love of evil for evil's
sake.

" Despatch, my man of science ! " said the tribune, scarcely
noticing the obeisance and expressions of regard lavished on
him by his host. " As usual I have little time to spare, and
less inclination to enter into particulars. Give me what I
want — you have it here in abundance — and let me begone
out of this atmosphere, which is enough to stifle the lungs of
an honest man ! "

" My lord ! my illustrious patron ! my worthiest friend ! "
replied the other, with evident enjoyment of his customer's
impatience, "you have but to command, you know it well,
and I obey. Have I not served you faithfully in all my
dealings ? Was not the horoscope right to a minute ? Did
not the charm protect from evil ? and the love philtre ensure
success? Have I ever failed, my noble employer? Speak,
mighty tribune ; thy slave listens to obey."

" Words ! words ! " replied the other impatiently. " You
know what I require. Produce it, there is the price ! "

At the same time he threw a bag of gold on the floor,
the weight of which inferred that secrecy must constitute no
small portion of the bargain it was to purchase. Though he
affected utter unconsciousness, the Egyptian's eyes flashed
at the welcome chink of the metal against the boards ; none
the more, however, would he abstain from tantalising the
donor by assuming a misapprehension of his meaning.

" The hour," said he, " is not propitious for casting a
horoscope. Evil planets are in the ascendant, and the influ-
ence of the good genius is counteracted by antagonistic spells.
Thus much I can tell you, noble tribune, they are of barbarian

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ANTEROS

origin. Come again an hour later to-morrow, and I will do
your bidding."

" Fool ! " exclaimed Placidus impatiently, at the same
time raising his foot as though to spurn the magician like a
dog. " Does a man give half a helmetful of gold for a few
syllables of jargon scrawled on a bit of scorched parchment?
You keep but one sort of wares that fetch a price like this.
Let me have the strongest of them."

Neither the gesture, nor the insult it implied, was lost
on the Egyptian. Yet he preserved a calm and imperturbable
demeanour, while he continued his irritating inquiries.

"A philtre, noble patron? A love philtre? They are
indeed worth any amount of gold. Maid or matron, vestal
virgin or Athenian courtesan, three drops of that clear taste-
less fluid, and she is your own ! "

The tribune's evil smile was deepening round his mouth —
it was not safe to jest with him any further ; he stooped over
the magician and whispered two words in his ear ; the latter
looked up with an expression in which curiosity, horror, and
a perverted kind of admiration, were strangely blended.
Then his eyes twinkled once more with the schoolboy's
mirth and malice, while he ransacked a massive ebony
cabinet, and drew forth a tiny phial from its secret drawer.
Wrapping this in a thin scroll, on which was written the
word Cave (beware !) to denote the fatal nature of its contents,
he hurried it into the tribune's hands, hid away the bag of
gold, and in a voice trembling with emotion, bade his visitor
begone, an injunction which Placidus obeyed with his usual
easy carelessness of demeanour, stepping daintily into his
chariot, as though his errand had been of the most benevolent
and harmless kind.

In the meantime, Valeria, accompanied by her attendant,
had reached the tribune's house, which she entered with a
bold front indeed, but with shaking limbs. Despite her
undaunted nature, all the fears and weaknesses of her sex
were aroused by the task she had set herself to fulfil, and her
woman's instinct told her that, whatever might be her motives,
the crossing of this notorious threshold was an act she would
bitterly repent at some future time. Myrrhina entertained
no such misgivings ; she looked on the whole proceeding as
an opportunity to display her own talents for intrigue, and
make herself, if possible, more necessary than ever to the
mistress with whose secrets she was so dangerously familiar.

In the outer hall were lounging a few slaves and freedmen,
who welcomed the entrance of the two women with consider-

182

"FURENS QUID FCEMINA"

ably less respect than one of them at least was accustomed
to consider her due. Damasippus, indeed, with a coarse jest,
strove to snatch away the mask that concealed the lower part
of Valeria's face, but she released herself from his hold so
energetically as to send him reeling back half a dozen paces,
not a little discomfited by the unexpected strength of that
shapely white arm. Then drawing herself to her full height,
and throwing her disguise upon the floor, she confronted the
astonished freedman in her own person, and bade him stand
out of her way.

" I am Valeria ! " said she, " and here by your master's
invitation, slave ! for what are you better than a mere slave
after all? If I were to hint at your insolence, he would have
you tied to that doorpost, in despite of your citizenship, and
scourged to death, like a disobedient hound. Pick up those
things," she added loftily, "and show me, some of you, to
the private apartment of your lord. Myrrhina, you may
remain outside, but within call."

Completely cowed by her demeanour, and no whit relish-
ing the tone in which she threatened him, Damasippus did
as he was commanded ; while a couple of slaves, who had
remained till now in the background, ushered the visitor into
another apartment, where they left her with many obsequious
assurances that their lord was expected home every moment.

Every moment ! Then there was no time to lose. How
her heart beat, and what a strange instinct it was that made
her feel she was in the vicinity of the man she loved ! As
yet she had formed no plan, she had made no determination,
she only knew he was in danger, he was to die, and come
what might, at any risk, at any sacrifice, her place was by
his side. Imminent as was the peril, critical as was the
moment, through all the tumult of her feelings, she was
conscious of a vague wild happiness to be near him ; and as
she walked up and down the polished floor, counting its
tesselated squares mechanically, in her strong mental excite-
ment, she pressed both hands hard against her bosom, as
though to keep the heart within from beating so fiercely, and
to collect all its energies by sheer strength and force of will.

Thus pacing to and fro, running over in her mind every
possible and impossible scheme for the discovery and release
of the slave, whose very prison she had yet to search out, her
quick ear caught the dull and distant clank of a chain. The
sound reached her from an opposite direction to that of the
principal entrance ; and as all Roman houses were constructed
on nearly the same plan, Valeria had no fear of losing her

183

ANTEROS

way among the roomy halls and long corridors of her
admirer's mansion. She held her breath as she hurried on,
fortunately without meeting a human being, for the household
slaves of both sexes had disposed themselves in shady nooks
and corners to sleep away the sultriest hours of the day ;
nor did she stop till she reached a heavy crimson curtain,
screening an inner court, paved and walled by slabs of white
stone that refracted the sun's rays with painful intensity.
Here she stood still and listened, while her very lips grew
white with emotion, then she drew the curtain, and looked
into the court.

He had dragged himself as far as his chain would
permit, to get the benefit of some two feet of shade close
under the stifling wall. A water-jar, long since emptied,
stood on the floor beside him, accompanied by a crust of
black mouldy bread. A heavy iron collar, which defied
alike strength and ingenuity, was round his throat, while
the massive links that connected it with an iron staple let
into the pavement would have held an elephant. It was
obvious the prisoner could neither stand nor even sit upright
without constraint ; and the white skin of his neck and
shoulders was already galled and blistered in his efforts
to obtain relief by occasional change of posture. Without
the key of the heavy padlock that fastened chain and collar,
Vulcan himself could scarcely have released the Briton ; and
Valeria's heart sank within her as she gazed helplessly round,
and thought of what little avail were her own delicate fingers
for such a task. There seemed no nearer prospect of help
even now that she had reached him ; and she clenched her
hand with anger while she reflected how he must have
suffered from heat, and thirst, and physical pain, besides
the sense of his degradation and the certainty of his doom.

Nevertheless, extended there upon the hard glowing
stones, Esca was sleeping as sound and peacefully as an
infant. His head was pillowed on one massive arm, half
hidden in the clustering yellow locks that showered across
it, and his large shoulders rose and fell regularly with the
measured breathing of a deep and dreamless slumber. She
stole nearer softly, as afraid to wake him, and for a moment
came upon Valeria's face something of the deep and holy
tenderness with which a mother looks upon a child. Yet
light as was that dainty footstep it disturbed, without actually
rousing, the watchful instincts of the sleeper. He stirred
and turned his face upwards with a movement of impatience,
while she, hanging over him and drinking in the beauty that

184

"FURENS QUID FOEMINA "

had made such wild work with her tranquillity, as if her life
had neither hope nor fear beyond the ecstasy of the moment,
gazed on his fair features and his closed eyes, till she forgot
time and place and hazard, the emergency of the occasion,
and the errand on which she had herself come. Deeper
and deeper sank into her being the dangerous influence of
the hour and the situation. The summer sky above, the
hot dreamy solitude around, and there, down at her feet —
nay, so near, that, while she bent over him, his warm breath
stirred the very hair upon her brow — the only face of man
that had ever thrilled her heart, sleeping so calmly close to
her own, and now made doubly dear by all it had suffered,
all it was fated to undergo. Lower and lower, nearer and
nearer, bent her dainty head to meet the slave's ; and as he
stirred once more in his sleep, and a quiet smile stole over
his unconscious countenance, her lips clung to his in one
long, loving, and impassioned kiss.

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CHAPTER IV

THE LOVING CUP

AS he opened his dreamy eyes she started to her feet,
for voices now broke in on the silence that had
hitherto reigned throughout the household, and the tread
of slaves bustling to and fro announced the return of their
lord, a master who brooked no neglect, as well they knew,
from those who were in his service. She had scarcely risen
from her posture of soothing and devoted affection ; scarcely
had time to shake the long hair off her face, when Julius
Placidus entered the court and stood before her with that
inscrutable expression of countenance which most she hated,
and which left her in complete ignorance as to whether or
not he had been in time to witness the caresses she had
lavished on the captive. And now Valeria vindicated the
woman's nature of which, with all her faults, she partook
so largely. At this critical moment her courage and presence
of mind rose with the occasion ; and though, womanlike,
she had recourse to dissimulation, that refuge of the weak,
there was something on her brow that argued, if need were,
she would not shrink from the last desperate resources of
the strong. Turning to the tribune with the quiet dignity
and the playful smile that she knew became her so well,
she pointed to the recumbent figure of the Briton, and said
gently —

"You gave him to rne, and I am here to fetch him.
Why is it that of late I value your lightest gift so much ?
Placidus, what must you think of me, to have come unbidden
to your house ? "

Then she cast down her eyes and drooped her stately
head, as though ready to sink in an agony of love and shame.
Deceiver, intriguer, as he had been ever since the down
was on his chin, he was no match for her. He shot, indeed,
one sharp inquisitive glance at Esca, but the slave's be-
wildered gaze reassured him. The latter, worn out with
trouble and privation, was only half awake, and almost

1 36

THE LOVING CUP

imagined himself in a dream. Then the tribune's looks
softened as they rested on his mistress ; and, although there
was a gleam of malicious triumph on his brow, the hard
unmeaning expression left his face, which brightened with
more of kindness and cordiality than was its wont.

"It is no longer house of mine," said he, " but of yours,
beautiful Valeria ! Here you are ever welcome, and here
you will remain, will you not, with him who loves you
better than all the world besides?"

Even while he spoke she had run over in her mind the
exigencies and difficulties of her position. In that instant
of time she could think of Esca's danger — of the necessity
that she should herself be present to save him from the fate
with which, for some special reason that she was also deter-
mined to find out, he was obviously threatened — of the
tribune's infamous character, and her own fair fame; for
Cornelia might not have left such a house as that with her
reputation unscathed, and Valeria could far less afford to
tamper with so fragile and shadowy a possession than the
severe mother of the Gracchi. Yet her brow was unclouded,
and there was nothing but frank good-humour in her tone
while she replied —

" Nay, Placidus. You know that even we of the patrician
order cannot do always as we would. Surely I have risked
enough already; because — because I fancied you left me
in anger, and I could not bear the thought even for an
hour. I will but ask you for a cup of wine and begone.
Myrrhina accompanied me here, and we can return, unknown
and unsuspected, as we came."

He wished nothing better. A cup of wine, a sumptuous
feast spread on the moment, garlands of flowers, heavy
perfumes loading the sultry air ; soft music stealing on the
senses gently as the faint breeze that whispered through
the drowsy shade. All the voluptuous accessories so adapted
to a pleading tongue and so dangerous to a willing ear.
He had never known them fail ; it should not be the fault
of master or household if they proved useless now.

He took Valeria respectfully by the hand, and led her to
the large banqueting-hall with as much deference as though
she had been Caesar's wife. None knew better than the
tribune how scrupulously all the honours of war must be
paid to a fortress about to capitulate. As he bent before
her, the phial he had purchased from Petosiris peeped forth
in the bosom of his tunic, and her quick eye did not fail
to detect it. In an instant she turned back as though

187

ANTEROS

stumbling on the skirt of her robe, and in the action made
a rapid sign to Esca by raising her hand to her mouth,
accompanied by a warning shake of the head and a glance
from her eloquent eyes, that she trusted he would under-
stand as forbidding him to taste either food or drink till
her return. Once more, whilst she made this covert signal,
the set and passionless look came over the tribune's face.
Cunning, cautious as she might think herself, his snake-like
eye had seen enough. At that moment Placidus had resolved
Esca should die within the hour. Then those two walked
gracefully into the adjoining hall, and seated themselves at
the banquet with a scrupulous courtesy and strict observance
of the outward forms of good breeding; while the slaves
who waited believed that the whole proceeding was but
one of their lord's usual affairs of gallantry, and that the
noble pair before them loved each other well.

The tribune, like the rest of his sex, was no large eater
when making love ; and an appetite that could accompany
Vitellius through the most elaborate banquets of the glutton-
ous Caesar was satisfied with a handful of dates and a bunch
or two of grapes in the presence of Valeria. She, too, in
her anxiety and agitation, felt as if every morsel would
choke her; but she pledged her host willingly in a goblet
of red Falernian, with a vague idea that every moment she
could keep his attention employed was of priceless value,
clingingly almost hopelessly to the chance of obtaining by
some means the possession of the fatal phial before it was
too late.

He was in high spirits, — voluble, witty, eloquent, sarcastic,
but devoted to her. In the moment, as he hoped, of his
triumph he could afford to show, or rather to affect, more
of delicacy and generosity than she had believed him to
possess, and she loathed and hated him all the more. Once,
when, after enunciating a sentiment of the warmest regard
and attachment, she caught the expression of his eyes as
they looked into her own, she glanced wildly round the
room, and clenched her hand with rage to observe that the
walls were bare of weapons. He was no stately, high-
spirited Agamemnon, this supple intriguer, yet had there
been sword, axe, or dagger within reach of that white arm,
she would have asked nothing better than to enact the
part of Clytemnestra. How she wished to be a man for
the moment — ay, and a strong one ! She felt she could
have strangled him there, hateful and smiling on the couch !
Oh ! for Esca's thews and sinews ! Esca — so fair, and brave,

1 88

THE LOVING CUP

and honest ! Her brain swam when she thought of him
chained, like a beast, within ten paces of her. An effort
must be made to save him at any risk and at any sacrifice.

Placidus talked gaily on, broaching in turn those topics
of luxury, dissipation, and even vice, which constituted the
everyday life of the patrician order at Rome, and she forced
herself to reply with an affected levity and indifference that
nearly drove her mad. Caesar's banquets ; Galeria's yellow
head-gear, and the bad taste in which her jewels were set,
so inexcusable in an emperor's wife ; the war in Judaea ;
the last chariot race ; and the rival merits of the Red and
Green factions, were canvassed and dismissed with a light
word and a happy jest. Such subjects inevitably led to a
discussion on the arena and its combatants, the magnificence
of the late exhibition, and the tribune's own prowess in the
deadly game. Placidus turned suddenly, as if recollecting
himself, called for a slave, whispered an order in his ear, and
bade him begone. The man hastened from the room, leaving
lover and mistress once more alone.

The presence of mind and self-command on which she
prided herself now completely deserted Valeria. In an
agony of alarm for Esca, she jumped at once to the
conclusion that his doom was gone forth. The tribune,
turning to her with some choice phrase, half-jest, half-com-
pliment, was startled to observe her face colourless to the
very lips, while her large eyes shone with a fierce, unnatural
light. Uttering a low stifled cry, like that of some wild
animal in its death -pang, she fell at his feet, clasping him
round the knees, and gasped out —

" Spare him ! spare him ! Placidus — beloved Placidus !
spare him — for my sake ! "

Her host, whose whole mind at that moment was
occupied with thoughts very foreign to bloodshed, and whose
whispered mandate had reference to nothing more deadly
than orders for a strain of unexpected music, gazed in
astonishment at the proud woman thus humbled before him
to the dust. He had, indeed, intended to despatch Esca
quietly by poison before nightfall, and so get rid at once of
an inconvenient witness and a possible rival ; but for the
present he had dismissed the slave completely from his mind.
If, an hour ago, he had allowed himself to harbour such a
wild fancy, as that a mere barbarian should have captivated
the woman on whom he had set his affections, her voluntary
acceptance of his hospitality and her cordial demeanour since,
had dispelled so foolish and unjust a suspicion, which he

189

ANTEROS

wondered he could have entertained even for a moment.
Now, however, a chill seemed to curdle the blood about his
heart. Very quietly he raised her from the floor; but,
though he was not conscious of it, his grasp left a mark upon
her wrist. Very distinct and steady were the tones in which
he soothed her, asking courteously —

" Whom do you wish me to spare ? What is it, Valeria ?
Surely you are not still dwelling on that barbarian slave?
What is he, to come between you and me? It is too late —
too late ! "

" Never ! never ! " she gasped out, seizing his hand in both
her own, and folding it to her breast. " It is no time now
for concealment; no time for choice phrases, and mock
reserve, and false shame ! I love him, Placidus ! I love
him ! — do you hear ? Grant me but his life, and ask me for
everything I have in return ! "

She looked beautiful as she knelt before him once more,
so dishevelled and disordered, with upturned face and
streaming hair. It seemed to the tribune as though a knife
had been driven home to his heart ; but he collected all his
energies for a revenge commensurate to the hurt, as he threw
himself indolently on the couch, a worse man by a whole
age of malice than he had risen from it a few seconds before.

" Why did you not tell me sooner ? " said he, in accents
of the calmest courtesy and self-command. " Fair Valeria !
not more bargains are driven every day in the Forum than
in the courts of Love ! You offer liberal terms. It seems
to me we have nothing left to do but to settle the remainder
of the agreement."

What a price was she paying for her interference ! Not
a woman in Rome could have felt more deeply the
degradation she was accepting, the insult to which she was
submitting ; and through it all she was miserably conscious
of a false move in the game she had the temerity to play
against this formidable adversary. Still she had resolved
that she would shrink from no humiliation to save Esca, and
she blushed blood-red with anger and shame as she rose from
her knees, hid her face in her hands, while she summoned her
woman's wit and her woman's powers of endurance to help
her in the emergency.

He, too, had bethought him of an appropriate revenge.
The tribune never forgave ; for such an offence as the present
it was his nature to seek reprisals, exceeding, in their subtle
cruelty, the injury they were to atone. There is no venom
so deadly as a bad man's love turned to gall. It would be

190

THE LOVING CUP

fine sport, thought Placidus, to make her slay this yellow-
haired darling of hers with her own hand. The triumph
would be complete, when he had outwitted her at every
point, and could sneer politely over the dead body of the
man, and the passionate reproaches of the woman. The
first step to so tempting a consummation was, of course, to
put her off her guard, and for this it would be necessary to
assume some natural displeasure and pique ; too open a
brow would surely arouse suspicions, so he spoke angrily,
in the harsh excited tones of a generous man who has been
wronged.

" I have been deceived," said he, striking his hand against
the board ; " deceived, duped, scorned, and by you, Valeria,
from whom I did not deserve it. Shame on the woman who
could thus wring an honest heart for the mere triumph of
her vanity ! And yet," he added, with an admirable appear-
ance of wounded feeling in his lowered voice and relenting
accents, " I can forgive, because I would not others should
suffer as I do now. Yes, Valeria's wishes are still laws to
me ; I will spare him for your sake, and you shall bear the
news to him yourself. But he must be half dead ere this,
of thirst and exhaustion ; take him a cup of wine with your
own fair hands, and tell him he will be a free man before
sunset ! "

While he spoke, he turned from her to a sideboard, on
which stood a tall jar of Falernian, flanked by a pair of
silver goblets. She had sunk from the couch beside him,
and was resting her head upon the table ; but she looked up
quickly for a moment, and saw his back reflected in the
burnished surface of a gold vase that stood before her. By
the motion of his shoulders she was aware that he had taken
something from his bosom while he filled the wine. The
whole danger of the situation flashed upon her at once ; she
felt intuitively that one of the cups was poisoned ; she could
risk her life to find out which. Her tears were dried, her
nerves were strung, as if by magic ; like a different being she
rose to her feet now, pale and beautiful, but perfectly calm
and composed.

" You do love me, Placidus," said she, raising one of the
goblets from the salver on which they stood. "Such truth
as yours might win any woman. I pledge you, to show that
we are friends again at least, if nothing more ! "

She was in the act of putting it to her lips, when he
interposed, somewhat hurriedly, and with a voice not so
steady as usual —

191

ANTEROS

" One moment ! " he exclaimed, taking it from her hand,
and setting it down again in its place, " we have not made
our terms yet; the treaty must be signed and sealed; a
libation must be poured to the gods. It is a strong rough
wine, that Falernian : I have some Coan here you would like
better. You see I have not forgotten your tastes."

He laughed nervously, and his lip twitched ; she knew
now that it was the right-hand goblet which held the poison.
Both were equally full, and they stood close together on the
salver.

" And this man could not slay me after all," was the
thought that for a moment softened her heart, and bade her
acknowledge some shadow of compunction for her admirer.
Bad as he was, she could not help reflecting that to her
influence he owed the only real feeling his life had ever
known, and it made her waver, but not for long. Soon the
image of Esca, chained and prostrate, passed before her, and
the remembrance of her odious bargain goaded her into the
bitterest hatred once more.

She placed her hand in the tribune's with the abandon-
ment of a woman who really loves, she turned her eyes on
his with the swimming glance of which she had not mis-
calculated the power.

" Forgive me," she murmured. " I have never valued
you, never known you till now. I was heartless, unfeeling,
mad ; but I have learned a lesson to-day that neither of us
will ever forget. No, we will never quarrel again ! "

He clasped her in his arms, he took her to his heart, his
brain reeled, his senses failed him, that bewitching beauty
seemed to pervade his being, to surround him with its
fragrance like some intoxicating vapour ; and whilst his
frame thrilled, and his lips murmured out broken words of
fondness, the white hand thrown so confidingly across his
shoulder had shifted the position of the goblets, and the
heart that beat so wildly against his own had doomed him
remorselessly to die.

She extricated herself from his embrace, she put her hair
back from her brow ; love is blind, indeed, or it must have
struck him that instead of blushing with conscious fond-
ness, her cheek was as white and cold as marble, though
she kept her eyes cast down as if they dared not meet his
own.

" Pledge me," said she, in a tone of the utmost softness,
and forcing a playful smile that remained, carved as it were,
in fixed lines round her mouth ; " drink to me in token of

192

THE LOVING CUP

forgiveness ; it will be the sweetest draught I have ever
tasted when your lips have kissed the cup."

He reached his hand out gaily to the salver. Her heart
stood still in the agony of her suspense, lest he should mark
the change she had made so warily; but the goblets were
exactly alike, and he seized the nearest without hesitation,
and half-emptied it ere he set it down. Laughing, he was
in the act of handing to her what remained, when his eye
grew dull, his jaw dropped, and, stammering some broken
syllables, he sank back senseless upon the couch.

She would have almost given Esca's life now to undo the
deed. But it was no time for repentance or indecision ;
keeping her eyes off the white vacant face, which yet seemed
ever before her, she felt resolutely in the bosom of the
tribune's tunic for the precious key, and having found it,
walked steadily to the door and listened. It was well she
did so, for a slave's step was heard rapidly approaching, and
she had but time to return, on tiptoe, and take her place
upon the couch ere the domestic entered ; disposing of the
tribune's powerless head upon her lap as though he had
sunk to sleep in her embrace. The slave discreetly retired,
but short as was its duration, the torture of those few seconds
was hardly inadequate to the guilt that had preceded them.
Then she hurried through the well-known passages, and
reached the court in which Esca was confined. Not a word
of explanation, not a syllable of fondness escaped her lips as
she calmly liberated the man for whom she had risked so
much. Mechanically, and like a sleep-walker, she unlocked
the collar round his neck, signing to him at the same time,
for she seemed incapable of speech, to rise and follow her.
He obeyed, scarce knowing what he did, astonished at the
apparition of his deliverer, and almost scared by her ghastly
looks and strange imperious gestures. Thus they threaded,
without interruption, the passages of the house, and emerged
from the private entrance into the now silent and deserted
street. Then came the reaction; Valeria could bear up no
longer, and trembling all over while she clung to Esca, but
for whose arm she must have fallen, she burst into a passion
of sobs upon his breast.

193

CHAPTER V

SURGIT AMARI

HE had known but few moments of happi-
ness, that proud unbending woman, in
the course of her artificial life. Now,
though remorse was gnawing at her heart,
there was such a wild delight in the
Briton's presence, such ecstasy in the con-
sciousness of having saved him, though
at the price of a hateful crime, that the
pleasure kept down and stifled the pain.
It was a new sensation to cling to that
stalwart form and acknowledge him for
her lord whom others deemed a mere barbarian and a slave.
It was intense joy to think that she had penetrated his noble
character; that she had given him her love unasked, when
such a gift could alone have saved him from destruction ; and
that she had grudged no price at which to ransom him for
herself. It was the first time in Valeria's whole existence that
she had vindicated her woman's birthright of merging her own
existence in another's, and for the moment this engrossing
consciousness completely altered the whole character and
training of the patrician lady. Myrrhina, walking discreetly
some ten paces behind, could hardly believe in the identity
of that drooping form, faltering in step, and timid in gesture,
with her imperious and wilful mistress. This vigilant damsel,
who was never flurried nor surprised, had effected her escape
from the domestics of the tribune's household, at the moment
her practised ear caught the light footstep of Valeria making
its way to the door ; and although she scarcely expected to
see the latter pacing home with the captive at her side, as
oblivious of her waiting-maid's existence, as of everything else
in the world, she was quite satisfied to observe that this pre-
occupation was the result of interest in her companion. So
long as an intrigue was on foot, it mattered little to Myrrhina
who might be its originators or its victims.

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SURGIT AMARI

They had not proceeded far before Esca stopped, waking
up like a man from a dream.

" I owe you my life," he said, in his calm voice and foreign
accent, that made such music to her ear. " How shall I ever
repay you, noble lady? I have nothing to give but the
strength of my right arm, and of what service can such as I
be to such as you ? "

She blushed deeply, and cast down her eyes.

" We are not safe yet," she answered. " We will talk of
this when we get home."

He looked before him down the stately street, with its
majestic porticoes, its towering palaces, and its rows of lofty
pillars, stretching on in grand perspective till they met the
dusky crimson of the evening sky ; and perhaps he was think-
ing of a free upland, and blue hills, and laughing sunshine
glittering on the mere and trembling in the green wood far
away at home, for he only answered by repeating her last
word with a sigh, and adding : " There is none for me ; a
wanderer, an outcast, and a degraded man."

She seemed to check the outburst that was rising to her
lips, and she kept her eyes off his face, while she whispered —

" I have determined to save you. Do you not know that
there is nothing you can ask me which I will not grant ? "

He raised her hand to his lips, but the gesture partook
more of the dependant's homage than the lover's rapture.
She felt instinctively that it was a tribute of gratitude and
loyalty, not an impassioned caress. For the second time,
something seemed to warn her she had better have left that
day's work undone. Then she began to talk rapidly of the
dangers they might undergo from pursuit, of the necessity for
immediate flight to her house, and close concealment when
there ; wandering wildly on from one subject to another, and
apparently but half-conscious of anything she said. At last
he asked her eagerly, even sternly—

" And the tribune ? What of him ? How could you
release me from his power? I tell you, I had the life of
Placidus in my hand, as completely as if I had been standing
over him in the amphitheatre with my foot on his neck.
Would any price have purchased me from him, with all I
knew?"

The crimson rose to her brow as she answered hurriedly,
" No price ! Believe me, no price that man could offer, or
woman either ! Esca, do not think worse of me than I
deserve ! "

" Then why am I here ? " he continued, with a softened

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ANTEROS

look; " I would like well to discover the secret by which
Valeria can charm such a man as Placidus to her will."

She was very pale now.

" The tribune will claim you no more," said she ; " I have
settled that account for ever."

He did not understand her, yet he dropped the hand he
held and walked on a little farther from her side. She felt
her punishment had already commenced, and when she spoke
again it was in hard cold accents quite unlike her own.

" He crossed my path, Esca, and he met the fate of all
who are rash enough to oppose Valeria. What motives of
pity, or love, or honour, would avail with Placidus ? When
did he ever swerve a hair's-breadth from his goal for any
consideration but self? I knew him, ah ! too well. There
was but one invincible argument for the tribune, and I used
it. I slew him — slew him there, upon his couch ; but it was
to save you ! "

Perhaps he felt he was ungrateful. Perhaps he tried to
think that he, at least, had no right to judge her harshly ;
that such devotion for his sake should have made him look
with indulgent eye, even on so foul a crime as murder ; but
he could not control the repugnance and horror that now rose
in him for this beautiful, reckless, and unscrupulous woman :
but while he strove to conceal his feelings, and to mask them
with an air of deference and gratitude, she knew by the
instinct of love all that was passing in his breast, and suffered,
as those only can suffer, who have thrown honour, virtue,
conscience, everything to the winds, to purchase but the
conviction that their shameful sacrifice has been in vain.
She determined to put a period to the tortures she was
enduring. Ere this, they had reached the street, from which
opened the private entrance into her own grounds. Myrrhina,
though within sight, still kept discreetly in the rear. This
was the situation, this was the moment that Valeria had
pictured to herself in many a rapturous day-dream, that
seemed too impossibly happy ever to come to pass. To have
ransomed him from some great danger at some equivalent
price ; to have led him off with her in triumph ; those two
pacing by themselves through the deserted streets at the
witching sunset hour ; to have brought him home her own,
her very own, to this identical gate exactly in this manner ;
to have none between them, none to watch them, except
faithful Myrrhina, and to see before her a long future of
uninterrupted sunshine, this it had been ecstasy to dream of —
and now it had come, and brought with it a dull sickening

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SURGIT AMARI

sensation that was worse than pain. She had a brave re-
bellious nature, in keeping with the haughty head and stately
form hereditary in her line. No scion of that noble old house
would shrink or quiver under mental, any more than under
bodily, torture. Among the ancestral busts that graced her
cornices, was that of one who endured with a calm set face to
watch his own hand shrivelled up and crackling in the glowing
coals. His descendants, male and female, partook of that
unflinching character ; and not Mutius Scaevola himself, erect
and stern before the Tuscan king, had more of the desperate
tenacity which sets fate itself at defiance, than lurked under
the soft white skin, and the ready smile, and the voluptuous
beauty of proud Valeria.

She looked prouder and fairer than ever now, as she
stopped at her own gate and confronted the Briton.

" You are safe," she said, and what it cost her to say it
none knew but herself. " You are free besides, and at liberty
to go where you will."

The rapture with which he kissed her hand while she
spoke, the gleam of delight that lit up his whole face, the
intense gratitude with which he bowed himself to the ground
before her, smote like repeated strokes of a dagger to her
heart. She continued in accents of well-acted indifference,
though a less preoccupied observer might have marked the
quivering eyelid and dilated nostril —

" You may have friends whom you long to see — friends
who have been anxious about your safety. Though it seems,"
she added, ironically, " they have taken but little pains to set
you out of danger."

Esca was always frank and honest ; this was, perhaps, the
charm that, combined with his yellow locks and broad
shoulders, so endeared him to the Roman lady. She was
unaccustomed to these qualities in the men she usually
met.

" I have no friends," he answered, rather sadly ; " none
in the whole of this great city, except perhaps yourself,
noble lady, who care whether I am alive or dead. Yet I
have one mission, for the power of performing which this
very night I thank you far more than for saving my life.
To-morrow, it would be too late."

The tone was less that of a question than an assertion, in
which she forced out the words —

"It concerns that dark-eyed girl ! Esca, do not fear to
tell me the truth."

A faint red stole over the young man's brow. They were

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ANTEROS

standing together within the garden-wall on the smooth lawn
that sloped towards the house. The black cedars cut clear
and distinct against the pure serene opal of the fading sky.
A star or two were dimly visible, and not a breath stirred the
silent foliage of the holm-oaks, folded as it were in sleep,
or the drooping flowers, drowsy with the very weight of
fragrance they exhaled. It was the time and place for a
confession of love. What a mockery it seemed to Valeria
to stand there and watch his rising colour, and listen to the
faltering voice in which he betrayed his secret !

" I must save her, noble lady," said he ; "I mustjsave her
this very night, whatever else be left undone. Be he dead or
alive, she shall not enter the tribune's house, whilst I can
strike a blow or grasp an enemy by the throat. Lady, you
have earned my eternal gratitude, my eternal service ; give me
but this one night, and I return to-morrow to be the humblest
and most willtng of your slaves for ever after."

" And see her no more ? " asked Valeria, with a choking
throat and a strong tendency to burst into tears.

"And see her no more," repeated Esca, sadly and
resignedly.

There was no mistaking the ,tone of manly, unselfish,
and utterly hopeless love. Valeria passed her hand across
her face, and tried more than once to speak. At last she
muttered in a hoarse hard voice —

" You love her then very dearly ? "

He raised his head proudly, and a smile came on his lips,
a light into his blue eyes. She remembered how he had
looked so in the arena, when he gave his salute before the
imperial chair. She remembered, too, a pair of dark eyes
and a pale face that followed his every movement.

" So dearly," was his answer, " that can I but rescue her
I will gladly bargain to give her up and never even look on
her again. How can I think of myself when the question
is of her happiness and her safety ? "

Valeria with all her faults was a woman. She had indeed
dreamed of an affection such as this, an affection purified
from the dross and alloy that combine to form so much of
what men call love. She might not be capable of feeling it,
but, womanlike, she could admire and appreciate the nobility
of its aspirations, and the ideal standard to which it stretched.
Womanlike, too, she was not to be outdone in generosity,
and Esca's proposal of returning to her household, and
submitting to her will directly he had accomplished his
errand, disarmed her completely. She was not accustomed

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SURGIT AMARI

to analyse her feelings, or to check the reckless impulse
which always bade her act on the spur of the moment. She
did not stop to consider to-morrow's repentance, nor the
grudging regrets which would goad her when the excitement
of her self-denial had died out, and the blank that had
hitherto rendered existence so dreary would be even less
tolerable than before. If a shadowy misgiving that she
would repent her concession hereafter passed for a moment
across her mind, she hastened to repress it, ere it should
warp her better intentions ; and she could urge him to leave
her now, with all the more importunity, that she dared not
trust her heart to waver for an instant in the sacrifice.

" You are alone," said she, calming herself with a great
effort, and speaking very quick. " Alone in this great city,
but you are loyal and brave. Such men are rare here and
are worth a legion. Still, you must have gold in your bosom
and steel at your belt, if you would succeed. You shall take
both from me, and you will tell the dark-eyed girl that it was
Valeria who saved her and you."

His blue eyes turned upon her with looks of the deepest,
the most fervent gratitude, and again the wild love surged up
in her heart, and threatened to swamp every consideration
but its own irresistible longing. His answer, however, sent it
ebbing coldly back again.

" We shall be ever grateful ; oh ! that either of us could
prove it ! We shall not forget Valeria."

Myrrhina thought her mistress had never looked so
queenly, as when she called her up at this juncture, and
bade her fetch a purse of gold from her own cabinet, and
one of the swords that hung in the vestibule, and deliver
them to Esca. Then, very erect and pale, Valeria walked
towards the house, apparently insensible to his thanks and
protestations, but turned round ere she had reached the
threshold, and gave him her hand to kiss. Myrrhina return-
ing from her errand, saw the face that was bent over him
as he stooped in act of homage, and even that hollow-
hearted girl was touched by its wild, tender, and mournful
expression, but ere he could look up, it was cold and passion-
less as marble once more. Then she disappeared slowly
through the porch, and Myrrhina with all her daring had
not the courage to follow her into the privacy of her own
chamber.

199-

CHAPTER VI

DEAD LEAVES

THE stars shone brilliantly down on the roofs of the
great city — roofs that covered in how various a
multitude of hopes, fears, wishes, crimes, joys, study, de-
baucheries, toil, and repose. What enormities were veiled
by a tile some half an inch thick ! What contrasts separated
by a partition of a deal plank, and a crevice stopped with
mortar ! Here, a poor worn son of toil, working with
bleared eyes and hollow cheeks to complete the pittance
that a whole day's labour was insufficient to attain ; there,
a sleek pampered slave, snoring greasily on his pallet,
drenched with pilfered wine, and gorged with the fat
leavings of his master's meal. On this side the street, a
whole family penned helplessly together in a stifling garret ;
on that, a spacious palace, with marble floors, and airy halls,
and lofty corridors, devoted to the occasional convenience
and the shameful pleasures of one man — a patrician in rank,
a senator in office; yet, notwithstanding, a profligate, a
coward, a traitor, and a debauchee. Could those roofs have
been taken off; could those chambers have been bared to
the million eyes of night that seemed to be watching her so
intently, what a mass of corruption would Imperial Rome
have laid bare ! There were plague-spots under her purple,
festering and spreading and eating into the very marrow of
the mistress of the world. Up six storeys, under the slanting
roof, in a miserable garret, a scene was being enacted, bad as
it was, far below the nightly average of vice and treachery in
Rome.

Dismissed from their patron's house when he had no
further need of their attendance, and, so to speak, off duty
for the day, Damasippus and Oarses had betaken themselves
to their home in order to prepare for the exploits of the
night. That home was of the cheapest and most wretched
among the many cheap and wretched lodgings to be found in
the overgrown yet crowded city. Four bare walls bulging and

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DEAD LEAVES

blistered with the heat, supported the naked rafters on which
rested the tiles, yet glowing from an afternoon sun. A
wooden bedstead, rickety and creaking, with a coarse pallet,
through the rents of which the straw peeped and rustled,
occupied one corner, and a broken jar of common earthen-
ware, but of a sightly design copied from the Greek, half-
full of tepid water, stood in another. These constituted the
only furniture of the apartment, except a few irregular shelves
filled with unguents, cosmetics, and the inevitable pumice-
stone, by which the fashionable Roman studied to eradicate
every superfluous hair from his unmanly cheek and limbs.
A broken Chiron, in common plaster, yet showing marks of
undoubted genius where the shoulders and hoofs of the
Centaur had escaped mutilation, kept guard over these
treasures, and filled a place that in the pious days of the old
Republic, however humble the dwelling, would have been
occupied by the Lares and Penates of the hearth. A
mouldy crust of bread, slipped from the lid of an open trunk
full of clothing, lay on the floor, and a wine-jar emptied to
the dregs stood by its side. The two inhabitants, however,
of this squalid apartment betrayed in their persons none of
the misery in keeping with their dwelling-place. They were
tolerably well fed, because their meals were usually furnished
at their patron's expense ; they contrived to be well dressed,
because a decent and even wealthy appearance was creditable
to their patron's generosity, and indispensable to many of the
duties he called upon them to perform — dirty work indeed,
but only to be done, nevertheless, with clean clothes and an
assured countenance ; so that the exterior both of Damasippus
and Oarses would have offered no discredit to the ante-room
of Caesar himself. But they were men of pleasure as the
word is understood in great cities — men who lived solely for
the sensual indulgences of the body ; and it was their nature
to spend their gains, chiefly ill-gotten, in those debasing
luxuries which an insatiable demand enabled Rome to supply
to her public at the lowest possible cost, to sun themselves,
as it were, in the glare of that gaudy vice which walks abroad
in the streets, and then creep back into their loathsome hole,
like reptiles as they were.

Damasippus, whose plump well-rounded form and clear
colour afforded a remarkable contrast to the lithe shape and
sallow tint of Oarses, was the first to speak. He had been
watching the Egyptian intently, while the latter went through
the painful and elaborate ceremonies of a protracted toilet,
rasping his chin with pumice-stone, smoothing and greasing

20 1

ANTEROS

his dark locks with a preparation of lard and perfumed oil,
and finally drawing a needle charged with lampblack carefully
and painfully through his closed eyelids, in order to lengthen
the line of the eye, and give it that soft languishing expression
so prized by Orientals of either sex. Damasippus, waxing
impatient, then, at the evident satisfaction with which his
friend pursued the task of adornment, broke out irritably —

" And of course it is to be the old story again ! As usual,
mine the trouble, and, by Hercules ! no small share of the
danger, now that the town is swarming with soldiers, all
discontented and ill-paid. While yours, the credit, and very
likely the reward, and nothing to do but to whine out a few
coaxing syllables, and make yourself as like an old woman as
you can. No difficult task either," he added, with a half-
sarcastic, half-good-humoured laugh.

The other lingered before a few inches of cracked mirror,
which seemed to rivet his attention, and put the finishing
touches to either eyelid with infinite care, ere he replied —

" Every tool to its own work ; and every man to his
special trade. The wooden-headed mallet to drive home the
sharp wedge. The brute force of Damasippus to support
the fine skill of Oarses."

" And the sword of a Roman," retorted the other, who, like
many untried men, was somewhat boastful of his mettle, " to
hew a path for the needlework of an Egyptian. Well, at
least the needle is in appropriate hands. By all the fountains
of Caria thou hast the true feminine leer in thine eye, the
very swing of thy draperies seems to say, ' Follow me, but
not too near.' The clasp of Salmacis herself could not have
effected a more perfect transformation. Oarses, thou lookest
an ugly old woman to the life ! "

In truth the Egyptian's disguise was now nearly complete.
The dark locks, smoothed and flattened, were laid in modest
bands about his head ; the matronly stole, or gown, gathered
at the breast by a broad girdle, and fastened with a handsome
clasp high on the shoulder, descended in long sweeping lines
to his feet, where it was ornamented by a broad and elaborate
flounce of embroidery. Over the whole was disposed in
graceful folds a large square shawl of the finest texture, dark-
coloured but woven through with glistening golden threads,
and further set off by a wide golden fringe. It formed a veil
and cloak in one, and might easily be arranged to conceal the
figure as well as the face of the wearer. Oarses was not a
little proud of the dainty feminine grace with which he wore
the head-gear, and as he tripped to and fro across the narrow

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DEAD LEAVES

floor of his garret, it would have taken a sharper eye than
that of keen Damasippus himself to detect the disguise of his
wily confederate.

" A woman, my friend," he replied, somewhat testily, " but
not such an ugly one, after all ; as thou wilt find to thy cost
when we betake ourselves to the streets. I look to thee,
my Damasippus," he added maliciously, " to protect thy fair
companion from annoyance and insult."

Damasippus was a coward, and he knew it, so he answered
stoutly —

" Let them come, let them come ! a dozen at a time if they
will. What ! a good blade and a light helmet is enough for
me, though you put me at half-sword with a whole maniple
of gladiators ! The patron knows what manhood is, none
better. Why should he have selected Damasippus for this
enterprise, but that he judges my arm is iron, and my heart
is oak ? "

" And thy forehead brass," added the Egyptian, scarcely
concealing a contemptuous smile.

" And my forehead brass," repeated the other, obviously
gratified by the compliment. " Nay, friend, the shrinking
heart, and the failing arm, and the womanly bearing, are no
disgrace, perhaps, to a man born by the tepid Nile ; but we
who drink from the Tiber here (and very foul it is) — we of the
blood of Romulus, the she-wolf's litter, and the war-god's line
— are never so happy as when our feet are reeling in the
press of battle, our hearts leaping to the clash of shields, and
our ears deafened by the shout of victory. Hark ! what is
that?"

The boaster's face turned very pale, and he hastily
unbuckled the sword he had been girding on while he spoke ;
for a wild, ominous cry came sweeping over the roofs of the
adjoining houses, rising and falling, as it seemed, with the
sway of deadly strife, and boding, in its fierce fluctuations, to
some a cruel triumph, to others a merciless defeat.

Oarses heard it too. His dark face scarce looked like
a woman's now, with its gleam of malicious glee and exulting
cunning.

" The old Praetorians are up," said he quietly. " I have
been expecting this for a week. Brave soldier, there will be
a fill of fighting for thee this night in the streets ; and goodly
spoils, too, for the ready hand, and love and wine, and all the
rest of it, without the outlay of a farthing."

" But it will not be safe to be seen in arms now," gasped
Damasippus, sitting down on the tester-bed, with a white

203

ANTEROS

flabby face, and a general appearance of being totally
unstrung. " Besides," he added, with a ludicrous attempt at
reasserting his dignity, " a brave Roman should not engage
in civil war."

Oarses reflected for a moment, undisturbed by a second
shout, that made his frightened companion tremble in every
limb ; then he smoothed his brows, and spoke in soothing and
persuasive tones.

" Dost thou not see, my friend, how all is in favour of our
undertaking? Had the city been quiet, we might have
aroused attention, and a dozen chance passengers half as
brave as thyself might have foiled us at the very moment of
success. Now, the streets will be clear of small parties, and
it is easy for us to avoid a large body before it approaches.
One act of violence amongst the hundreds sure to be com-
mitted to-night, will never again be heard of. The three or
four resolute slaves under thine orders, will be taken to belong
to one or other of the fighting factions, and thus even the
patron's spotless character will escape without a blemish.
Besides, in such a turmoil as we are like to have by sundown,
a woman might scream her heart out, and nobody would
think of noticing her. On with that sword again, my hero,
and let us go softly down into the street."

"But if the old Praetorians succeed," urged the other,
evincing a great disinclination for the adventure, " what will
become of Caesar ? and with Caesar's fall down goes the patron
too, and then who is to bear us harmless from the effects of
our expedition to-night ? "

" Oh ! thick-witted Ajax ! " answered the Egyptian, laugh-
ing ; " bold and strong in action as the lion ; but in council
innocent as the lamb. Knowest thou the tribune so little as
to think he will be on the losing side? If there is tumult in
Rome, and revolt, and the city boils and seethes like a huge
flesh-pot casting up its choicest morsels to the surface, dost
thou suppose that Placidus is not stirring the fire underneath ?
I tell thee that, come what may of Caesar to-night, to-morrow
will behold the tribune more popular and more powerful
than ever; and I for one will beware of disobeying his
behests."

The last argument was not without its effect. Damasippus,
though much against the grain, was persuaded that of two
perils he had better choose the lesser ; and it speaks well for
the ascendency gained by Placidus over his followers, that
the cleverer and more daring knave should have obeyed him
unhesitatingly from self-interest, the ruffian and the coward

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DEAD LEAVES

from fear. Damasippus, then, girding on his sword once
more, and assuming as warlike a port as was compatible with
his sinking heart, marched down into the street to accompany
his disguised companion on their nefarious undertaking, with
many personal fears and misgivings for the result.

How different, save in its disquietude, was the noble
nature at the same moment seeking repose and finding none,
within half a bow-shot of the garret in which these two knaves
were plotting. Despite his blameless life, despite his dis-
tinguished career, Caius L. Licinius sat and brooded, lonely
and sorrowful, in his stately home. In that noble palace,
long ranges of galleries and chambers were filled with objects
of art and taste, beautiful, and costly, and refined. If a yard
of the wall had looked bare, it would have been adorned
forthwith by some trophy of barbaric arms taken in warfare.
If a corner had seemed empty, it would have been at once
filled with an exquisite group of marble, wrought into still
life by some Greek artist's chisel. Not a recess in that pile
of building, but spoke of comfort, complete in every respect,
and the only empty chamber in the whole was its owner's
heart. Nay, more than empty, for it was haunted by the
ghost of a beloved memory, and the happiness that was
never to come again.

Cold and dreary is the air of that mysterious tenement
where we buried our treasures long ago. Cold and dreary,
like the atmosphere of the tomb, but a perfume hangs about
it still, because love, being divine, is therefore eternal ; and
though the turf be laid damp and heavy over the beloved
head, our tears fall like the blessed rain from heaven, and
water the very barrenness of the grave, till at length, through
weary patience and humble resignation, the flowers of hope
begin to spring, and faith tells us they shall bloom hereafter,
in another and a better world.

Licinius was very lonely, and at a time of life when,
perhaps, loneliness is most oppressive to the mind. Youth
has so much to anticipate, is so full of hope, is so sanguine, so
daring, that its own dreams are sufficient for its sustenance ;
but in middle age, men have already found out that the
mirage is but sand and sunshine after all ; they look forward,
indeed, still, yet only from habit, and because the excitement
that was once such intoxicating rapture, is now but a necessary
stimulant. If they have no ties of family, no affections to
take them out of themselves, they become pompous triflers,
or despondent recluses, according as their temperaments lead
them to inordinate self-importance or excessive humility.

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ANTEROS

Not so when the quiver is full, and the hearth is merry with
the patter of little feet, and the ring of childish laughter.
There is a charm to dispel all the evil, and call up all the
good, even of the worst man's nature, in the soft white brow,
pure from the stamp of sin and care, in the bold bright eyes
that look up so trustingly to his own. There is a sense of
protection and responsibility, that few natures are so depraved
as to repudiate, in the household relationship which acknow-
ledges and obeys the father as its head ; and there is no man
so callous or so reckless, but he would wish to appear nobler
and better than he is in the eyes of his child. Licinius had
none of these incentives to virtue ; but the lofty nature and
the loving heart that could worship a memory, and feel that
it was a reality still, had kept him pure from vice. He had
never of late attached himself much to anything, till Esca
became an inmate of his household ; but since he had been in
habits of daily intercourse with the Briton, a feeling of content
and well-being, he would have found it difficult to analyse,
had gradually crept over him. Perhaps he would have
remained unconscious of his slave's influence, had it not been
for the blank occasioned by his departure. He missed him
sadly now, and wondered why, at every moment of the day,
he found himself thinking of the pleasant familiar face and
frank cordial smile.

So much alone, he had acquired grave habits of reflection,
even of that self-examination which is so beneficial an exercise
when impartially performed, but which men so rarely practise
without a self-deception that obviates all its good effects.
This evening he was in a more thoughtful mood than
common ; this evening, more than ever, it seemed to him that
his was an aimless, fruitless life ; that he had let the material
pleasures of existence slip through his fingers, and taken
nothing in exchange. Of what availed his toils, his enterprise,
his love of country, his self-denial, his endurance of hardship
and privation? What was he the better now, that he had
marched, and watched, and bled, and preserved whole colonies
for the empire ; and sat glorious, crowned with laurels in the
triumphal car? He looked round on his stately walls, and
the trophies that adorned them, thinking the while that even
such a home as this might be purchased too dear at the ex-
pense of a lifetime. Gold and marble, corridors and columns,
ivory couches and Tyrian carpets, were these equivalents for
youth's toil and manhood's care, and at last a desolate old
age? What was this ambition that led men so irresistibly
up the steepest paths, by the brink of such fatal precipices ?

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DEAD LEAVES

Had he ever experienced its temptations? He scarcely
knew ; he could not realise them now. Had Guenebra lived,
indeed, and had she been his own, he might have prized
honour and renown, and a name that was on all men's lips,
for her dear sake. To see the kind eyes brighten ; to call up
a smile into the beloved face, that would surely have been
reward enough, and that would never be. Then he fell to
thinking of the bright days when they were all in all to each
other, when the very sky seemed fairer, while he watched for
her white dress under the oak-tree. Was he not perfectly
happy then? Would he not at least have been perfectly
happy could he have called her, as he hoped to do, his own ?
Honesty answered, No. At the very best there was a vague
longing, a something wanting, a sense of insufficiency, of
insecurity, and even discontent. If it was so then, how had
it been since? Passing over the sharp sudden stroke, so
numbing his senses at the time that a long interval had to
elapse ere he awoke to its full agony — passing over the
subsequent days of yearning, and nights of vain regret, the
desolation that laid waste a heart which would bear fruit no
more, he reviewed the long years in which he had striven to
make duty and the love of country fill the void, and was
forced to confess that here, too, all was barren. There was a
something ever wanting, even to complete the dull torpor of
that resignation which philosophy inculcated, and common
sense enjoined. What was it? Licinius could not answer
his own question, though he felt that it must have some
solution, at which man's destiny intended him to arrive.

All the Roman knew, all he could realise, was that the
spring was gone long ago, with her buds of promise, and
her laughing morning skies ; that the glory of summer had
passed away, with its lustrous beauty and its burnished
plains, and its deep dark foliage quivering in the heat ; that
the blast of autumn had strewn the cold earth now with faded
flowers and withered leaves, and all the wreck of all the
hopes that blossomed so tenderly, and bloomed so bright and
fair. The heaven was cold and grey, and between him and
heaven the bare branches waved and nodded, mocking, point-
ing with spectral fingers to the dull cheerless sky. Could
he but have believed, could he but have vaguely imaged to
himself that there would come another spring; that belief,
that vague imagining, had been to Licinius the one in-
estimable treasure for which he would have bartered all else
in the world.

In vain he sought, and looked about him for something

207

ANTEROS

on which to lean ; for something out of, and superior to
himself, inspiring him with that sense of being protected, for
which humanity feels so keen, yet so indefinite, a desire.
What is the bravest and wisest of mankind, but a child in
the dark, groping for the parental hand that shall guide its
uncertain steps?' Where was he to find the ideal that he
could honestly worship, on the superiority of which he could
heartily depend ? The mythology of Rome, degraded as it
had become, was not yet stripped of all the graceful attributes
it owed to its Hellenic origin. That which was Greek,
might indeed be evil, yet it could scarce fail to be fair ; but
what rational man could ground his faith on the theocracy
of Olympus, or contemplate with any feeling save disgust
that material Pantheism, in which the lowest even of human
vices was exalted into a divinity? As well become a wor-
shipper of Isis at once, and prostitute, to the utter degradation
of the body, all the noblest and fairest imagery of the mind.
No, the deities that Homer sang were fit subjects for the
march of those Greek hexameters, sonorous and majestic
as the roll of the ALgean sea ; fit types of sensuous perfection,
to be wrought by the Greek chisel, from out the veined blocks
of smooth, white Parian stone ; but for man, intellectual man,
to bow down before the crafty Hermes, or the thick-witted
god of forges, or the ambrosial front of father Jove himself,
the least ideal of all, was a simple absurdity, that could scarce
impose upon a woman or a child.

Licinius had served in the East, and he bethought him
now of a nation against whom he had stood in arms, brave
fierce soldiers, men instinct with public virtue and patriot-
ism ; whose rites, different from those of all other races,
were observed with scrupulous fidelity and self-denial. This
people, he had heard, worshipped a God of whom there was
no material type, whose being was omnipresent and spiritual,
on whom they implicitly depended when all else failed, and
trusting in whom they never feared to die. But they admitted
none to partake with them in their advantages, and their
faith seemed to inculcate hatred of the stranger no less than
dissensions and strife amongst themselves.

" Is there nothing, alas ! but duty, stern cold duty, to fill
this void ? " thought Licinius. " Be it so, then ; my sword
shall be once more at the service of my country, and I will
die in my harness like a Roman and a soldier at the last ! "

208

CHAPTER VII

" HABET ! "

HIPPIAS, the fencing-master, had completed his prepar-
ations for the night. With a certain military instinct, as
necessary to his profession as to that of the 'legitimate soldier,
he could rely upon his own dispositions, when they were once
made, with perfect confidence, and a total absence of anxiety
for the result. Like all men habituated to constant strife, he
was never so completely in his element as when surrounded
by perils, only to be warded off by cool, vigilant courage ; and
though he may have had moments in which he longed for the
softer joys of affection and repose, it needed but the clang of
a buckler, or the gleam of a sword, to rouse him into his
fiercer self once more.

It had been his habit to attend Valeria, for the purpose
of instructing her in swordsmanship, by an hour's practice
on certain appointed days. Everything connected with the
amphitheatre possessed at this period such a morbid fascina-
tion for all classes of the Roman people, that even ladies of
rank esteemed it a desirable accomplishment to understand
the use of the sword ; and it is said that on more than one
occasion women of noble birth had been known to take part
in the deadly games themselves. These, however, were rare
instances of such complete defiance of all modesty and even
natural feeling ; but to thrust, and shout, and stamp, in the
conflict of mimic warfare, was simply esteemed the regular
exercise and the healthy excitement of every patrician dame
who aspired to a fashionable reputation. Such sudorifics,
accompanied by excessive use of the bath and a free in-
dulgence in slaking the thirst, arising from so severe a course
of treatment, must have been highly detrimental to female
beauty ; but even this consideration was postponed to the
absorbing claims of fashion, and then, as now, a woman was
content and pleased to disfigure herself by any process, how-
ever painful and inconvenient, providing other women did the
same.

O 209

ANTEROS

It is possible, too, that the manly symmetry of form, the
tough thews and sinews of their instructors, were not without
effect on pupils, whose hearts softened in proportion as their
muscles became hard, and whose whole habits and education
tended to interest them in the person and profession of the
gladiator. Be this as it may, the fencing-masters of Rome
had but little time left on their hands, and, of these, Hippias
was doubtless the most sought after by the fair. It was
his custom to neglect nothing, however trifling, connected
with his calling. No details were too small to be attended
to by one whose daily profession taught him that life and
victory might depend on the mere quiver of an eyelid, the
accidental slip of a buckle ; and, besides, he took a strange
pride in his deadly trade, and especially in the methodical
regularity with which he carried it out. Though bound to-
night for the desperate enterprise which should make or mar
him ; though confident that, in either event, he would to-
morrow be far beyond the necessities of a gladiator, it was
part of his character to play out his part thoroughly to-day.
Valeria would expect him, as usual, before the bathing-hour
on the following morning. It was but decent he should
leave a message at her house that he might be detained.
The very wording of his excuse brought to his mind the
possibilities of the next few hours — the many chances of
failure in the enterprise, failure which, to him at least, the
leader of desperate men, was synonymous with certain death.

To-day, for the first time, as he turned his steps towards
her mansion, a soft, half-sorrowful, yet not unpleasing
sensation stole into his heart as the image of its mistress
rose before him in all the pride of her stately beauty. He
had often admired the regularity of her haughty features —
had scanned, in his own critical way, with unqualified approval
the lines of her noble figure, and the symmetry of her firm,
well-turned limbs ; had even longed to touch that wealth
of silken hair when it shook loose in her exertions, and yet
— a strange sensation for such a man — had flinched and felt
oppressed when, placing her once in a position of defence,
a tress of it had fallen across his hand. Now, it seemed to
him that he would give much to live those few moments
over again ; that he would like to see her once more, if,
indeed, as was probable, it would be for the last time ; that
there was no other woman to be compared with her in Rome ;
and that, with all her glowing beauty and all her physical
attractions, her pride was her greatest charm.

He was a desperate man, about to play a desperate

210

" HABET ! "

game for life. Such thoughts in such a heart and at such

a time quicken with fearful rapidity into evil. Admiration,

untempered by the holier leavening of that affection which

can only exist in the breast that has kept itself pure, soon

grows to cruelty and selfishness. The love of beauty,

poisoned by the love of strife, seethes into a fierce passionate

longing, less that of the lover for his mistress than of the

tiger for its prey. Valeria was a proud woman, the proudest

and the fairest in Rome. He drew his breath hard as he

thought what a wild triumph it would be to bend that stately

neck, and humble that pride to his very feet. Methodical

and soldierlike, he had seen to everything with his own

eyes. The plot was laid, the conspirators were armed and

instructed, there was yet an hour or two to spare before the

appointed gathering at the tribune's house, and that time

he resolved should be devoted to Valeria ; at least, he

would feast his eyes once more on that glorious beauty, of

which he now seemed to acknowledge the full power. He

would see her, would bid her farewell. She had always

welcomed him cordially and kindly ; perhaps she would be

sorry to lose him altogether. He smiled a very evil smile,

though his heart beat faster than it had done since he was

a boy, as he halted under the statue of Hermes in her porch.

And Valeria was sitting in her chamber, with her head

buried in her hands, and her long brown hair sweeping like

a mantle to her feet. All the feelings that could most goad

and madden a woman were tearing at her heart. She dared

not — for the sake of tottering reason she dared not — think

of the tribune's white face and dropping jaw, and limbs

strewed helpless on the couch. She suffered the vision,

indeed, to weigh upon her like some oppressive nightmare ;

but she abstained, with an effort of which she was yet fully

conscious, from analysing its meaning or recalling its details,

above all, from considering its origin and its effect. No !

the image of Esca still filled her brain and her heart. Esca

in the amphitheatre ; Esca chained and sleeping on the

hard hot pavement ; Esca walking by her side through the

shady streets ; and Esca turning away with his noble figure

and his manly step, exulting in the liberty that set him free

from her !

Then came a rush of those softer feelings, that were
required to render her torture unbearable : the sting of
what might have been ; the picture of herself (she could see
herself in her mind's eye — beautiful and fascinating, in all
the advantages of dress and jewels) leaning on that strong

211

ANTEROS

arm, and the kind brave face looking down into hers with
the protective air that became it so well. To give him all ;
to tell him all she had risked, all she had done for his
sake, and to hear his loving accents in reply ! She almost
fancied in her dream that this had actually come to pass,
so vividly did her heart imagine to itself its dearest longings.
Then she saw another figure in the place that ought to be
her own — another face into which he was looking as he had
never looked in hers. It was the dark-eyed girl's ! The
dark-eyed girl, who had been her rival throughout ! Would
she have done as much for him with her pale face and
her frightened, shrinking ways? And now, ere this, he
had reached her home, was whispering in her ear, with his
arm round her waist. Perhaps he was boasting of the
conquest he had made over the haughty Roman lady, and
telling her that he had scorned Valeria for her dear sake.
Then all that was evil in her nature gained the ascendant,
and with the bitter recklessness that has ruined so many
an undisciplined heart, she said to herself — "There is no
reality but evil. Life is an illusion, and hope a lie. It
matters little what becomes of me now ! "

When Myrrhina entered she found her lady busied in
rearranging the folds of her robe and her disordered tresses.
It was no part of Valeria's character to show by her out-
ward bearing what was passing in her mind, and least of
all would she have permitted her attendant to guess at the
humiliation she had undergone. The waiting-maid, indeed,
was a little puzzled ; but she had gained so much knowledge,
both by observation and experience, of the strange effects
produced by over-excitement on her sex, that she never
suffered herself to be surprised at a feminine vagary of any
description. Now, though she wondered why Esca was
gone, and why her mistress was so reserved and haughty,
she refrained discreetly from question or remark, contenting
herself with a silent offer of her services, and arranging the
brown hair into a plaited coronet on Valeria's brows, without
betraying by her manner that she was conscious anything
unusual had taken place.

After a few moments' silence, her mistress's voice was
sufficiently steadied for her to speak.

" I did not send for you," said she. " What do you want
here?"

Myrrhina's hands were busied with the long silken tresses,
and she held a comb between her teeth. Nevertheless, she
answered volubly.

212

"HABET!"

" I would not have disturbed you, madam, this warm,
sultry evening — and I rebuked the porter soundly for letting
him in; only as he said, to be sure, he never was denied
before, and I thought, perhaps, you would not be displeased
to see him, if it was only for a few minutes, and he seemed
so anxious and hurried — and, indeed, he never has much
time to spare, so I bade him wait in the inner hall while I
came to let you know."

Hoping even against hope ! She knew it was impossible,
yet her heart leapt as she thought — " Oh ! if it were only
Esca who had turned back ! "

" I will see him," said she quietly, prolonging the illusion
by purposely avoiding to ask who this untimely visitor
might be.

In another minute Hippias stood before her — Hippias,
the fencing-master, a man in whose dangerous career she
had always taken a vague interest ; whose personal prowess
she admired, and whose reputation, such as it was, possessed
for her a wild fascination of its own. He was reckless, too,
from the very nature of his profession ; and she, in her
present mood, more reckless, more desperate than any
gladiator of them all. It would have done her good to
stand, with naked steel, against some fierce wild beast or
deadly foe. There was nothing, she felt, that she could not
dare to-day. Nerve and brain wound up to the highest
pitch of excitement — heart and feelings crushed, and wounded,
and sore. When the reaction came, it would necessarily be
fatal ; when the tide ebbed, it would leave a wearied, helpless
sufferer on the shore.

Such was the frame of mind in which Valeria received
the gladiator; outwardly impassive — for her colour did not
even deepen, nor her breath come quicker at his unexpected
appearance — inwardly vexed by a conflict of tumultuous
feelings, and longing for any change — any anodyne that
could deaden or alleviate her pain. How could she but
respond to his manly, respectful farewell ? How could she
but listen to the few burning words in which he spoke of
long-suppressed and hopeless adoration, or pretend not to
be interested in the desperate enterprise which he hinted
might prevent his ever looking on her fair face again. He
soothed her self-love ; he roused her curiosity ; he set her
pride on its broken pedestal again, and propped it with a
strong, yet gentle hand ; and so the two thunder-clouds
drew nearer still and nearer, ere they met, to be destroyed
and riven by the lightning their own contact had engendered.

213

CHAPTER VIII
TOO LATE!

ESCA, treading on air, hastened from Valeria's house
with the common selfishness of love, ignoring all the
pain and disappointment he had left behind him. The young
blood coursed merrily through his veins, and, in spite of his
anxiety, he exulted in the sense of being at liberty once more.
He was alive, doubtless, to the generosity and devotion of the
woman who had set him free, nor was he so blind as to be
unaware of the affection that had driven her to such desperate
measures for his sake ; and in the first glow of a gratitude,
that had in it no vestige of tenderer feelings, he had resolved,
when his mission was accomplished and Mariamne placed
in safety, he would return and throw himself at the Roman
lady's feet once more. But the farther he left her stately
porch behind, the weaker became this generous resolution,
and ere long he had little difficulty in persuading himself
that his first duty was to the Jewess, and that in his future
actions he must be guided by circumstances, or, in other
words, follow the bent of his own inclinations. Meanwhile,
in spite of his wounded foot, he sped on towards the Tiber
as fast as, in years gone by, he had followed the lean wolf,
or the foam-flecked boar, over the green hills of Britain. The
sun had not been down an hour when he entered the well-
known street that was now enchanted ground ; yet, while
he looked up into the darkening sky, his heart turned sick
within him at the thought that he might be too late, after all.
The garden-door was open, as she must have left it.
She was not, therefore, in the house. He might find her at
the riverside, and have the happiness of a few minutes alone
with her, ere he brought her back and placed her, for the
second time, in safety within her father's walls. The more
prudent course, he confessed to himself at the time, would
have been to alarm Eleazar, and put him on the defensive at
once ; but he had been so long without seeing Mariamne, the
peril in which she was placed had so endeared her to him,

214

TOO LATE!

and his own near approach to death had stamped her image
so vividly on his heart, that he could not resist the tempta-
tion of seeking her at the water-side, and telling her, un-
watched by other ears or eyes, all he had felt and 'endured
since they last parted, and how, for both their sakes, they
must never part again.

Full of such thoughts, he ran down to the water's edge,
and sought the broken column where she was accustomed to
descend and fill her pitcher from the stream. In vain his
eager eye watched for the dark-clad figure and the dear pale
face. Once in the deepening twilight his heart leapt as he
thought he saw her crouching low beneath the bank, and
sank again to find he had been deceived by a fallen slab of
stone. Then he turned for one more searching look ere he
departed, and his glance rested on a pitcher, broken into a
dozen fragments, at his feet. He did not know that it was
Mariamne's. How should he, when a thousand pitchers
carried by a thousand women to the Tiber every evening
were precisely alike? Yet his blood ran cold through his
veins and his fears hurried him back, almost insensibly, to
Eleazar's door, which he burst open without going through
the ceremony of knocking.

Her father and his brother were in the house. The
former leapt to his feet and snatched a javelin from the wall
ere he recognised his visitor. The latter, less prone to do
battle at a moment's notice, laid his hand on Eleazar's arm,
and calmly said —

" It is the friend who is always welcome, and whom we
have expected day by day in vain."

Everything looked so much as usual that for a moment
Esca felt almost reassured. It was possible Mariamne might
be even now busied with household affairs, safe in the
inner chamber. A lover's bashfulness brought the blood to
his cheeks, as he reflected if it were so it would be difficult
to account for his unceremonious entrance ; but the recol-
lection of her danger soon stifled all such trivial considera-
tions, and he confronted her father impetuously, and asked
him, almost in a threatening tone —

" Where is Mariamne ? "

Eleazar looked first simply astonished, then somewhat
offended. He answered, however, with more command of
temper than was his wont.

" My daughter has but now left the house with her pitcher.
She will be home again almost immediately ; but what is this
to thee ? "

215

ANTEROS

" What is it to me ? " repeated Esca in a voice of thunder,
catching hold of his questioner's arm at the same time with
an iron grasp for which the fierce old Jew liked him none the
worse — " What is it to thee, to him, to all of us ? I tell thee,
old man, whilst we are drivelling here, they are bearing her
off into captivity ten thousand times worse than death ! I
heard the plot — I heard it with my own ears, lying chained
like a dog on the hard stones. The wicked tribune was to
make her his own this very night, and though he has met
his reward, the villains that do his bidding have got her in
their power ere this. The pure — the loved — the beautiful —
Mariamne — Mariamne ! "

He hid his face in his hands, and his strong frame shook
with agony from head to heel.

It was the turn of Calchas now to start to his feet, and
look about him as if in search of a weapon. His first impulse
was resistance to oppression, even by the strong hand. With
Eleazar, on the contrary, the instincts of the soldier pre-
dominated, and the very magnitude of the emergency seemed
to endow him with preternatural coolness and composure.
He knit his thick brows indeed, and there was a smothered
glare in his eye that boded no good to an enemy when the
time for an outbreak should arrive, but his voice was low and
distinct, as in a few sharp eager questions he gathered the
outline of the plot that was to rob him of his daughter.
Then he thought for a few seconds ere he spoke.

" The men that were to take her ? What were they like ?
I would fain know them if I came across them."

His white teeth gleamed like a wild beast's with a smile
ominous of his intentions on their behalf.

" Damasippus and Oarses," replied the Briton. " The
former stout, sleek, heavy, and beetle-browed. The latter
pale, dark, and thin. An Egyptian with an Egyptian's
false face, and more than an Egyptian's cruelty and
cunning."

" Where live they ? " asked the Jew, buckling at the same
time a formidable two-edged sword to his side.

" In the Flaminian Way," replied the other. " High up
in some garret where we should never find them. But they
will not take her there. She is by this time at the other
end of the city in the tribune's house." And again he groaned
in anguish of spirit at the thought.

"And that house?" asked Eleazar, still busied with his
warlike preparations. " How is it defended ? I know its
outside well, and an easy entrance from the wall to the

216

TOO LATE!

inner court ; but what resistance shall we encounter within ?
what force can the tribune's people raise at a moment's
outcry ? "

"Alas!" answered Esca. "To-night of all nights, the
house of Placidus is garrisoned like a fortress. A chosen
band of gladiators are to sup with the tribune, and afterwards
to take possession of the palace and drag Caesar from the
throne. When they find the banquet prepared for them, I
know them too well to think they will separate without
partaking of it, even though their host be lying dead on the
festal couch. She will become the prey of men like Hippias,
Lutorius, and Euchenor. But if we cannot rescue her, at
least we may die in the attempt."

Even in his anxiety for his daughter, such news as this
could not but startle the emissary of the Jewish nation. In
an instant's time he had run over its importance, as it re-
garded his own mission and the probable influence on the
destinies of his country. Should the conspiracy succeed,
Vitellius might already be numbered with the dead, and
instead of that easy self-indulgent glutton, over whom he
had already obtained considerable influence, he would have
to do with the bold, sagacious, far-seeing general, the remorse-
less enemy of his nation, whom neither he nor any of his
countrymen had ever succeeded in deceiving by stratagem
or worsting by force of arms. When the purple descended
on Vespasian the doom of Jerusalem was sealed. Neverthe-
less, Eleazar concentrated his mind on the present emergency.
In a few words he laid out his plan for the rescue of his
daughter.

" The freedmen's garret must be our first point of attack,"
said he. " The tribune would scarce have ordered them to
bring their prize to his house to-night, where there would be
so many to dispute it with him, and where dissension would
be fatal to his great enterprise. Calchas and I will proceed
immediately to the dwelling of this Damasippus and his
fellow-villain. Your directions will enable us to find it.
You, Esca, speed off at once to the tribune's house. You
will soon learn whether she has been brought there. If so,
come to us without delay in the Flaminian Way. I am not
entirely without friends even here, and I will call on two or
three of my people to help as I go along. Young man, you
are bold and true. We will have her out of the tribune's
house if we pull the walls down with our naked hands ; and
let me but come within reach of the villains who take shelter
there " — here his face darkened and his frame quivered in a

217

ANTEROS

paroxysm of suppressed fury — " may my father's tomb be
dishonoured, and the name of my mother defiled, if I dip
not my hands to the very elbows in their hearts' blood ! "

To be told he was brave and true by her father added
fuel to Esca's enthusiasm. It was indeed much for Eleazar
to confess on behalf of a stranger and a heathen, but the
fierce old warrior's heart warmed to a kindred nature that
seemed incapable of selfish fear, and he approved hugely,
moreover, of the implicit attention with which the Briton
listened to his directions, and his readiness for instantaneous
action, however desperate. Calchas, too, clasped the young
man warmly by the hand.

" We are but three," said he, " three against a host. Yet
I have no fear. I trustj.in One who never failed His servants
yet. One to whom emperors and legions are as a handful of
dust before the wind, or a few dried thorns on the beacon-fire.
And so do you, my son, so do you, though you know it not.
But the time shall come when His very benefits shall compel
you to confess your Master, and when in sheer gratitude you
shall enrol yourself amongst those who serve Him faithfully
even unto death."

Many a time during that eventful and anxious night had
Esca occasion to remember the old man's solemn words. Its
horrors, its catastrophes, its alternations of hope and fear, might
have driven one mad, who had nothing to depend upon but his
own unaided strength and resolution. Few great actions have
been performed, few tasks exacting the noble heroism of en-
durance fulfilled successfully, without extraneous aid, without
the help of some leading principle out of, and superior to,
the man. Honour, patriotism, love, loyalty, all have sup-
ported their votaries through superhuman exertions and
difficulties that seemed insurmountable, teaching them to
despise dangers and hardships with a courage sterner than
mortals are expected to possess ; but none of these can
impart that confidence which is born of faith in the believer's
breast ; — that confidence which enables him to take good
and evil with an equal mind, to look back on the past
without a sigh, forward on the future without a fear ; and
though the present may be all a turmoil of peril, uncertainty,
and confusion, to stand calmly in the midst, doing the best
he can with a stout heart and an unruffled brow, while he
leaves the result fearlessly and trustfully in the hand of God.

Eleazar and Calchas were already equipped for the
pursuit. The one armed to the teeth, and looking indeed
a formidable enemy; the other mild and hopeful as usual,

218

TOO LATE!

venerable with his white hair and beard, and carrying but
a simple staff for his weapon. In grave silence, but with a
grasp of the hand more emphatic than any spoken words,
the three parted on their search ; Esca threading his way at
once through the narrow and devious streets that led towards
the tribune's house — that house which he had left so gladly
but a few short hours ago when, rescued by Valeria, he bade
her farewell, exulting in the liberty that enabled him to seek
Mariamne's side once more. He soon reached the hated
dwelling. All there seemed quiet as the grave. From other
quarters of the city indeed there came, now and again, the
roar of distant voices which rose and fell at intervals as the
tide of tumult ebbed and flowed, but, preoccupied as he was,
Esca took little heed of these ominous sounds, for they bore
him no intelligence of Mariamne. All was silent in the
porch, all was silent in the vestibule and outer hall, but as
he ventured across its marble pavement, he heard the bustle
of preparation, and the din of flagons within.

It was at the risk of liberty and life, that he crept
noiselessly forward, and peeped into the banqueting-hall,
which was already partially lighted up for the feast. Shrink-
ing behind a column, he observed the slaves, many of whom
he knew well by sight, laying covers, burnishing vases, and
otherwise making ready for a sumptuous entertainment. He
listened for a few moments, hoping to gather from their
conversation some news of the Jewess and her captors. All
at once he started and trembled violently. Bold as he was,
in common with his northern countrymen a vein of super-
stition ran through his nature, and though he feared nothing
tangible or corporeal, he held in considerable dread all that
touched upon the confines of the spiritual and the unknown.
There within ten paces of him, ghastly pale, with dark circles
round his eyes, and clad in white, stood the figure of the
tribune, pointing, as it seemed to him, with shadowy hand
at the different couches, and giving directions in a low
sepulchral voice for the order of the banquet.

" Not yet ! " he heard the apparition exclaim in tones
of languid, fretful impatience. " Not come yet ! the idle
loiterers ! Well, she must preside there at the supper-table
and take her place at once as mistress here. Ho ! slaves !
bring more flowers ! Fill the tall golden cup with Falernian
and set it next to mine ! "

Well did Esca know to whom these directions must refer.
Though his blood had been chilled for an instant by this
reappearance, as he believed it, of his enemy from the grave,

219

ANTEROS

he soon collected his scattered energies and summoned his
courage back, with the hateful conviction that, alive or dead,
the tribune was resolved to possess himself of Mariamne.
And this he vowed to prevent, ay, though he should slay his
dark-eyed love with his own hand.

It was obvious now that Damasippus and Oarses would
bring the captive straight to their patron's house, that Eleazar
and Calchas had gone upon a fool's errand to the freedmen's
garret in the Flaminian Way. What would he have given to
be cheered by the wise counsels of the one, and backed by
the strong arm of the other ! Would there be time for him
to slip from here unobserved, and to summon them to his
aid ? Three desperate men might cut their way through all
the slaves that Placidus could muster, and if they had any
chance of success at all it must be before the arrival of the
gladiators. But then she was obviously expected every
minute. She might arrive — horrible thought ! — while he was
gone for help, and once in the tribune's power it would be too
late. In his despair the words of Calchas recurred forcibly to
his mind. "We are but three," said the old man, "three
against a host, yet I have no fear." And Esca resolved that
though he was but one, he too would have no fear, but would
trust implicitly in the award of eternal justice, which would
surely interfere to prevent this unholy sacrifice.

Feeling that his sword was loose in its sheath and ready
to his hand, holding his breath, and nerving himself for the
desperate effort he might be called upon at any moment to
make, the Briton stole softly back through the vestibule, and
concealed himself behind a marble group in the darkest
corner of the porch. Here, with the dogged courage of his
race, he made up his mind that he would await the arrival of
Mariamne, and rescue her at all hazards, against any odds, or
die with her in the attempt.

220

. 4

old

CHAPTER IX

THE LURE

IKE other great cities, the poorer
quarters of Rome were densely
crowded. The patricians, and indeed
all the wealthier class, affected rural
tastes even in the midst of the
capital, and much space was de-
voted to the gardens and pleasure-
grounds which surrounded their
dwellings. The humbler inhabitants
were consequently driven to herd
together in great numbers, with little
regard to health or convenience, and
the streets leading to and adjoining
the Tiber were perhaps the most thickly populated of all. That
in which Eleazar's house stood, was seldom empty of pas-
sengers at any hour of the twenty-four, and least of all about
sunset when the women thronged out of their dwellings to
draw water for the household consumption of the following
day. Oarses was well aware of this, and therefore it was that
the cunning Egyptian had protested against an abduction of
the Jewish maiden by open force from her father's door.

" Leave it to me," said this finished villain, in discussing
their infamous project with his patron. " I know a lure to
wile such birds as these off the bough into my open hand.
Stratagem first, force afterwards. There is no need to waken
the tongues of all the women in the quarter. It was the
cackling of a goose, my patron, that foiled the attack on the
Capitol."

Mariamne, anxious and sad, was carrying her pitcher
listlessly down to the Tiber and letting her thoughts wander
far from her occupation, into a few sweet memories, and a
thousand dreary apprehensions, when she was accosted by a
dark sallow old woman, whose speech and manners, as well
as her dress, betrayed an Eastern origin. The stranger

221

ANTEROS

asked some trifling questions about her way, and prayed for
a draught of cold water when the pitcher should be filled.
Mariamne, whose heart unconsciously warmed to the homely
Syriac, entered freely into conversation with one of her own
sex, and whose language denoted, moreover, that she was
familiar with her nation. Willingly she drew her a measure
from the stream, which the other quaffed with the moderation
of one whose thirst is habitually quenched with wine rather
than water.

" It is somewhat muddy, I fear," said the girl kindly,
reverting in her own mind to the sparkling fountains of her
native land, and yet acknowledging how she loved this turbid
stream better than them all. "If you will come back with
me to my father's house I can offer you a draught of wine
and a morsel of bread to cheer you on your way."

The other, though with no great avidity, took a second
pull at the pitcher.

" Nay," said she, " my daughter, I will not tax your hospi-
tality so far. Nor have I need. There is lore enough left
under these faded locks of mine, to turn the foulest cesspool
in Rome as clear as crystal. Ay, to change this tasteless
draught to wine of Lebanon, and the pitcher that contains it
to a vase of gold."

Mariamne shrank from her with a gesture of dismay.
Believing implicitly in their power, her religion forbade her
to hold any intercourse with those who professed the black
art. The other marked her repugnance.

" My child," she continued, in soothing tones, " be not
afraid of the old woman's secret gifts. Mine is but a harm-
less knowledge, gained by study of the ancient Chaldaean
scrolls, such as your own wise king possessed of old. It is
but white magic, such as your high-priest himself would not
scruple to employ. Fear not, I say — I, who have pored over
those mystic characters till mine eyes grew dim, can read
your sweet pale face as plain as the brazen tablets in the
Forum, and I can see in it sorrow, and care, and anxiety for
him you love."

Mariamne started. It was true enough, but how could
the wise woman have found it out ? The girl looked wistfully
at her companion, and the latter, satisfied she was on the
right track, proceeded to answer that questioning glance.

" Yes," she said, " you think he is in danger or in grief.
You wonder why you do not see him oftener. Sometimes
you fear he may be false. What would you not give, my
poor child, to look on the golden locks, and the white brow,

222

THE LURE

now, at this very moment ? And I can show them to you
if you will. The old woman is not ungrateful even for a
draught of the Tiber's muddy stream."

The blood mounted to Mariamne's brow, but the light
kindled at the same time in her eyes, and the soft gleam
swept over her face that comes into every human countenance
when the heart vibrates with an allusion to its treasure as
though the silver cord thrilled to the touch of an angel's
wing. It was no clumsy guess of the wise woman, to infer
that this dark-eyed damsel cherished some fair-haired lover.

" What mean you ? " asked the girl eagerly. " How can
you show him to me ? What do you know of him ? Is he
safe ? Is he happy ? "

The wise woman smiled. Here was a bird flying blind-
fold into the net. Take her by her affections, and there
would be little difficulty in the capture.

" He is in danger," she replied. " But you could save
him if you only knew how. He might be happy too, if he
would. But with another ! "

To do Mariamne justice she heard only the first sentence.

" In danger ! " she repeated, " and I could save him ! Oh,
tell me where he is, and what I can do for his sake ! "

The wise woman pulled a small mirror frorrj her bosom.

" I cannot tell you," she answered, " but I can show him
to you in this. Only not here, where the shadow of a
passer-by might destroy the charm. Let us turn aside to
that vacant space by the broken column, and you shall look
without interruption on the face you love."

It was but a short way off, though the ruins which
surrounded it made the place lonely and secluded ; had
it been twice the distance, however, Mariamne would have
accompanied her new acquaintance without hesitation in
her eagerness for tidings of Esca's fate. As she neared the
broken column, so endeared to her by associations, she could
not repress a faint sigh, which was not lost on her companion.

" It was here you met him before," whispered the wise
woman. " It is here you shall see his face again."

This was scarcely a random shaft, for it required little
penetration to discover that Mariamne had some tender
associations connected with a spot thus adapted for the
meeting of a pair of lovers ; nevertheless the apparent
familiarity with her previous actions was sufficient to convince
the Jewess of her companion's supernatural knowledge, and
though it roused alarm, it excited curiosity in a still greater
degree.

223

ANTEROS

" Take the mirror in your hand," whispered the wise
woman, when they had reached the column, casting, at the
same time, a searching glance around. " Shut your eyes
whilst I speak the charm that calls him, three times over,
and then look steadily on its surface till I have counted a
hundred."

Mariamne obeyed these directions implicitly. Standing
in the vacant space with the mirror in her hand, she shut
her eyes and listened intently to the solemn tones of the
wise woman chanting in a low monotonous voice some un-
intelligible stanzas, while from the deep shadow behind the
broken column, there stole out the portly figure of Damasippus,
and, at the same moment, half a dozen strong well-armed
slaves rose from the different hiding-places in which they
lay concealed amongst the ruins. Ere the incantation had
been twice repeated, [Damasippus threw a shawl over the
girl's head, muffling her so completely, while he caught her
in his strong arms, that an outcry was impossible. The
others snatched her up ere she could make a movement, and
bore her swiftly off to a chariot with four white horses
waiting in the next street, whilst the wise woman, following
at a rapid pace, and disencumbering herself of her female
attire as she sped along, disclosed the cunning features and
the thin wiry form of Oarses the Egyptian. Coming up with
Damasippus, who was panting behind the slaves and their
burden, he laughed a low noiseless laugh.

" My plan was the best," said he, " after all. What fools
these women are, O my friend ! Is there any other creature
that can be taken with a bait so simple ? Three inches of
mirror and the ghost of an absent face ! "

But Damasippus had not breath to reply. Hurrying
onward, he was chiefly anxious to dispose of his prize in
the chariot without interruption; and when he reached it
he mounted by her side, and bidding Oarses and the slaves
follow as near as was practicable, he drove off at great speed
in the direction of the tribune's house.

But this was an eventful night in Rome, and although for
that reason well adapted to a deed of violence, its tumult and
confusion exacted great caution from those who wished to
proceed without interruption along the streets. The shouts
that had disturbed the two freedmen in their garret whilst
preparing the enterprise they had since so successfully carried
out, gave no false warning of the coming storm. That storm
had burst, and was now raging in its fury throughout a wide
portion of the city. Like all such outbreaks it gathered

224

THE LURE

force and violence in many quarters at once, and from many
sources unconnected with its original cause.

Rome was the theatre that night of a furious civil war,
consequent on the intrigues of various parties which had
now grown to a head. The old Praetorian guard had been
broken up by Vitellius, and dismissed without any of the
honours and gratuities to which they considered themselves
entitled, in order to make way for another body of troops
on whose fidelity the Emperor believed he could rely, and
who were now called, in contradistinction to their predecessors,
the New Praetorians. Two such conflicting interests carried
in them the elements of the direst hatred and strife. The
original body-guard hoping to be restored by Vespasian,
should he attain the purple, had everything to gain by a
change of dynasty, and were easily won over by the partisans
of that successful general to any enterprise, however desperate,
which would place him on the throne. Trusting to this
powerful aid, these partisans, of whom Julius Placidus, the
tribune, though he had wormed himself into the confidence
of Vitellius, was one of the most active and unscrupulous,
were ready enough to raise the standard of revolt and had
no fear for the result. The train was laid, and to-night it
had been decided that the match should be applied. In
regular order of battle, in three ranks with spears advanced
and eagles in the centre, the Old Praetorians marched at
sundown to attack the camp of their successors. It was a
bloody and obstinate contest. The new body-guard, proud
of their promotion, and loyal to the hand that had bought
them, defended themselves to the death. Again and again
was the camp almost carried. Again and again were the
assailants obstinately repulsed. It was only when slain,
man by man, falling in their ranks as they stood, with all
their wounds in front, that a victory was obtained — a victory
which so crippled the conquerors as to render them but
inefficient auxiliaries in the other conflicts of that eventful
night. But this was only one of the many pitched battles,
so to speak, of which Rome was the unhappy theatre. The
Capitol after an obstinate defence had been taken by the
partisans of the present Emperor and burned to the ground.

This stronghold having been previously seized and
occupied by Sabinus, who declared himself Governor of Rome
in the name of Vespasian, and who even received in state
several of the principal nobility and a deputation from the
harassed and vacillating senate, had been alternately the
object of attack and defence to either party. Its possession

P 225

ANTEROS

seemed to confer a spurious sovereignty over the whole city,
and it was held as obstinately as it was vigorously and
desperately attacked.

An hour or two before sunset, an undisciplined body of
soldiers, armed only with their swords, and formidable chiefly
from the wild fury with which they seemed inspired, marched
through the Forum and ascended the Capitoline Hill. The
assailants having no engines of war either for protection or
offence, suffered severely from the missiles showered upon
them by the besieged, till the thought struck them of
throwing flaming torches into the place from the roofs of the
houses which surrounded it, and which, erected in time of
peace, had been suffered to overtop the Roman citadel. In
vain, after the flames had consumed the gate, did they
endeavour to force an entrance ; for Sabinus, with the un-
scrupulous resource of a Roman soldier, had blocked the
way by a hundred prostrate statues of gods and men, pulled
down from the sacred pedestals on which they had stood
for ages ; but the contiguous houses catching fire, and all
the woodwork of the Capitol being old and dry, the flames
soon spread, and in a few hours the stronghold of Roman
pride and Roman history was levelled with the ground.
Callous to the memories around him, forgetful of the Tarquins,
and the Scipios, and the many hallowed names that shed
their lustre on this monument of his country's greatness,
Sabinus lost his presence of mind in proportion as the necessity
for preserving it became more urgent. He was no longer
able to control his troops, and the latter, panic-stricken with
the entrance of their enemies, disbanded, and betook them-
selves to flight. The majority, including one woman of noble
birth, were put ruthlessly to the sword, but a few, resembling
their assailants, as they did, in arms, appearance, and language,
were fortunate enough to catch the password by which they
recognised each other, and so escaped.

In another quarter of the mighty city, a large body of
troops who had hoisted the standard of Vespasian, and had
already suffered one repulse which rather excited their
animosity than quelled their ardour, were advancing in good
order, and, according to sound warlike tactics, in three
divisions. The gardens of Sallust, laid out by that elegant
and intellectual sensualist, with a view to pursuits far removed
from strife and bloodshed, were the scene of an obstinate
combat, in which, however, one of these columns succeeded
in establishing itself within the walls ; and now the struggle
that had heretofore been carried on in its outskirts, penetrated

226

T.HE LURE

to the heart of the Roman capital. The citizens beheld war
brought into their very homes and hearths — the familiar
street slippery with blood — the wounded soldier reeling on
the doorsill, where the children were wont to play — the dead
man's limbs strewed helpless by the fountain, where the girls
assembled with shrill laughing voices on the calm summer
evenings, — and worse than all, instead of the kindly grasp of
friends and fellow-countrymen, the brother's hand clutching
at the brother's throat.

Such horrors, however, did but more demoralise a popula-
tion already steeped to the very lips in cruelty, vice, and foul
iniquity. Trained to bloodshed by the ghastly entertainments
of the amphitheatre, the Roman citizen gloated on no spectacle
with so keen a pleasure as on the throes of a fellow-creature
in the agony of violent death. The populace deemed now to
consider the contest waged at their doors as a goodly show
got up for their especial amusement. Loud shouts encouraged
the combatants as either party swayed and wavered in the
mortal press, and Euge ! — Bene ! were cried as loudly for
their encouragement, as if they had been paid gladiators,
earning their awful livelihood on the sand. Nay, worse,
when some wounded soldier dragged himself into a house
for safety, instead of succour, he was received with yells of
reprobation, and thrust out into the street that he might
be despatched by his conquerors according to the merciless
regulations of the amphitheatre.

Nor was man the only demon on the scene. Unsexed
women with bare bosoms, wild eyes, streaming hair, and
white feet stained with blood, flew to and fro amongst the
soldiers, stimulating them to fresh atrocities with wine and
caresses and odious ribald mirth. It was a festival of Death
and Sin. She had wreathed her fair arms around the spectral
king, and crowned his fleshless brows with her gaudy garlands,
and wrapped him in her mantle of flame, and pressed the
blood-red goblet to his lips, maddening him with her shrieks
of wild, mocking laughter, the while their mutual feet trampled
out the lives and souls of their victims on the stones of Rome.
Through a town in such a state of turmoil and confusion,
Damasippus took upon himself to conduct in safety the prize
he had succeeded in capturing, not, it must be confessed,
without many hearty regrets that he had ever embarked in
the undertaking. Devoutly did he now wish that he could
shift the whole business on to the shoulders of Oarses ; but
of late he had been concerned to observe in the patron's
manner a certain sense of his own inutility as compared with

227

ANTEROS

the astute Egyptian ; and if the latter were now permitted to
conclude, as he had undoubtedly inaugurated, the adventure,
Placidus might be satisfied that there was little use in enter-
taining two rogues to do the work of one. He knew his
patron well enough to be aware of the effect such a conviction
would have on his own prospects. The tribune would no
more scruple to bid him go starve or hang, than he would to
pull out a superfluous hair from his beard. Therefore, at all
risks, thought Damasippus, he must be the man to bring
Mariamne into his lord's house. It was a difficult and a
dangerous task. There was only room for himself and one
stout slave besides the charioteer and the prisoner. The
latter had struggled violently, and required to be held down
by main force, nor in muffling her screams was it easy to
observe the happy medium between silence and suffocation.
Also, it was indispensable, in the present lawless state of
affairs, to avoid observation ; and the spectacle of a hand-
somely gilded chariot with a female figure in it, held down
and closely veiled, the whole drawn by four beautiful white
horses, was not calculated to traverse the streets of a crowded
city without remark. Oarses, indeed, had suggested a litter,
but this had been overruled by his comrade on the score of
speed, and now the state of the streets made speed impossible.
To be sure this enabled the escort to keep up with him, and
Damasippus, who was no fighter at heart, derived some com-
fort from their presence. The darkness, however, which
should have favoured him, was dispelled by the numerous
conflagrations in various parts of the city ; and when the
chariot was stopped and forced to turn into a by-street to
avoid a crowd rushing towards the blazing Capitol, Dama-
sippus felt his heart sink within him in an access of terror,
such as even he had never felt before.

228

CHAPTER X

FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS

UP one street, down another, avoiding the main thorough-
fares, now rendered impassable by the tumult, his
anxious freedmen threaded their way with difficulty in the
direction of the tribune's house. Mariamne seemed either
to have fainted, or to have resigned herself to her fate, for
she had ceased to struggle, and cowered down on the floor
of the chariot, silent and motionless. Damasippus trusted
his difficulties were nearly over, and resolved never again to
be concerned in such an enterprise. Already he imagined
himself safe in his patron's porch, claiming the reward of his
dexterity, when he was once more arrested by a stoppage
which promised a hazardous and protracted delay.

Winding its slow length along, in all the pomp and dignity
affected by the maiden order, a procession of Vestals crossed
in front of the white horses, and not a man in Rome but
would have trembled with superstitious awe at the bare
notion of breaking in on the solemn march of these sacred
virgins, dedicated to the service of a goddess, whose peculiar
attributes were mystery, antiquity, and remorseless vengeance
for offence. Dressed in their long white garments, simple
and severe, with no relief save a narrow purple border round
the veil, they swept on in slow majestic column, like a vision
from the other world, led by a stately priestess, pale and
calm, of lofty stature and majestic bearing. They believed
that to them was confided the welfare of the State, the safety
of the city ; nay, that with the mysterious symbols in their
temple, they guarded the very existence of the nation ; there-
fore on all public occasions of strife or disorder, the Vestal
Virgins were accustomed to show themselves confidently in
the streets, and use their influence for the restoration of peace.
Nor had they need to fear either injury or insult. To touch
the person of a Vestal, even to obstruct the litter in which
she was carried, was punishable with death, and public opin-
ion in such a case was even more exacting than the law.

229

ANTEROS

Immunities and privileges of many kinds were granted to the
order by different enactments. When the Vestal went abroad,
she was preceded and followed by the lictors of the State ;
and if she met a criminal under sentence of death, honestly
by accident, during her progress, he was pardoned and set
free for her sake, on the spot.

It may be that Mariamne had some vague recollection
of this custom, for no sooner were the horses stopped to let
the procession pass, than she uttered a loud shriek, which
brought it to a halt at once, and caused her own guards to
gather round the chariot and prepare for resistance, Oarses
wisely keeping aloof, and Damasippus, while he strove to
wear a bold front, quaking in every limb. At a signal from
the superior priestess, the long white line stood still, while
her lictors seized the horses, and surrounded the chariot
Already a crowd of curious bystanders was gathering, and
the glare of the burning Capitol shed its light even here, on
their dark, eager faces, contrasting strangely with the veiled
figures that occupied the middle of the street, cold and
motionless as marble.

Two lictors seized on Damasippus, each by a shoulder,
and brought him unceremoniously to within a few paces of
the priestess. Here he dropped upon his knees, and began
wringing his hands in ludicrous dismay, whilst the populace,
gathering round, laughed and jeered at him, only refraining
from violence on account of the Vestal's presence.

" She is a slave, our slave, bought with our own money in
the market, sacred virgin. I can swear it. I can prove it.
Here is the man who paid for her. O accursed Oarses,
hast thou left me in the lurch at last ? "

The wily Egyptian now came up, composed and sedate,
with the air of a man confident in the justice of his cause.
Mariamne; meanwhile, could but strive to release herself in
vain. So effectually had she been bound and muffled, that
she could scarcely move, and was unable to articulate. She
struggled on, nevertheless, in the wild hope of succour,
writhing her whole body to set her lips free from the bandages
that stifled them. With the quiet dignity which was an
especial attribute of her office, the priestess pointed to the
chariot containing the prisoner, and from beneath her veil,
in clear, low tones, while the bystanders listened with respect-
ful awe, came the question —

" What crime has she committed ? "

"No crime, sacred virgin, no crime whatsoever," replied
the wily Oarses, well knowing that the privilege of pardon,

230

FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS

which the Vestals loved to exercise, was less likely to be
exerted for a refractory bondswoman than a condemned
criminal. " She is but a runaway slave, a mere dancing-girl.
How shall I tell it in your august presence ? I bought her
scarce a week ago, as my friend here knows, and can swear.
Canst thou not, Damasippus, worthy citizen? I gave but
two thousand sesterces, nevertheless it was a large sum for
me, who am a poor man ; and I borrowed the half of it from
my friend here. I bought her in the open market, and I took
her home with me to my wife and children, that she might
beat flax and card wool, and so gain an honest livelihood —
an honest livelihood, sacred virgin ; and that is why she ran
away from me ; so I informed the aedile, and I sought her
diligently, and to-day I found her with her cheeks painted,
and her bosom gilt, in her old haunts, drunk with wine.
Then I bound her, and placed her in a litter, and the litter
breaking down, for I am poor, sacred virgin, and of humble
birth, though a Roman citizen — the litter, I say, breaking
down, and my patron's chariot passing by, I placed her within
it, that I might take her home, for she is insensible still. All
this I swear, and here is my friend who will swear it too.
Damasippus, wilt thou not ? "

The latter worthy had indeed been accompanying every
syllable of his confederate's statement with those eager
Italian gestures which signify so much of argument and
expostulation. These were not without effect on the by-
standers, predisposed as such generally are to believe the
worst, and prone to be influenced by the last speaker,
especially when supported by testimony, however unworthy
of reliance. They crowded in as near as their awe of the
priestess would allow, and angry looks were shot at the
poor, dark figure lying helpless in the chariot.

Under the Vestal's long white veil, there might have
been a gleam of pity or a flash of scorn on the unseen face,
according as she felt a kindly sympathy or womanly indig-
nation for the sins of an erring sister. But whatever was
her private opinion, with a priestess of her order, such an
appeal as that of Oarses could have but one result. The
pale slender hand made a gesture of contempt and im-
patience. The tall ghostly figure moved on with a prouder,
sterner step, and the procession swept by, carrying away
with it the last fragile hope of succour that had comforted
Mariamne's heart. Like a poor hunted hind caught in a
net, when the sharp muzzle of the deerhound touches her
flank, the Jewess made one convulsive effort that loosened

231

ANTEROS

the shawl about her mouth. In her agony, the beloved
name flew instinctively to her lips, and hopelessly, uncon-
sciously, she called out, " Esca ! Esca ! " in loud piercing
tones of terror and despair.

The Vestals had indeed passed by, and the chariot was
again set in motion, but the Briton's name seemed to act
as a talisman on the crowd, for no sooner had she pronounced
it, than the bystanders were seen to give way on each side
to the pressure of a huge pair of shoulders, surmounted by
the fearless, honest face of Hirpinus the gladiator. That
professional, in common with a few chosen comrades, had
found the last few hours hang exceedingly heavy on his
hands. Bound by oath to keep sober, and, what was perhaps
even a more galling restriction, to abstain from fighting, this
little party had seen themselves deprived at once of their
two principal resources, the favourite occupations which gave
a zest to their existence. But the saying that there is
" Honour among thieves " dates farther back than the
institution of an amphitheatre ; and as soon as the gladiator
had made his bargain, he considered himself, body and soul,
the property of his purchaser. So, when Hippias gave his
final orders, insisting on the appearance of his myrmidons
at a given place and a given time, fresh, sober, and without
a scratch, he had no fear but that they would be punctually
and honestly obeyed.

Accordingly, Hirpinus, Rufus, Lutorius, and a few of
the surest blades in the Family, had been whiling away
their leisure with a stroll through the principal streets of
Rome, and had met with not a few incidents peculiarly
pleasing to men of their profession. They had been good
enough to express their approval of the soldierlike manner
in which the gardens of Sallust were attacked and carried ;
they had also marked, with a certain grim satisfaction, the
assault on the Capitol, though they complained that when
it was fired the thick volumes of smoke that swept down-
wards from its walls obstructed their view of the fighting,
which was to them the chief attraction of the entertainment,
and which they criticised with many instructive and pro-
fessional remarks ; it was difficult, doubtless, to abstain from
taking part in any of these skirmishes, more particularly as
each man was armed with the short, two-edged Roman
sword ; but, as they reminded one another, it was only a
temporary abstinence, and for a very short period, since,
from all they could gather, before midnight they might be
up to their necks in wine, and over their ankles in blood.

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FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS

Now, supper-time was approaching, and the athletes were
getting fierce, hungry, and weary of inaction. They had
stood still to watch the procession of Vestals pass by, and
even these wild, unscrupulous men had refrained from word
or gesture that could be construed into disrespect for the
maiden order; but they had shown little interest in the
cause of stoppage, and scarce condescended to notice a
discussion that arose from so mean a subject as a runaway
slave. Suddenly, however, to the amazement of his com-
rades and the discomfiture of the bystanders, Hirpinus burst
hastily through the crowd, unceremoniously thrusting aside
those who stood in his way, and lifting one inquisitive little
barber clean off his legs, to hurl him like a plaything into
a knot of chattering citizens, much to their indignation
and the poor man's own physical detriment. Hands were
clenched, indeed, and brows bent, as the strong square form
forged through the press, like some bluff galley through the
surf, but Cave ! cave ! was whispered by the more cautious,
and in such dread was a gladiator held by his peaceful
fellow-citizens, that the boldest preferred submission under
insult to a quarrel with a man whose very trade was strife.
The chariot was already in motion, when a strong hand
forced the two centre horses back upon their haunches, and
the bold, frank voice of Hirpinus was heard above the
trampling hoofs and general confusion.

" Easy, my little fellow, for a moment," said he to the
indignant Automedon. " I heard a comrade's name spoken
just now, from within that gilded shell of thine. Halt! I
tell thee, lad, and keep that whip quiet, lest I brain thee
with my open hand ! "

Automedon, little relishing the business from the begin-
ning, pulled his horses together, and looked very much
disposed to cry. Damasippus, however, confident in the
support of his companion, and the presence of half a dozen
armed slaves, stepped boldly forward, and bade the gladiator
" make way there " in a high, authoritative voice. Hirpinus
recognised the freedman at once, and laughed loud and long.

" What now ? " said he, " my old convive and boon-
companion. By Pollux ! I knew thee not in thy warlike
array of steel. In faith, a garland of roses becomes that
red nose of thine better than the bosses of a helmet, and the
stem of a goblet would fit thy hand more deftly than the
haft of that gaudy sword. What stolen goods are these,
old parasite? I'll wager now that the jackal is but taking
home a lump of carrion to the lion's den."

233

ANTEROS

" Stay me not, good friend," replied the other, with im-
portance. "It is even as you say, and I am about the
business of your employer and mine, Julius Placidus the
tribune."

Hirpinus, in high good-humour, would have bade him
pass on, but Mariamne, whose mouth was now released,
gathered her exhausted energies for a last appeal.

"You are his comrade! you said so even now. Save
me, save me, for Esca's sake!"

Again at that name the gladiator's eye glistened. He
loved the young Briton like a son — he who had so little to
love in the world. He had brought him out, as he boasted
twenty times a day. He had made a man — more, a swords-
man— of him. Now he had lost sight of him, and, as far
as his nature permitted, had been anxious and unhappy
ever since. If a dog had belonged to Esca, he would have
dashed in to rescue it from danger at any risk.

" Stand back, fool ! " he shouted to Damasippus, as the
latter interposed his person between the gladiator and the
chariot. " Have a care, I tell thee ! I want the woman out
into the street. What ! you will, will you ? — One — two. —
Take it then, idiot ! Here ! comrades, close in, and keep
off this accursed crowd ! "

Damasippus, confident in the numbers of his escort, and
believing, too, that his adversary was alone, had, indeed,
drawn his sword, and called up the slaves to his assistance,
when the gladiator moved towards the chariot containing
his charge. To dash the blade from his unaccustomed grasp,
to deal him a straight, swift, crushing blow, that sent him
down senseless on the pavement, and then, drawing his
own weapon, to turn upon the shrinking escort a point
that seemed to threaten all at once, was for Hirpinus a mere
matter of professional business, -so simple as to be almost
a relaxation. His comrades, laughing boisterously, made
a ring round the combatants. The slaves hesitated, gave
ground, turned and fled; Hirpinus dragged the helpless
form of Mariamne from the chariot, and Oarses, who had
remained in the background till now, leaped nimbly in, to
assume the vacant place, and, whispering Automedon, went
off at a gallop.

The poor girl, terrified by the danger she had escaped,
and scarcely reassured by the mode of her rescue, or the
appearance of her deliverers, clung, half-fainting, to the
person of her supporter, and the old swordsman, with a
delicacy almost ludicrous in one of his rough exterior,

234

FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS

soothed her with such terms of encouragement as he could
summon at the moment : now like a nurse hushing a child
off to sleep, anon like a charioteer quieting a frightened or
fretful horse.

In the meantime, the crowd, gathering confidence from
the sheathed swords and obvious good - humour of the
gladiators, pressed round with many rude gestures and
insulting remarks, regardless of the fallen man, who, on
recovering his senses, wisely remained for a while where
he was, and chiefly bent on examining the features of the
cloaked and hooded prize, that had created this pretty little
skirmish for their diversion. Such unmannerly curiosity
soon aroused the indignation of Hirpinus.

" Keep them off, comrades ! " said he angrily ; " these
miserable citizens. Keep them off, I say! Have they never
seen a veiled woman before, that they gape and stare, and
pass their rancid jests, as they do on you and me when we
are down on our backs for their amusement in the arena?
Let her have air, my lads, and she will soon come to.
Pollux ! She looks like the lily thy wife was watering at
home, when we stopped there this morning, Rufus, for a
draught of the five-year-old wine, and a gambol with those
bright-haired kids of thine."

The tall champion to whom this remark was addressed,
and who had that very morning, in company with his friend,
bidden a farewell, that might be eternal, to wife and children,
as indeed it was nothing unusual for him to do, softened
doubtless by the remembrance, now exerted himself strenu-
ously to give the fainting woman room. Without the use
of any but nature's weapons, and from sheer weight, strength,
and resolution, the gladiators soon cleared an ample space
in the middle of the street for their comrade and his charge ;
nor did they seem at all indisposed to a task which afforded
opportunities of evincing their own physical superiority, and
the supreme contempt in which they held the mass of their
fellow-citizens. Perhaps it was pleasant to feel how com-
pletely they could domineer over the crowd by the use of
those very qualities which made their dying struggles a
spectacle for the vulgar; perhaps they enjoyed the repay-
ment in advance of some of the ribaldry and insult that
would too surely accompany their end. At anyrate they
shouldered the mob back with unnecessary violence, drove
their spiked sandals into the feet of such as came under their
tread, and scrupled not to strike with open hand or clenched
fist any adventurous citizen who was fool enough to put

235

ANTEROS

himself forward for appeal or resistance. These, too, seemed
terror-stricken by this handful of resolute men. Accustomed
to look on them from a safe distance in the amphitheatre,
like the wild beasts with whom they often saw them fight,
they were nearly as unwilling to beard the one as the other ;
and to come into collision with a gladiator in the street, was
like meeting a tiger on the wrong side of his bars. So
Hirpinus had plenty of room to undo the girl's bands,
and remove the stifling folds that muffled her head and
throat.

" Where am I ? " she murmured, as she began to breathe
more freely, looking round bewildered and confused. " You
are Esca's friend. Surely I heard you say so. You will take
care of me, then, for Esca's sake."

Instinctively she addressed herself to Hirpinus, instinct-
ively she seemed to appeal to him for protection and
encouragement. The veil had been taken from her head,
and the beauty of the sweet pale face was not lost on the
surrounding gladiators. Old Hirpinus looked at her with
a comical expression, in which admiration and pity were
blended with astonishment and a proud sense of personal
appropriation in the defenceless girl who seemed utterly
dependent on him. He had never seen anything so beautiful
in his life. He had never known the happiness of a home ;
never had wife nor child : but at that moment his heart
warmed to her as a father's to a daughter.

" Where are you," he repeated, " pretty flower ? You are
within a hundred paces of the Flaminian Way. How came
you here ? Ay, that is more than I can tell you. Yonder
knave lying there. — What ? he is gone, is he ? Ay ! I could
not hit hard enough at a man with whom I have emptied
so many skins of Sabine. — Well, Damasippus brought thee
here, he best knows why, in his master's gaudy chariot. I
heard thee speak, my pretty one, and who loves Esca, loves
me, and I love him, or her, or whoever it may be. So I
knocked him over, that fat freedman, and took thee from
the chariot, and pulled off these wraps that were stifling thee,
and indeed I think it was about time."

He had raised her while he spoke, and supported her
on his strong arm, walking slowly on, while the gladiators,
closing round them, moved steadily along the street, followed,
though at a safe distance, by much verbal insult and abuse.
At intervals, two or three of the rear-guard would turn and
confront the mob, who immediately gave back and were
silent. Thus the party proceeded on its way, more, it would

236

FROM SCYLLA TO CHARYBDIS

seem, with the view of leaving the crowd than of reaching
any definite place of shelter.

" Where are we going ? and who are those who guard
us?" whispered Mariamne, clinging close to her protector.
" You will take care of me, will you not ? " she added, in a
confiding tone.

" They are my comrades," he answered soothingly ; " and
old Hirpinus will guard you, pretty one, like the apple of his
eye. We will take you straight home, or wherever you wish
to go, and not one of these will molest you while I am by —
never fear ! "

Just then, Euchenor, who was one of the band, and had
overheard this reassuring sentence, clapped the old swords-
man on the shoulder.

" You seem to forget our compact," said he, with his evil,
mocking laugh.

The face of Hirpinus fell, and his brow lowered, for he
remembered then that Mariamne was not much better off here
than in the captivity from which he had rescued her.

237

CHAPTER XI

THE RULES OF THE FAMILY

r I SHE Jewess had indeed but escaped one danger to fall
J_ into another. Bold and lawless as were these pro-
fessional swordsmen, they acknowledged certain rules of
their own, which they were never known to infringe. When
a band of gladiators had been mustered, and told off for a
particular service, it was their custom to bind themselves by
oath, as forming one body, unanimous and indivisible, until
that service was completed. They swore to stand by each
other to the death, to obey their chief implicitly, and to take
orders from him alone — to make common cause with their
fellows, in defiance of all personal feelings of interest or
danger, even to the cheerful sacrifice of life itself; and to
consider all booty of arms, gold, jewels, captives, or otherwise,
however obtained, as the property of the band ; subject to
its disposal, according to the established code of their pro-
fession. Therefore it was that Hirpinus felt his heart sink
at Euchenor's malicious observation. Therefore it was that
though he strove to put on an appearance of good-humour
and confidence, a perceptible tremor shook his voice while
he replied —

" I found her first. I dragged her from the chariot. I
put that foolish citizen on his back to make sport for you all.
I am the oldest swordsman in the band. I think you might
leave her to me ! "

Euchenor's eye was on the frightened girl, and, meeting
its glance, she shrank yet closer to her protector, while the
Greek observed, with a sneer —

"You had better make a new set of rules for us then,
since you seem inclined to break through the old.
Comrades, I appeal to you ; doth not the booty belong to
us all, share and share alike?"

The others were crowding in now, having reached a
narrower street, and left the populace behind.

" Of course, of course ! " was re-echoed on all sides ; " who
doubts it ? who disputes it ? "

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THE RULES OF THE FAMILY

" What would you have, man ? " exclaimed Hirpinus,
waxing wroth. "You cannot cut a captive into twenty
pieces and give every man a portion ! I tell you, she is
mine. Let her alone ! "

" You cannot cut a wineskin into twenty pieces, nor need
you," replied the Greek ; " but you pass it round amongst
your comrades, till every man's thirst be slaked. 'Faith,
after that, you may keep the empty skin for your own share,
if you like ! "

He spoke in a cold derisive tone, and although Mariamne
could not understand half he said, garnished as his speech
was with the cant terms of his calling, she gathered enough
of its import to be terrified at the prospect before her. Old
Hirpinus lost patience at last.

"Will you take her from me?" he burst out, knitting his
bushy brows, and putting his face close to the Greek's.
" Stand up then like a man and try ! "

Euchenor turned very pale. It was no part of his scheme
to provoke his robust old comrade to a personal encounter ;
and, indeed, the pugilist was a coward at heart, owing his
reputation chiefly to the skill with which he had always
matched himself against those whom he was sure to conquer.
Now he fell back a step or two from his glaring adver-
sary, and appealed once more to their companions. These
gathered round, speaking all at once, Hirpinus turning from
one to the other, and ever shielding his charge with his body,
as an animal shields its young. He was determined to save
the girl, because he understood dimly that she belonged in
some way to Esca, and the loyal old swordsman would not
have hesitated one moment in flinging his life down, then
and there, to purchase her safety.

" Hold, comrades ! " shouted he, in a stentorian voice that
made itself heard above the din. " Will ye bay me altogether
like a pack of Molossian wolf-hounds ? Hounds, forsooth !
nay, the Molossians are true-bred, and there is one cur
amongst us here at least, to my knowledge. Rather, like a
knot of jabbering old women in a market-place ! Talk of
rules ! Of course we abide by our rules, ay, and stick to our
oath. Rufus, old friend, we have stood with our swords at
each other's throats for hours together, many a time during
the last ten years, and never had an angry word or an un-
kindly thought. Thou wilt not fail me now? Thou wilt
not see old Hirpinus wronged?"

The champion thus appealed to by such tender associations,
thrust his tall person forward in the throng. Slow of speech,

239

ANTEROS

calm, calculating, and reflective, Rufus was held an oracle of
good sense amongst his fellow-swordsmen.

" You are both wrong," said he sententiously. " The girl
belongs to neither of you. If this had happened yesterday,
Hirpinus would have had a right to carry her where he chose.
But we have taken the oath since then, old comrade, and she
is the joint property of the band by all our laws."

" I said so ! " exclaimed Euchenor triumphantly. " The
prize belongs to us all. Every man his turn. The apple
seems fair and ripe enough. Mine shall be the hand to pare
its rind."

As he spoke, he pulled aside the veil which Mariamne
had modestly drawn once more about her head, and the girl,
flushing scarlet at the insult, stamped passionately with her
foot, and then, as if acknowledging her helplessness, burst
into tears, and hid her face in her hands. Hirpinus caught
the aggressor by the shoulder, and sent him reeling back
amongst the rest. His beard bristled with anger, and the
foam stood on his lip like some old boar at bay.

"Hands off!" roared the veteran. "Rules or no rules,
another such jest as that and I drive a foot of steel through
the jester's brisket! What! Rufus, I came not into the
Family yesterday. I was eating raw flesh and lentil porridge
when most of these were sucking their mothers' milk. I tell
thee, man, the old law was this : When gladiators disputed on
any subject whatever — pay, plunder, or precedence — they
were to take short swords, throw away their shields, and fight
it out by pairs, till they were agreed. Stand round, com-
rades ! Put the little Greek up at half-sword distance ; clear
a space of seven feet square, not an inch more, and I'll show
you how we used to settle these matters when Nero wore the
purple ! "

" Nay, nay ! " interposed Mariamne, wringing her hands in
an agony of terror and dismay. " Shed not blood on my
account. I am a poor, helpless girl. I have done no one any
harm. Let me go, for pity's sake ! Let me go ! "

But to this solution of the difficulty objections were offered
on all sides. Rufus indeed, and one or two of the older
swordsmen, moved by the youth and tears of the captive,
would willingly have permitted her to escape ; but Euchenor,
Lutorius, and the rest, objected violently to the loss of so
beautiful a prize. Rufus, too, when appealed to, though he
would fain have supported his old comrade, was obliged to
confess that justice, according to gladiator's law, was on
Euchenor's side. Even the proposal to fight for her possession

240

THE RULES OF THE FAMILY

by pairs, popular as it was likely to be in such a company,
was rendered inadmissible by the terms of the late oath. The
band, indeed, when purchased as they had been by Hippias
for a special duty to be performed that night, had become
pledged, according to custom, not only to the usual brother-
hood and community of interests, but also to refrain from
baring steel upon any pretence or provocation either amongst
themselves or against a common foe, until ordered to do so
by their employer. Hirpinus, though he chafed and swore
vehemently, and kept Mariamne close under his wing through
it all, was obliged to acknowledge the force of his comrade's
arguments ; and the puzzled athlete racked his unaccustomed
brains till his head ached to find some means of escape for
the girl he had resolved to save. In the meantime, delay was
dangerous. These men were not used to hesitate or refrain,
and already the hour was approaching at which they were to
muster for their night's work, whatever it might be, in the
tribune's house. The old swordsman felt he must dissemble,
were it but to gain time; so he smoothed his brows, and,
much against the grain, assumed an appearance of good-
humour and satisfaction.

" Be it as you will," said he ; " old Hirpinus is the last man
to turn round upon his comrades, or to break the laws of the
Family, for the sake of a cream-coloured face and a wisp of
black hair. I will abide by the decision of Hippias. We
shall find him at the tribune's house, and it is time we were
there now. Forward, my lads ! Nay, hands off! I tell thee
once more, Euchenor, till we have brought her to the master's
she belongs to me."

Euchenor grumbled, but was compelled to submit ; for the
other's influence amongst the gladiators was far greater than
his own. And the little party, with Mariamne in the centre,
still clinging fast to Hirpinus, moved on in the direction of
the tribune's house.

Esca, crouching in his place of concealment, silent and
wary, as he had ofttimes crouched long ago, when watching
for the dun deer on the hillside, was aware of the tramp of
disciplined men approaching the porch in which he lay in
ambush. Every faculty was keenly, painfully on the stretch.
Once, at the sound of wheels, he had started from his lair,
ready to make one desperate attempt for the rescue of his
love; but greatly to his consternation, the gilded chariot
returned empty, save of Automedon, looking much scared
and bewildered. The wily Oarses, indeed, having made his
escape from the gladiators, had betaken himself to his lodging,
Q 241

ANTEROS

and there determined to remain, either till his patron's wrath
should be exhausted, or till the events which he foresaw the
night would bring forth should have diverted it into another
channel. So Automedon went home in fear and trembling
by himself. As the Briton revolved matters in his mind, he
knew not whether to be most alarmed or reassured by this
unforeseen contingency. Though the chariot had returned
without Mariamne, the freedmen and armed slaves were still
absent. Could they have missed their prey, and were they
still searching for her ? or had they carried her elsewhere ? —
to the freedmen's garret, perhaps, there to remain concealed
till the night was further advanced. Yet the words of
Placidus, or of his ghost, which he had overheard, seemed to
infer that the Jewess was expected every minute. Every
minute indeed ! and those racking minutes seemed to
stretch themselves to hours. With the natural impatience
of inaction, which accompanies uncertainty, he had almost
made up his mind to return in search of Eleazar, when
the steady footfall of the approaching party arrested his
attention.

There was a bright moon shining above, and the open
space into which the gladiators advanced was clear as day.
With a keen feeling of confidence he recognised the square
frame of Hirpinus, and then, as he caught sight of the dark-
robed figure at the swordsman's side, for one exulting moment,
doubt, fear, anxiety, all were merged in the delight of seeing
Mariamne once more. With the bound of a wild deer, he
was in the midst of them, clasping her in his arms, and the
girl sobbing on his breast felt safe and happy, because she
was with him. Hirpinus gave a shout that startled the slaves
laying the tables in the inner hall.

" Safe, my lad ! " he exclaimed, " and in a whole skin.
Sound and hearty, and fit to join us in to-night's work.
Better late than never. Swear him, comrades ! swear him on
the spot ! Send in for a morsel of bread and a pinch of salt
Here, Rufus, cross thy blade with mine ! Thou art in the
nick of time, lad, to take thy share with the rest, of peril, and
pleasure, and profit to boot ! "

This speech he eked out with many winks and signs to
his young friend, for Hirpinus, guessing how matters stood
between the pair, could think of no better plan by which
Esca should at least claim a share in the prey they had so
recently acquired. His artifice was, however, lost upon the
Briton, who seemed wholly occupied with Mariamne, and to
whom the girl was whispering her fears and distresses, and

242

THE RULES OF THE FAMILY

entreaties that he would save her from the band. The young
man drew her to his side.

" Give way," said he haughtily, as Euchenor and Lutorius
closed in upon him. "She has made her choice, she goes
with me. I take her home to her father's house."

The others set up a shout of derision.

" Hear him ! " they cried. " It is the praetor who speaks !
It is the voice of Caesar himself! Yes, yes, go in peace, if
thou wilt. We have had enough and to spare of your yellow-
haired barbarians, but the girl remains with us."

She was not trembling now. She was past all fear in
such a crisis as this. Erect and defiant she stood beside her
champion — pale indeed as the dead, but with eyes in which
flashed the courage of despair. His lips were white with the
effort of self-command as he strove to keep cool and to use
fair words.

" I am one of yourselves," said he. " You will not turn
against me all at once. Let me but take the maiden home,
and I will come back and join you, true as the blade to the
haft."

" Ay, let them go ! " put in Hirpinus. " He speaks fairly,
and these barbarians never fail their word ! "

" No, no," interposed Euchenor. " He has nothing to do
with us. Why, he was beaten in the open circus by a mere
patrician. Besides, he is not engaged for to-night. He has
no interest in the job. Who is he, this barbarian, that we
should give up to him the fairest prize we are like to take in
the whole business ? "

" Will you fight for her ? " thundered Esca, hitching his
swordbelt to the front

Euchenor shrank back amongst his comrades. "Our oath
forbids me," said he ; and the others, though they could not
refrain from jeering at the unwilling Greek, confirmed his
decision.

Esca's mind was made up.

" Pass your hands under my girdle," he whispered to
Mariamne. " Hold fast, and we shall break through ! "

His sword was out like lightning, and he dashed amongst
the gladiators, but he had to do with men thoroughly skilled
in arms and trained to every kind of personal contest. A
dozen blades were gleaming in the moonlight as ready as his
own. A dozen points were threatening him, backed by fear-
less hearts, and strong supple practised hands. He was at
bay ; a desperate man penned in by a circle of steel. He
glanced fiercely round, defiant yet bewildered, then down at

243

ANTEROS

the-pale face at his breast, and his heart sank within him.
He was at his wits' end. She looked up — loving, resolute,
and courageous.

" Dear one," she said softly, " let me rather die by your
hand. See, I do not fear. Strike ! You only have the right,
for I am yours ! "

Even then a faint blush came into her cheek, while the
pale hands busied themselves with her dress to bare her
bosom for the blow. He turned his point upon her, and she
smiled up in his face. Old Hirpinus dashed the tears from
his shaggy eyelashes.

" Hold ! hold ! " said he, in a broken voice ; " not till I am
down and out of the game for one ! Enough of this ! " he
added in an altered tone, and with a ludicrous assumption
of his usual careless manner. " Here comes the master — no
more wrangling, lads ! we will refer the matter to him ! "

While he spoke, Hippias entered the open space in front
of the tribune's house, and the gladiators gathered eagerly
around him, Euchenor alone remaining somewhat in the
background.

244

CHAPTER XII

A MASTER OF FENCE

HIPPIAS knew well how to maintain discipline amongst
his followers. While he interested himself keenly in
their training and personal welfare, he permitted no approach
to familiarity, and above all never suffered a syllable of dis-
cussion on a command, or a moment's hesitation in its fulfil-
ment. He came now to put himself at their head for the
carrying out of a hazardous and important enterprise. The
consciousness of coming danger, especially when it is of a
kind with which habit has rendered him familiar, and which
practice has taught him to baffle by his own skill and
courage, has a good moral effect on a brave man's character.
It cheers his spirits, it exalts his imagination, it sharpens his
intellects, and, above all, it softens his heart. Hippias felt
that to-night he would need all the qualities he most prized
to carry him safely through his task — that while failure must
be inevitable destruction, success would "open out to him a
career of which the ultimate goal might be a procuratorship
or even a kingdom. How quickly past, present, and possible
future, flitted through his brain ! It was not so long since his
first victory in the amphitheatre ! He remembered, as if it
were but yesterday, the canvas awnings, the blue sky, and
the confused mass of faces, framing that dazzling sweep of
sand, all of which his sight took in at once, though his eyes
were fixed on those of the watchful Gaul, whom he disarmed
in a couple of passes, and slew without the slightest remorse.
He could feel again, even now, the hot breath of the Libyan
tiger, as he fell beneath it, choked with sand and covered by
his buckler, stabbing desperately at that sinewy chest in
which the life seemed to lie so deep. The tiger's claws had
left their marks upon his brawny shoulder, but he had risen
from the contest victorious, and Red and Green through the
whole crowded building, from the senators' cushions to the
slaves' six inches of standing-room, cheered him to a man.
After this triumph, who such a favourite with the Roman
people as handsome Hippias? Again, he was the centre of

245

ANTEROS

all observation, as, confessedly the head of his profession,
he set in order Nero's cruel shows, and catered with profuse
splendour for the tastes of Imperial Rome. Yes, he had
reached the pinnacle of a gladiator's fame, and from that
elevation a prospect opened itself that he had scarcely even
dreamed of till now. A handful of determined men, a torch
or two for every score of blades, a palace in flames, a night
of blood (he only hoped and longed that there might be
resistance enough to distinguish strife from murder), another
dynasty, a grateful patron, and a brave man's services worthily
acknowledged and repaid. Then the future would indeed
smile in gorgeous hues. Which of Rome's dominions in the
East would most fully satisfy the thirst for royal luxury that
he now experienced for the first time ? In which of his
manlier qualities was he so inferior to the Jew, that Hippias
the gladiator should make a lowlier monarch than Herod the
Great ? and men had not done talking of that warlike king,
even now ! — his wisdom, his cruelty, his courage, his splendour,
and his crimes. A Roman province was but another name
for an independent government. Hippias saw himself en-
throned in the blaze of majesty under a glowing Eastern sky.
Life offering all it had to give of pomp and pageantry and
rich material enjoyment. Slaves, horses, jewels, banquets,
dark-eyed women, silken eunuchs, and gaudy guards with
burnished helmets and flashing shields of gold. Nothing
wanting, not even one with whom to share the glittering
vision. Valeria would be his. Valeria was born to be a
queen. It would, indeed, be a triumph to offer the half of
a throne to the woman who had hitherto condescended by-
listening to his suit. There was a leavening of generosity in
Hippias that caused him to reflect with intense pleasure on
the far deeper homage he would pay her after so romantic a
consummation of his hopes. He felt as if he could almost
love her then, with the love he had experienced in his boy-
hood — that boyhood which seemed now to have been
another's rather than his own. He had put it away long
since, and it had not come back to him for years till to-day ;
but gratified vanity, the pleasure which most hearts experi-
ence in grasping an object that has been dangling out of
reach, beyond all, the power exerted by a woman, over one
who has been accustomed to consider himself either above
or below such pleasing influences, had softened him strangely,
and he hardly felt like the same man who made his bargain
with the tribune for a certain quantity of flesh and blood and
mettle, so short a time ago.

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A MASTER OF FENCE

It is not to be thought, however, that in his dreams of the
future, the fencing-master neglected the means by which that
future was to be attained. He had mustered and prepared
his band with more than common care; had seen with his
own eyes that their arms were bright and sharp and fit for
work ; had placed them at their appointed posts and visited
them repeatedly, enjoining, above all things, extreme vigil-
ance and sobriety. Not one of those men saw beneath his
unruffled brow and quiet stern demeanour anything unusual
in the conduct of their leader ; not one could have guessed
that schemes of ambition far beyond any he had ever
cherished before, were working in his brain — that a strange,
soft, kindly feeling was nestling at his heart. He stood in
the moonlight amongst his followers, calm, abrupt, severe as
usual ; and when Hirpinus looked into his stern set face, the
hopes of the old gladiator fell as did his countenance, but
Mariamne perceived at once with a woman's eye something
that taught her an appeal to his pity on this occasion would
not be made in vain.

With habitual caution, his first proceeding was to count
the band ere he took note of the two figures in their centre.
Then he cast a scrutinising glance at their arms to satisfy
himself all were ready for immediate action. After that he
turned with a displeased air to Hirpinus, and asked —

"What doth the woman amongst us? You heard my
orders this morning ? Who brought her here ? "

Half a dozen voices were raised at once to answer the
master's question ; only he to whom it was especially
addressed kept silence, knowing the nature with which he
had to do. Hippias raised but his sheathed sword and the
clamour ceased. Not a maniple in all Rome's well-drilled
legions seemed in better discipline than this handful of
desperate men. Then he turned to Esca, still speaking in
short incisive tones.

" Briton ! " said he, " you are not one of us to-night. Go
your ways in peace ! "

" Well said ! " shouted the gladiators. " He is no comrade
of ours ! He hath no share in our spoil ! "

But Hippias only wished to save the Briton from the
perils of the coming night, and this from some vague feeling
he could hardly explain to himself, that Valeria was interested
in the stalwart barbarian. It was not in the fencing-master's
nature to entertain sentiments of jealousy upon uncertain
grounds. And he was just fond enough of Valeria to value
anyone she liked for her sake. Moreover Esca knew their

247

ANTEROS

plans. He would alarm the palace, and there would be a
fight He wished nothing better.

Esca was about to make his appeal, but Mariamne
interposed.

" Where he goeth I will go," said she, almost in the words
of her own sacred writings. " I have to-night lost father, and
home, and people. This is the second time he hath saved
me from captivity worse than death. Part us not now, I
beseech thee, part us not ! "

Hippias looked kindly on the sweet face with its large
imploring eager eyes.

" You love him," said he, " foolish girl. Begone then, and
take him with you."

But again a fierce murmur rose amongst the gladiators.
Not even the master's authority was sufficient to carry out
such a breach of all laws and customs as this. Euchenor,
ever prone to wrangle, stepped forward from the background,
where he had remained so as to appear an impartial and
uninterested observer.

" The oath ! " exclaimed the Greek. " The oath — we
swore it when the sun was up — shall we break it ere the
moon goes down ? She is ours, Hippias, by all the laws of
the Family, and we will not give her up."

" Silence ! " thundered the master, with a look that made
Euchenor shrink back once more. " Who asked you for your
vote? Hirpinus, Rufus, once again, how came this woman
here?"

" She was bound hand and foot in a chariot," answered
the former, ignoring, however, with less than his usual
frankness, to whom that chariot belonged. " She was carried
away by force. I protected her from ill-usage," he added
stoutly, " as I would protect her again."

The girl gave him a grateful look, which sank into the old
swordsman's heart. Esca, too, muttered warm broken words
of thanks, while the band assented to the truth of this
statement.

" Even so ! " they exclaimed. " Hirpinus speaks well.
That is why she belongs to us, and we claim every man his
share."

Hippias was too experienced a commander not to know
that there are times when it is necessary to yield with a good
grace, and to use artifice if force will not avail. It is thus the
skilful rider rules his steed, and the judicious wife her husband
— the governing power in either case inducing the governed
to believe that it obeys entirely of its own free will. He

248

A MASTER OF FENCE

smiled, therefore, pleasantly on his followers, and addressed
them in careless good-humoured tones.

" She belongs to us all without doubt," said he, " and, by
the sandals of Aphrodite, she is so fair that I shall put in my
claim with the rest ! Nevertheless there is no time to be
wasted now, for the sake of the brightest eyes that ever
flashed beneath a veil. Put her aside for a few hours or so.
You, Hirpinus, as you captured her, shall take care that she
does not escape. For the Briton, we may as well keep him
safe too — we may find a use for those long arms of his when
to-night's business is accomplished. In the meantime, fall in,
my heroes, and make ready for your work. Supper first (and
it's laid even now) with the noblest patrician and the
deepest drinker in Rome, Julius Placidus the tribune ! "

Euge ! exclaimed the gladiators in a breath, forgetful
at the moment of their recent dissatisfaction, and eager to
hear more of the night's enterprise, about which they
entertained the wildest and most various anticipations ;
nothing loth, besides, to share the orgies of a man whose
table was celebrated for its luxuries amongst all classes in
Rome. Hippias looked round on their well-pleased faces,
and continued —

" Then what say you, my children, to a walk through the
palace gardens ? We will take our swords, by Hercules, for
the German guards are stubborn dogs, and best convinced by
the argument each of us carries at his belt. It may be dark,
too, ere we get there, for the moon is early to-night, and we
have no need to stir till we have tasted the tribune's wine, so
we must not forget a few torches to light us on our way.
There are a score at least lying ready in the corner of that
porch. So we will join our comrades in a fair midnight frolic
under Caesar's roof. Caesar's, forsooth ! my children, there
will be a smouldering palace and another Caesar by to-
morrow ! "

Euge ! exclaimed the gladiators once more. " Hail,
Caesar ! Long live Caesar ! " they repeated with shouts of
fierce mocking laughter.

" It is well," remarked Rufus sagaciously, when silence was
restored. " The pay is good and the work no heavier than an
ordinary praetor's show. But I remember a fiercer lion than
common, that Nero turned loose upon us once in the arena,
and we called him Caesar amongst ourselves, because he was
dangerous to meddle with. If the old man's purple is to be
rent, we should have something over the regular pay. They
have not lasted long of late ; but still, Hippias, 'tis somewhat

249

ANTEROS

out of the usual business. We don't change an emperor
every night, even now."

"True enough," answered the master good-humouredly.
" And you have never been within the walls of a palace in
your life. Something beyond your pay, said you? Why,
man, the pay is but a pretext, a mere matter of form. Once
in Caesar's chambers, a large-fisted fellow like Rufus here,
may carry away a king's ransom in either hand. Then think
of the old wine ! Fifty-year-old Caecuban, in six-quart cups
of solid gold, and welcome to take the goblet away with you,
besides, if you care to be encumbered with it. Shawls from
Persia, lying about for mere coverings to the couches.
Mother-of-pearl and ivory gleaming in every corner. Jewels
scattered in heaps upon the floor. Only get the work done
first, and every man here shall help himself unquestioned,
and walk home with whatever pleases him best."

It was not often Hippias treated his followers to so long a
speech, or one, in their estimation, so much to the purpose.
They marked their approval with vehement and repeated
shouts. They ceased to think of Esca, and forgot all about
Mariamne and their late dissatisfaction ; nay, they seemed
now but to be impatient of every subject unconnected with
their enterprise, and to grudge every minute that delayed
them from their promised spoil. At a signal from Hippias
and his intimation that supper was ready, and their host
awaiting them, they rushed tumultuously through the porch,
leaving behind them Mariamne and Esca, guarded only by
old Hirpinus and Euchenor, the latter appearing alone to be
unmoved by the glowing prospects of plunder held out, and
obstinately standing on his rights, determined not to lose
sight of the captured girl, the more so that she was now
overlooked by the rest of his comrades.

This man, though deficient in the dashing physical daring
which is so popular a quality amongst those of his profession,
possessed, nevertheless, a dogged tenacity of purpose, totally
unqualified by any moral scruples or feelings -of shame, which
rendered him formidable as an antagonist, and generally
successful in any villany he attempted. As in the combats
he waged with or without the heavy lacerating cestus, his
object was to tire out his adversary by protracted and
scientific defence, taking as little punishment as possible, and
never hazarding a blow save when it could not be returned,
so in everything he undertook, it was his study to reach the
goal by unrelaxing vigilance, and unremitting recourse to the
means which experience and common sense pointed out for

250

A MASTER OF FENCE

its attainment. Slinking behind the broad back of Hirpinus,
he concealed himself in the darkest corner of the porch, and
watched the result of Mariamne's appeal to the fencing-
master.

Hippias pushed the gladiators on before him, with
boisterous good-humour and considerable violence; as they
crowded through the narrow entrance, he remained behind
for a moment, and whispered to Esca —

"You will take the girl home, comrade. Can I trust
you ? "

" Trust me ! " was all the Briton answered, but the tone in
which he spoke, and the glance he exchanged with Mariamne,
might have satisfied a more exacting inquirer than the
captain of gladiators.

" Fare thee well, lad," said Hirpinus, " and thee, too, my
pretty flower. I would go with you myself, but it is a long
way from here to Tiber-side, and I must not be missing
to-night, come what may."

" Begone, both of you ! " added Hippias hurriedly. " Had
it not been for the plunder, I should scarce have found my
lambs so reasonable to-night ; were you to fall in with them
again, the Vestals themselves could not save you. Begone,
and farewell."

They obeyed and hastened off, while the fencing-master,
with a well-pleased smile, clapped Hirpinus on the shoulder,
and accompanied him into the house.

" Old comrade," said he, " we will drink a measure of the
tribune's Caecuban to-night, come what may. To-morrow we
shall either be on our backs gaping for the death- fee, or
pressing our lips to nothing meaner than a chalice of
burnished gold. Who knows ? Who cares ? "

" Not I for one," replied Hirpinus ; " but I am strangely
thirsty in the meantime, and the tribune's wine, they tell me,
is the best in Rome."

251

CHAPTER XIII

THE ESQUILINE

ITH attentive ears, and faculties
keenly on the stretch, Euchenor,
lurking in the corner of the
porch, listened to the foregoing
conversation. When he gath-
ered that Tiber-side was the
direction the fugitives meant to
take, his quick Greek intellect
formed its plan of operation at
once.

There was a post of his
comrades, consisting of some
of the gladiators purchased by
Placidus, and placed there a few
hours since by the orders of
Hippias, in the direct road for that locality. He would follow
the pair, noiseless and unsuspected, for he had no mind to pro-
voke an encounter with the Briton till within reach of assistance,
then give the alarm, seize the wayfarers, and appeal to the
club-law they all held sacred, for his rights. Esca would be sure
to defend the girl with his life, but he would be overpowered by
numbers, and it would be strange if he could not be quieted
for ever in the struggle. There would still be time enough,
thought Euchenor, after his victory to join his comrades at
the tribune's table, leaving the girl to the tender mercies of
the band. He could make some excuse for his absence to
satisfy his companions, heated as they would by that time be
with wine. Indeed, for his own part, he had no great fancy
for the night's adventure, promising as it did more hard
knocks than he cared to exchange in a fight with the German
guard, fierce blue-eyed giants, who would give and take no
quarter. He did not wish, indeed, to lose his share of the
plunder, for no one was more alive to the advantages of a
full purse, but he trusted to his own dexterity for securing

252

THE ESQUILINE

this, without running unnecessary risk. Meanwhile, it was
his method to attend to one thing at a time; he waited
impatiently, therefore, till Hippias entered the house, and left
him at liberty to emerge from his hiding-place.

No sooner was the master's back turned than the Greek
sped into the street, glancing eagerly down its long vista,
lying white in the moonlight, for the two dark figures he
sought. Agile and noiseless as a panther, he skulked swiftly
along under the shadow of the houses, till he reached the
corner which a passenger would turn who was bound for
Tiber-side. Here he made sure that he must sight his
prey; but no, amongst the few wayfarers who dotted this
less solitary district he looked in vain for Esca's towering
shoulders or the shrinking figure of the Jewess. In vain,
like a hound, he quested to and fro, now casting forward
upon a vague speculation, now trying back with untiring
perseverance and determination. Like a hound, too, whose
game has foiled him, he was obliged to slink home at length,
ashamed and baffled, to the porch of the tribune's house,
inventing as he went a plausible excuse to host and
comrades for his tardy appearance at the banquet. He had
passed, nevertheless, within twenty paces of those he hunted,
but he knew it not.

With the first rapture of intense joy for their escape, it
was in the nature of Mariamne that her predominant feeling
should be one of gratitude to Heaven for thus preserving
both herself and him whose life was dearer to her than her
own. In common with her nation, she believed in the con-
stant and immediate interposition of the Almighty in favour
of His servants ; and the new faith, which was rapidly gain-
ing ground in her heart, had tempered the awe in which His
worshipper regards the Deity, with the implicit trust, and
love, and confidence, entertained for its father by a child.
Such feelings can but find an outlet in thanksgiving and
prayer. Before Mariamne had gone ten paces from the
tribune's house, she stopped short, looked up in Esca's face,
and said : " Let us kneel together, and thank God for our
deliverance."

" Not here at least ! " exclaimed the Briton, whose nerves,
good as they were, had been somewhat unstrung by the
vicissitudes of the night, and the apprehensions that had
racked him for his beloved companion. " They may return
at any moment. You are not safe even now. If you are
so exhausted you cannot go on (for she was leaning heavily
on his arm, and her head drooped), I will carry you in my

253

ANTEROS

arms from here to your father's house. My love, I would
carry you through the world."

She smiled sweetly on him, though her face was very
pale. " Let us turn in at this ruined gateway," said she ;
" a few moments' rest will restore me ; and, Esca, I must
give thanks to the God of Israel, who has saved both thee
and me."

They were near a crumbling archway, with a broken
iron gate that had fallen in. It was on the opposite side of
the street to the tribune's house ; and as they passed beneath
its mouldering span, they saw that it formed an entrance
into one of those wildernesses, which, after the great fire of
Nero, existed here and there, not only in the suburbs, but
at the very heart of Rome. They were, in truth, in that
desolate waste which had once been the famous Esquiline
Gardens, originally a burial - ground, and granted by
Augustus to his favourite, the illustrious Maecenas, to
plant and decorate according to his prolific fancy and
unimpeachable taste. That learned nobleman had taken
advantage of his emperor's liberality to build here a stately
palace, which had not, however, escaped the great fire, and
to lay out extensive pleasure - grounds, which had been
devastated by the same calamity. Little, indeed, now re-
mained, save the trees that had originally shadowed the
Roman's grave in the days of the old Republic. The
" unwelcome cypresses " so touchingly described in his most
reflective ode, by him whose genius Maecenas fostered, and
whose gratitude paid his princely patron back by rendering
him immortal.

Many a time had Horace lounged in these pleasant
shades, musing with quaint and varied fancies, half pathetic,
half grotesque, on the business and the pleasures, the sun-
shine and the shadows, the aim and the end, of that to him
inexplicable problem, a man's short life. Here, too, perhaps,
he speculated on the mythology, to the beauty of which
his poetic imagination was so keenly alive, while his strong
common sense and somewhat material character must have
been so utterly incredulous of its truth. Nay, on this very
spot did he not ridicule certain superstitions of his country-
men, with a coarseness that is only redeemed by its wit?
and preserve, in pungent sarcasm, for coming ages, the
memory of an indecent statue on the Esquiline, as he has
preserved in sweet and glowing lines the glades of cool
Praeneste, or the terraced vineyards basking in the glare
and glitter of noonday on Tibur's sunny slopes? Here,

254

H<?r eyy 5

THE ESQUILINE

perhaps, many a time may have been seen the stout sleek
form, so round and well-cared for, with its clean white
gown, and dainty shining head, crowned with a garland of
festive roses, and not wanting, be sure, a festive goblet in
its hand. Here may the poet have sat out many a joyous
hour in the shade, with mirth, and song, and frequent sips
of old Falernian, and a vague dreary fancy the while ever
present, though unacknowledged — like a death's-head at the
banquet — that feast, and jest, and song could not last for
ever, but that the time must come at length, when the
empty jar would not be filled again, when the faded roses
could be bound together no longer in a chaplet for the un-
conscious brows, and the string of the lyre, once snapped,
must be silent henceforward for evermore. The very water-
fall that had soothed its master to his^ noonday slumber in
the drowsy shade, was now dried up, and in the cavity
above, a heap of dusty rubbish alone remained, where erst
the cool translucent surface shone, fair and smooth as
glass. Weeds were growing rank and tall, where once the
myrtle quivered and the roses bloomed. Where Chloe
gambolled and where Lydia sang, the raven croaked and
fluttered, and the night-owl screamed. Instead of velvet
turf and trim exotic shrubs, and shapely statues framed in
bowers of green, the nettle spread its festering carpet, and
the dock put out its pointed leaf; and here and there a
tombstone showed its slab of marble, smooth and grim, like
a bone that has been laid bare. All was ruin or decay — a
few short years had done the work of ages; and whether
they waked or whether they slept, poet and patron had
gone hence, never to return.

Under the branches of a spectral holm-oak, blackened,
withered, and destroyed by fire, Mariamne paused, and
clung with both hands to her companion's arm. Bravely
had the girl borne up for hours against terrible mental
anxiety, as well as actual bodily pain, but with relief and
comparative safety came the reaction. Her eyes grew dim,
her senses seemed failing, and her limbs trembled so that
she was unable to proceed. He hung over her in positive
fear. The pale face looked so deathlike that his bold
heart quailed, as the possibility presented itself of life with-
out her. Propped in his strong grasp she soon recovered,
and he told her as much, in a few frank simple words.

" And yet it must come at last," said she gently. " What
is the short span of a man's life, Esca, for such love as ours ?
Even had we everything we can wish, all the world can

255

ANTEROS

give, there would be a sting in each moment of happiness
at the thought that it must end so soon."

" Happiness ! " repeated Esca. " What is it ? Why is
there so little of it on earth ? My happiness is to be with
you ; and see, I win it but for an hour at a time, at a cost
to yourself I cannot bear to think of."

She looked lovingly in his face.

" Do you suppose / would count the cost ? " said she.
" Ever since the night you took me from those fearful
revellers, and brought me so gently and so courteously
to my father's house, I — I have never forgotten what
I owe you."

He raised her hand to his lips, with the action of an
inferior doing homage. Alone with the woman he loved,
the very depth and generosity of his young affection made
him look on her as something sacred and apart. She
hesitated, for she had yet more to say, which maiden shame
repressed, lest it should disclose her feelings too openly;
but she loved him well: she could not keep silence on so
vital a subject, and after a pause, she took courage and asked —

" Esca, could you bear to think we were never to meet
again ? "

" I would rather die at once ! " he exclaimed fervently.

She shook her head, and smiled rather sadly.

" But after death," she insisted ; " after death do you
believe you will see me no more?"

He looked blank and confused. The same question had
been present almost unconsciously in his mind, but had never
taken so definite a shape before.

"You would make me a coward, Mariamne," said he;
" when I think of you, I almost fear to die."

They were standing under the holm - oak, where the
moonlight streamed down clear and cold through the bare
branches. It shone on a slab of marble, half defaced, half
overgrown with moss. Nevertheless, on that surface was
distinctly carved the horse's head with which the Roman
loved to decorate the stone that marked his last resting-
place.

" Do you know what that means ? " said she, pointing to
this quaint and yet suggestive symbol. " Even the proud
Roman feels that death and departure are the same, — that
he is going on a journey he knows not where, but one from
which he never shall return. It is a journey we must all
take, none can tell how soon ; for you and me the horse
may be harnessed this very night. But I know where I am

256

THE ESQUILINE

going, Esca. If you had slain me an hour ago with your
sword, I should have been there even now."

" And I ? " he exclaimed. " Should I have been with
you? for I would have died amongst the gladiators as I
have seen a wolf die in my own country, overmatched by
hounds. Mariamne, you would not have left me for ever?
What would have become of me?"

Again she shook her head with the same pitiful plaintive
smile.

" You do not know the way," said she. " You have no
guide to take you by the hand ; you would be lost in the
darkness ; and I — I should see you no more. Oh ! Esca, I
can teach you, I can show it you. Let us travel it together,
and, come what may, we need never part again ! "

Then the girl knelt down under that dead tree, with the
moonbeams shining on her pale face, and her lips moved in
whispered thanksgiving for the late escape, and prayer for
him who now stood by her side, and who watched her with
wistful looks, as a child watches a piece of mechanism of
which he sees plainly the effect, while he strives in vain to
comprehend the cause. It seemed to Esca that the woman
he loved must have found the talisman that all his youth he
had felt a vague consciousness he wanted — something beyond
manly courage, or burning patriotism, or the dogged obstinacy
that fortifies itself by defying the worst. Moreover, the course
of his past life, above all, the trials he had lately undergone,
could not but have prepared the ground for the reception of
that good seed which brings forth such good fruit, — could not
but have shown him the necessity for a strength superior to
the bravest endurance of mere humanity, for a hope that
was fixed beyond the grave. A few minutes she remained
on her knees, praying fervently for herself, — for him. He
felt that it was so, and while his eyes were riveted on the dear
face, so pure and peaceful, turned upward to the sky, he knew
that his own being was elevated by her holy influence, that
the earthly affection of a lover for his mistress, was in his
breast refined by the adoration of a worshipper for a saint.

Then she rose, and taking him by the arm, walked
leisurely on her way, discoursing, as she went, on certain
truths which she had learnt from Calchas, and which she
believed with the faith of those who have been taught by
one, himself an eye-witness of the wonders he relates. There
were no dogmas in those early days of the Christian Church
to distract the minds of its votaries from the simple tenets of
their creed. The grain of mustard-seed had not yet shot up
R 257

ANTEROS

into that goodly tree which has since borne so many branches,
and the pruning-knife, hereafter to lop away so many re-
dundant heresies, was not as yet unsheathed. The Christian
of the first century held to a very simple exposition of his
faith as handed down to him from his Divine Master. Trust
and love were the fundamental rules of his order. Trust
that in the extremity of mortal agony could penetrate beyond
the gates of death, and brighten the martyr's face with a ray
of splendour " like the face of an angel." Love that em-
braced all things, downward from the Creator to the lowest
of the created, that opened its heart freely and ungrudgingly
to each, the sinner, the prodigal, and the traveller who fell
among thieves. Other faiths, indeed, and other motives have
fortified men to march proudly to the stake, to bear without
wincing tortures that forced the sickening spectator to turn
shuddering away. A heathen or a Jew could front the lion's
sullen scowl, or the grin and glare of the cruel tiger, in the
amphitheatre, with the dignified composure that brave men
borrow from despair ; could behold unmoved the straight-cut
furrow in the sand that marked the arena of his sufferings,
soon to run crimson with his blood. Even athwart the dun
smoke, amidst the leaping yellow flames, pale faces have
been seen to move, majestic and serene as spectres, with no
sustaining power beyond that of a lofty courage, the offspring
of education and of pride. But it was the Christian alone
who could submit to the vilest degradations and the fiercest
sufferings with a humble and even cheerful thankfulness ;
who could drink from the bitter cup and accept the draught
without a murmur, save of regret for his own unworthiness ;
nay, who could forgive and bless the very tyranny that
extorted, the very hand that ministered to, the tortures
he endured.

In its early days, fresh from the fountain - head, the
Christian's was, indeed, essentially and emphatically, a
religion of love. To feed the hungry, to clothe the naked,
to stretch a hand to the fallen, to think no evil, to judge not,
nor to condemn, in short, to love " the brother whom he had
seen," were the direct commands of that Great Example who
had so recently been here on earth. His first disciples strove,
hard as fallible humanity can, to imitate Him, and in so
striving, failed not to attain a certain peaceful composure
and contentment of mind, that no other code of morality, no
other system of philosophy, had ever yet produced. Perhaps
this was the quality that, in his dealings with his victim, the
Roman executioner found most mysterious and inexplicable.

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THE ESQUILINE

Fortitude, resolution, defiance, these he could understand :
but the childlike simplicity that accepted good and evil with
equal confidence ; that was thankful and cheerful under both,
and that entertained neither care for to-day nor anxiety for
to-morrow, was a moral elevation, at which, with all their
pretensions, his own countrymen had never yet been able
to arrive. Neither Stoic nor Epicurean, Sophist nor
Philosopher, could look upon life, and death also, with the
calm assurance of these unlearned men, leaning on a hand
the Roman could not see, convinced of an immortality the
Roman was unable to conceive.

With this happy conviction beaming in her face, Mariamne
inculcated on Esca the tenets of her noble faith ; explaining,
not logically, indeed, but with woman's persuasive reasonings
of the heart, how fair was the prospect thus open to him,
how glorious the reward, which, though mortal eye could
not behold it, mortal hand could not take away. Promises
of future happiness are none the less glowing that they fall
on a man's ear from the lips he loves. Conviction goes the
straighter to his heart when it pervades another's that beats
in unison with his own. Under that moonlit sky, reddened
in the horizon with the glare of a distant quarter of the city
already set on fire by the insurgents ; in that dreary waste
of the Esquiline, with its blasted trees, its shrieking night-
birds, and its scattered grave-stones, the Briton inbibed the
first principles of Christianity from the daughter of Judah,
whom he loved ; and the girl's face beamed with a holy
tenderness more than mortal, while she showed the way of
everlasting happiness, and life, and light, to him whose soul
was dearer to her than her own.

And meanwhile around them on all sides, murder, rapine,
and violence were stalking abroad unchecked. Riotous
parties of Vespasian's supporters met, here and there, de-
tached companies of Caesar's broken legions ; and when such
collisions took place, the combatants fought madly, as it
would seem from mere wanton love of bloodshed, to the
death; whichever conquered, neither spared the dissolute
citizens, who indeed, when safe out of reach, from roofs
or windows encouraged the strife heartily with word and
gesture. Sparks fell in showers through the streets of Rome,
and blood and wine ran in streams along the pavement ; nor
were the deserted gardens of the Esquiline undisturbed by
the tumult and devastation that pervaded the rest of the
unhappy city.

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CHAPTER XIV

THE CHURCH

WHEN they sought to leave their place of refuge, Esca
and Mariamne found themselves hemmed in and
drawn back by the continued tumult that was raging through
the surrounding quarters. On all sides were heard the shouts
of victory, the shrieks of despair, and the mad riot of drunken
mirth. Occasionally, flying parties of pursuers or pursued
swept through the very outskirts of the gardens themselves,
compelling the Briton and his charge to plunge deeper into
its gloomy solitudes for concealment.

At length they reached a place of comparative safety,
under a knot of dark cypresses that had escaped the general
conflagration, and here they paused to take breath and listen,
Mariamne becoming every moment more composed and
tranquil, while Esca, with a beating heart, calculated the
many chances that must still be risked ere they could 'reach her
home beyond the Tiber, and he could place the daughter in
safety under her father's roof once more. It was very dark
where they were, for the cypresses grew thick and black
between them and the sky. The place had probably in
former times been a favourite resort in the noonday heat.
There were the remains of a grotto or summer-house not
yet wholly destroyed, and the fragments of a wide stone basin,
from which a fountain had once shot its sparkling drops
into the summer air. Several alleys, too, cut in the young
plantations, had apparently converged at this spot; and
although these were much overgrown and neglected, one still
formed, so to speak, a broad white street of turf, hemmed in
by walls of quivering foliage, dark and massive, but sprinkled
here and there with points of silver in the moonlight.

Mariamne crept closer to her companion's side.

" I feel so safe and so happy with you," said she
caressingly. "We seem to have changed places. You are
the one who is now anxious and — no, not frightened — but ill
at ease. Esca ! what is it ? " she asked with a start, as,

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THE CHURCH

looking fondly up in his face, she caught its expression of
actual terror and dismay.

His blue eyes were fixed like stone. With parted lips
and rigid features, his whole being seemed concentrated into
the one effort of seeing, and backed by the dark shadows of
the cypress, his face, usually so frank and fearless, was paler
even than her own. Following with her eyes the direction of
his glance, she, too, was something more than startled at
what she saw. Two black figures, clad in long and trailing
garments, moved slowly into sight, and crossed the sheet of
moonlight which flooded the wide avenue, with solemn step
and slow. These again were followed by two in white,
looking none the less ghostly that their outlines were so
indistinctly defined, the head and feet being alone visible,
and the rest of the figure wrapped, as it were, in mist. Then
came two more in black, and thus in alternate pairs the
unearthly procession glided by ; only, ere the half of it had
passed, a something, not unlike the human form, draped in a
white robe, seemed to float horizontally, at a cubit's height,
above the line. A low and wailing chant, too, rose and fell
fitfully on the listeners' ears. It was the " Kyrie Eleison,"
the humble plaintive dirge in which the Christian mourned,
not without hope, for his dead.

Fear was no familiar sentiment in Esca's breast. It could
not remain there long. He drew himself up, and the colour
rushed back redly to his brow.

" They are spirits ! " said he ; " spirits of the wood, on
whose domains we have trespassed. Good or evil, we will
resist them to the last. They will sacrifice us to their
vengeance if we show the least signs of fear."

She was proud of his courage even then — the courage
that could defy, though it had not been able to shake off,
the superstitions of his northern birthplace. It was sweet,
too, to think that from her lips he must learn what was
truth, both of this world and of the next.

" They are no spirits ! " she answered. " They are
Christians burying their dead. Esca, we shall be safe with
them, and they will show us how to leave this place un-
observed."

"Christians?" he replied doubtfully; "and we, too, are
Christians, are we not ? I would they were armed, though,"
he added reflectively. "With twenty good swordsmen, I
would engage to take you unmolested from one end of
Rome to the other ; but these, I fear, are only priests. Priests !
and the legions are loose even now all over the city ! "

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ANTEROS

He was but a young disciple, thought his loving teacher,
and many a defeat must be experienced, many a rebuff
sustained, ere dependence on his own courage is rooted out
of a brave man's heart, to be replaced by that nobler fortitude
which relies solely on the will of Heaven. Yet a brave man
is no bad material out of which to form a good one.

They left their hiding-place, and hastened down the alley
after the departing Christians. In a secluded place, where
the remaining trees grew thickest and most luxuriant — where
the noontide ray had least power to penetrate, the procession
had halted. The grave was already being dug. As spadeful
after spadeful of loose earth fell with a dull grating sound
on the sward, or trickled back into the cavity, the dirge
wailed on, now lowered and repressed like the stifled sob of
one who weeps in secret, now rising into notes of chastened
triumph, that were almost akin to joy. And here, where
Maecenas, and his poets and his parasites, had met, with
garland and goblet, to while away the summer's day in
frivolous disputations, arguing on the endless topics of here
and hereafter, life and death, body and soul ; groping blindly
and in vain throughout the labyrinth for a clue — sneering
at Pythagoras, refuting Plato, and maligning Socrates — the
body of the dead Christian was laid humbly and trustfully
in the earth, and already the departed spirit had learned the
efficacy of those truths it had imbibed through scorn and
suffering in its lifetime — truths that the heathen sages would
have given goblets and garlands, and riches and empire,
and all the world besides, but to know and believe in that
supreme moment, when all around the dying fades and fails
as though it had never been, and there is but one reality from
which is no escape.

The Jewess and her champion waited a few paces off
while the spade threw its last handfuls to the surface. Then
the Christians gathered solemnly and silently round the
open grave, and the corpse was lowered gently into its
resting-place, and the faces that watched it sink, and stop,
and waver, and sink again out of sight, even like the life of
the departed, beamed with a holy triumph, for they knew
that with this wayfarer, at least, the journey was over and
the home attained. Two mourners, somewhat conspicuous
from the rest, stood at either end of the grave. The one was
a woman, still in the meridian of her beauty ; the other a
strong warlike man, scarcely of middle age. The woman's
face was turned to heaven, rapt, as it seemed in an ecstasy
of prayer. She was not thinking of the poor remains, the

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THE CHURCH

empty shell, consigned beneath her feet to its kindred dust ;
but with the eye of faith she watched the spirit in its upward
flight, and for her the heavens were opened, and her child
was even now disappearing through the golden gate. But
on the man's contracted features might be read the pain of
him who is too weak to bear, and yet too strong to weep.
His eye followed with sad wistful glances clod after clod, as
they fell in to cover up the loved and lost. When the earth
was flattened down above her head, and not till then, he
seemed to look inquiringly at the vacant space amongst the
bystanders, and to know that she was gone. He clenched
his strong hands tight, and raised his eyes at last. " It is
hard to bear," he muttered ; " it is very hard to say, ' Thy
will be done/" Then he thought of the empty place at
home, and hid his face and wept.

A young girl, on the verge of womanhood, had been
called away — called suddenly away — the pride and the
flower and the darling of her father's house. He was a good
man and a brave, and a believer, yet every time his child's
face rose up before him, with its bright hair and its loving
eyes, something smote him, sharp and cold, like the thrust
of a knife.

When the grave was finally closed, the Christians gathered
round it in prayer. Mariamne, taking Esca by the hand,
came silently among them, and joined in their devotions.
It was a strange and solemn sight to the barbarian. A circle
of cloaked figures kneeling round an empty space, to worship
an unseen power. On either hand a wilderness of ruin and
devastation in the heart of a great city ; above, an angry
glare on the midnight sky, and the shouts of maddened
combatants rising and falling on the breeze. By his side,
the woman he loved so dearly, and whom he had thought
he should never look on again. He knelt with the others,
to offer his tribute from a grateful heart. Their prayers were
short and fervent, nor did they omit the form their Master
had given them expressly for their use. When they rose to
their feet, one figure stood forth amongst the rest, and signed
for silence with uplifted hand. This man was obviously a
Roman by birth, and spoke his language with the ease, but
at the same time with the accent and phrases of the lowest
plebeian class. He seemed a handicraftsman by trade, and
his palm, when he raised it impressively to bespeak attention,
was hardened and scarred with toil. Low of stature, mean
in appearance, coarsely clothed, with bare head and feet,
there was little in his exterior to command interest or respect ;

263

ANTEROS

but his frame, square and strongly built, seemed capable of
sustaining a vast amount of toil or hardship, while his face,
notwithstanding its plain features, denoted repressed enthusi-
asm, earnest purpose, and honest singleness of heart. He
was indeed one of the pioneers of a religion, destined here-
after to cover the surface of the earth. Such were the men
who went forth in their Master's name, without scrip or
sandals, or change of raiment, to overrun and conquer the
world — who took no thought what they should say when
brought before the kings, and governors, and great ones of
the earth, trusting only in the sanctity of their mission, and
the inspiration under which they spoke. Having little
learning, they could refute the wisest philosophers. Having
neither rank nor lineage, they could beard the Proconsul on
his judgment-seat or the Caesar on his throne. Homely and
ignorant, they feared not to wander far and wide through
strange countries, and hostile nations, spreading the good
tidings with a simple ungrudging faith that forced men to
believe. Weak by nature it may be, and timid by education,
they descended into the arena to meet their martyrdom from
the hungry lion, with a quiet fortitude such as neither soldier
nor gladiator had courage to display. It was a moral their
Master never ceased to inculcate, that His was a message
sent not to the noble, and the prosperous, and the distinguished,
for these, if they wished to find Him, might make their own
opportunities to seek Him out ; but to the poor and lowly,
the humble and forlorn, especially to those who were in
distress and sorrow, who, having none to help them here,
might rely all the more implicitly on His protection, who is
emphatically the friend of the friendless.

Therefore, the men who did His work seem to have been
chosen principally from the humbler classes of society,
from such as could speak to the multitude in homely
phrases and with familiar imagery ; whose authority the
most careless and unthinking might perceive originated in
no aid of extraneous circumstances, but came directly from
above.

As the speaker warmed to his subject, Esca could not
but observe the change that came over the bearing and
appearance of his outward man. At first the eye was dull,
the speech hesitating, the manner diffident Gradually a
light seemed to steal over his whole countenance, his form
towered erect as though it had actually increased in stature,
his words flowed freely in a torrent of glowing and appropriate
language, his action became dignified, and the whole man

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THE CHURCH

clothed himself, as it were, in the majesty of the subject on
which he spoke.

That subject was indeed simple enough, sad, it may be,
from an earthly point of view, and yet how comforting to
the mourners gathered round him beside the new-made
grave ! At first he contented himself with a short and
earnest tribute, clothed in the plainest form of speech, to the
worth and endearing qualities of that young girl whom they
had just laid in the earth. " She was precious to us all,"
said he, " yet words like these seem but a mockery to some
present here, for whom she was the hope and the joy, and
the very light of an earthly home. Grieve, I say, and weep,
and wring your hands, for such is man's weak nature, and
He who took our nature upon Him sympathises with our
sorrows, and, like the good physician, pities while He heals.
To-day your wounds are fresh, your hearts are full, your eyes
are blind with tears, you cannot see the truth. To-morrow
you will wonder why you mourn so bitterly ; to-morrow you
will say, ' It is well ; we are labouring in the sun, she is
resting in the shade ; we are hungry and thirsty in a barren
land, she is eating the bread and drinking the waters of life,
in the garden of Paradise ; we are weary and footsore, way-
farers still upon the road, but she has reached her home/

"Yea, now at this very hour, standing here where the
earth has just closed over the young face, tender and delicate
even in death, would you have her back to you if you could ?
Those who have considered but the troubles that surround
us now, and to whom there is no hereafter, who call them-
selves philosophers, and whose wisdom is as the wisdom of
a blind man walking on the brink of a precipice, have them-
selves said ' whom the gods love die young ' ; and will you
grudge that your beloved one should have been called out
of the vineyard, to take her wages and go to her rest, before
the burden and heat of the day ? Think what her end might
have been. Think that you might have offered her up to
bear witness to the truth, tied to a stake in the foul arena,
face to face with the crouching wild beast gathered for his
spring. Ay ! and worse even than this might have befallen
the child, whom you remember, as it were but yesterday,
nestling to her mother's bosom, or clinging round her father's
knees ! ' The Christians to the panther, and the maidens
to the pandar!'1 You have heard the brutal shouts and
shuddered with fear and anger while you heard. And

1 "Christian! ad leones ! virgines ad lenones!" — a sentence that found no
small favour with the Roman crowd.

265

ANTEROS

you would have offered her, as Abraham offered Isaac,
beating your breasts, and holding your breath for very agony
the while. But is it not better thus? She has earned the
day's wages, labouring but for an hour at sunrise; she has
escaped the cross, and yet has won the crown !

" But you who hear me, envy not this young maiden,
though she be now arrived where all so long to go. Rather
be proud and happy, that your Master cannot spare you,
that He has yet work for you to do. To every man's hand
is set his appointed task, and every man shall find strength
given him to fulfil it when the time arrives. Some of you
will bear witness before Caesar, and for such the scourges
are already knotted and the cross is reared ; but to these I
need scarcely speak of loyalty, for to them the very suffering
brings with it its own fortitude, and they are indeed blessed
who are esteemed worthy of the glory of martyrdom ! Some
must go forth to preach the gospel in wild and distant lands ;
and well I know that neither toil, nor hardship, nor peril,
will cause them to waver an hair's-breadth from their path,
yet have they difficulties to meet, and foes to contend with,
that they know not of. Let them beware of pride and self-
sufficiency, lest, in raising the altar, they make the sacrifice
of more account than the spirit in which it is offered ; lest
in building the church they take note of every stone in the
edifice, and lose sight of the purpose for which it was reared.
But ye cannot all be martyrs, nor preachers, nor prophets,
nor chief-priests, yet every one of you, even the weakest
and the lowest here present — woman, child, slave, or barbarian
— is none the less a soldier and a servant of the cross !
Every one has his duty to do, his watch to keep, his enemy
to conquer. It is not much that is required of you — little
indeed in comparison with all you have received — but that
little must be given without reserve, and with the whole
heart. Has any one of you left a duty unfulfilled ? when
he departs from hence let him go home and accomplish it.
Has any one an enemy? let him be reconciled. Has he
done his brother a wrong? let him make amends. Has he
sustained an injury ? let him forgive it. Even as you have
laid in the grave the perishable body of the departed, so
lay down here every earthly weakness, every unholy wish,
and every evil thought. Nay, as these chief mourners have
to-night parted and weaned themselves from that which
they loved best on earth, so must you tear out and cast
away from you the truest and dearest affections that stand
between you and your service, ay, even though you rend

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THE CHURCH

them from the very inner chambers of your heart. And
then, with constant effort and never-ceasing prayer, striving,
step by step, and winning, inch by inch, now slipping back
it may be where the path is treacherous, and the hill is
steep, to rise from your knees, humbled and therefore
stronger, gaining more than you have lost, you shall arrive
at last, where there is no strife, and no failing, where she
for whom you weep to-night is even now in glory, where
He whom you follow has already prepared a place for you,
and where you who have loved and trusted, shall be happy
for evermore ! "

Ceasing, he spread his hands abroad, and implored a
blessing on those who heard him, after which the Christians
breaking up their circle, gathered round the bereaved parents
with a few quiet words and gestures of sympathy, such as
those offer who have themselves experienced the sorrows
they are fain to assuage.

" I am in safety here," whispered Mariamne to the Briton,
as she pointed out a dark figure, with white flowing locks,
whom he now recognised as Calchas. In another moment
she was in the old man's arms, who raised his eyes to heaven,
and thanked God with heartfelt gratitude for her deliverance.

"Your father and I," said he, "have sought you with
fearful anxiety, and even now he is raising some of his
countrymen to storm the tribune's house, and take you
from it with the strong hand. Mariamne, you hardly know
how much your father loves his child. And I too was
disturbed for your safety, but I trusted — trusted in that
Heaven which never fails the innocent. Nevertheless, I
sought for aid among my brethren, and they have raised,
even the poorest of them, such a sum as would have tempted
the praetor to interfere, even against a man like Placidus.
I did but remain with them to say a prayer while they
buried their dead. But now you are safe, and you will
come back with me to your father's house, and one of these
whom I can trust shall go to tell him at the place where
his friends were to assemble; and Esca, thy preserver for
the second time, who is to me as a son, shall accompany
us home — though we shall not need a guard, for thy father's
friends, tried warriors every man, and armed, will meet us
ere we leave the wilderness for the streets."

It was a strong temptation to the Briton, but the words
he had so lately heard had sunk deep into his heart. He,
too, would fain cast in his lot amongst these earnest men.
He, too, he thought, had a task to perform — a cherished

267

ANTEROS

happiness to forego. With a timely warning, it might be
in his power to save the Emperor's life, and his very eager-
ness to accompany Mariamne but impressed him the more
with the conviction that it was his duty to leave her, now
she was in comparative safety, and hasten on his errand of
mercy. Calchas, too, insisted strongly on this view, and
though Mariamne was silent, and even pleaded with her
eyes against the risk, he turned stoutly from their influence,
and ere she was clasped in her father's arms, the new
Christian was already half-way between the Esquiline and
the palace of Caesar.

268

CHAPTER XV

REDIVIVUS

MANY had been the debauch at which, himself its
chief originator and promoter, the tribune had
assisted; nor had he escaped the penalties that Nature
exacts even from the healthiest constitutions, when her laws
are habitually outraged in the high-tide of revelry and
mirth ; but never, after his longest sittings with the Emperor,
had he experienced anything to compare with the utter
prostration of mind and body in which he came to himself,
waking from the deathlike sleep that followed his pledge
to Valeria. With returning consciousness came a sense of
painful giddiness, which, as the velvet cushions of the couch
rose and heaved beneath his sight, confused him utterly as
to where he was, or how he got there ; then, sitting up with
an effort that seemed to roll a ball of lead across his brain,
he was aware that every vein throbbed at fever-heat, that
his hands were numbed and swollen, that his mouth was
parched, his lips cracked, and that he had a racking head-
ache— the latter symptom was sufficiently familiar to be
reassuring ; he sprang to his feet, regardless of the pang so
sudden a movement shot through his frame, then seizing a
goblet from the table, filled it to the brim with Falernian,
and in defiance of the nausea with which its very fragrance
overpowered him, emptied it to the dregs. The effect, as
he expected, was instantaneous ; it enabled him to stand
erect, and, passing his hand across his brow, by a strong
effort of the will, he forced himself to connect and com-
prehend the events that had led to this horrible and
bewildering trance. By degrees, one after another, like
links in a chain, he traced the doings of the day, beginning
a long way back, somewhere about noon, till the immediate
past, so to speak, came more and more tangibly within his
grasp. It was with a thrill of triumphant pleasure that he
remembered Valeria's visit, and his own arm winding round
her handsome form on that very couch. Where was she

269

ANTEROS

now? He looked about him vacantly, almost expecting
to find her in the room ; as he did so, his eye lighted on
the two goblets, one of them half-emptied, still standing
on their salver.

To say that Placidus had a conscience would be simply
a perversion of terms ; for that monitor, never very trouble-
some, had since his manhood been so stifled and silenced
as to have become a mere negative quality, yet in his present
unhinged state, a shudder of horror did come over him, as
he recalled the visit to Petosiris, and the poison with which
he had resolved to ensure the silence of his slave. But ere
that shudder passed away, the dark secret Esca knew, the
plot from which it was now too late to draw back, the
desperate adventure that every hour brought nearer, and
that must be attempted to-night — all these considerations
came flooding in on his memory at once, and for a moment
he felt paralysed by the height of the precipice on the
brink of which he stood. With the emergency, however,
as was always the case in the tribune's character, came the
energy required to encounter it. " At least," he muttered,
steadying himself by the table with one hand, " the cup is
nearly empty; the drug cannot but have done its work.
First, I must make sure of the carrion, and then it will be
time enough to find Valeria." Had he suffered less in body,
he would have laughed his own low malicious laugh, to
think how deftly he had outwitted the woman he professed
to love. The laugh, however, died away in a grin that
betrayed more pain than mirth; and the tribune, with
chattering teeth and shaking frame, and wavering uncertain
steps, betook himself to the outer court to make sure with
his own eyes that the stalwart frame of him whom he feared
was stiff and cold in death.

His first feeling would have been one of acute appre-
hension, had not anger so completely mastered that sensation,
when he perceived the slave's chain and collar lying coiled
on the pavement. Obviously, Esca had escaped ; and was
gone, moreover, with his late master's life completely in his
power ; but Placidus possessed a keen intellect and one
familiar with sudden combinations ; it flashed upon him at
once, that he had been outwitted by Valeria, and the two had
fled together.

The sting was very sharp, but it roused and sobered him.
Pacing swiftly back through the corridors, and stopping for a
few minutes to immerse his head and face in cold water, he
returned to the banqueting-hall, and eagerly scrutinised with

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REDIVIVUS

look and smell, and, notwithstanding all that had happened,
even with a sparing taste, the cup from which he had last
drunk. The opiate, however, had been so skilfully prepared
that nothing suspicious could be detected in the flavour of
the wine ; nevertheless, reflecting on all the circumstances
with a clearer head, as the strength of his constitution
gradually asserted itself, he arrived at the true conclusion,
and was satisfied that Valeria had changed the cups while his
attention was distracted by her charms; that he had pur-
chased a poison he never doubted for a moment, nor suspected
that Petosiris could have dared, from sheer love of trickery,
to substitute an opiate for the deadlier draught; but he
exulted to think that his powerful organisation must have
resisted its effects, and that he who had so often narrowly
escaped death in the field must indeed bear a charmed life.
If a suspicion haunted him that the venom might still be
lurking in his system, to do its work more completely after
a short respite, the vague horror of such a thought did but
goad him to make use of the intervening time all the more
ardently for business and pleasure, not forgetting the sacred
duty of revenge. Dum vivimus vivamus ! was the tribune's
motto, and if he had been granted but one hour to live, he
would have divided that hour systematically, between the
delights of love, wine, and mischief.

Rapidly, though coolly, he reviewed his position, as though
he had been commanding a cohort hemmed in by the Jewish
army. To-night would make or mar him. The gladiators
would be here within an hour. Esca must, ere this, have
reached the palace and given the alarm. Why had a
centurion of Caesar not yet arrived with a sufficient guard to
arrest him in his own house? They might be expected at
any moment. Should he fly while there was yet time?
What ! and lose the brilliant future so nearly within his
reach? No — he would weather this as he had weathered
other storms, by skilful and judicious steering. A man who
has no scruples need never be deficient in resource. To leave
his house now, would be a tacit admission of guilt. To be
found alone, undefended, unsuspicious, a strong presumption
of innocence. He would at least have sufficient interest to
be taken into the presence of Caesar. There, what so easy
as to accuse the slave of treachery, to persuade the Emperor
the barbarian had but hatched a plot against his master's
life ; to make the good-humoured old glutton laugh with an
account of the drugged goblet, and finish the night by a
debauch with his imperial host ?

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ANTEROS

Then, he must be guided by the preparations for defence
which he observed in the palace. If they were weak, he
must find some means of communicating with Hippias, and
the attack would be facilitated by his own presence inside.
If, on the contrary, there was an obvious intention of firm
resistance, the conspirators must be warned to postpone their
enterprise. If worst came to the worst, he could always save
his own head by informing against his confederates, and so
handing over Hippias and the gladiators to death.

Some slight compunction visited him at the thought of
such an alternative, but he soon stifled it with the arguments
of his characteristic philosophy. Should he be found, indeed,
presiding at a supper-party composed of these desperate men,
they might defend the gate whilst he fled directly to Caesar,
and sacrificed them at once. Under any circumstances, he
argued, he had bought them, and had a right to make use
of them.

In the meantime, Mariamne would be here directly. She
ought Jto have been here long ago. Whatever the future
threatened, an hour, half an hour, a quarter, should be
devoted to her society, and after that, come what might,
at least he would not have been foiled in every event of the
day. It was when he had arrived at this conclusion, that
Esca [from his hiding-place saw the figure of the tribune,
pale, wan, and ghostly, giving directions for the preparation
of the supper-table.

The evening stole on, the sun-dial no longer showed the
hour, and the slave whose duty it was to keep count of time
by the water-clock l then in vogue, announced that the first
watch of the night was already advanced. He was followed
by Automedon, who came into the presence of his master,
with hanging head and sheepish looks, sadly mistrusting how
far his own favour would bear him harmless in the delivery
of the tidings he had to impart. It was always a perilous
duty to inform Placidus of the failure of any of his schemes.
He listened, indeed, with a calm demeanour and an unmoved
countenance, but sooner or later he surely contrived to visit
on the unfortunate messenger the annoyance he himself
experienced from the message.

The tribune's face brightened as the boy came into the

1 The clepsydra, or water-clock — a Greek invention for the division of time —
consisting of a hollow globe made of glass, or some transparent substance, from
which the water trickled out through a narrow orifice, in quantities so regulated,
that the sinking level of the element marked with sufficient exactitude the time
that had elapsed since the vessel was filled.

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REDIVIVUS

hall; with characteristic duplicity, however, he veiled even
from his charioteer the impatience in which he had waited
his return.

" Have you brought the horses in cool ? " said he, with an
affectation of extreme indifference.

Autorrtedon looked greatly relieved.

" Quite cool," he answered, " most illustrious ! and Oarses
came part of the way home, but he got down near the Sacred
Gate, and I had no one with me in the chariot the whole
length of the Flaminian Way; and the slaves will be back
presently ; and Damasippus — Oh ! my lord, do not be angry !
— Damasippus — I fear I have left him dead in the street."

Here the lad's courage failed him completely; he had
indeed been thoroughly frightened by the events of the
night ; and making a piteous face, he twined his fingers in
his long curls and wept aloud.

" What, fool ! " thundered the tribune, his brow turning
black with rage. " You have not brought her after all !
Silly child," he added, controlling himself with a strong
effort. " Where is the — the passenger — I charged Damasippus
to bring here with him to-night ? "

" I will tell you the truth," exclaimed the boy, flinging
himself down on his knees, and snatching at the hem of his
master's garment. " By the Temple of Vesta, I will tell you
the truth. I drove from here across Tiber, and I waited in
the shadow by Tiber-side; and Jugurtha wouldn't stand still,
and presently Damasippus brought a — a passenger in his
arms, and put it into the chariot, and bade me go on fast ;
and we went on at a gallop till we tried to cross the Appian
Way, and then we had to turn aside, for the houses were
burning and the people fighting in the street, and Scipio was
frightened and pulled, and Jugurtha wouldn't face the crowd,
and I drove on to cross a little farther down, but we were
stopped again by the Vestals, and I couldn't drive through
them ! So we halted to let them pass, and then a fierce
terrible giant caught the horses and stopped them once
more, and a thousand soldiers, nay, a legion at least,
surrounded the chariot, and they killed Damasippus, and
they tore the passenger out, and killed it too, and Scipio
kicked, and I was frightened, and drove home as fast as I
could — and indeed it wasn't my fault ! "

Automedon's fears had magnified both the number of the

assailants and the dangers undergone. He had not recognised

the gladiators, and was altogether in too confused a state, as

the tribune perceived at a glance, to afford his master any

S 273

ANTEROS

more coherent information than the foregoing. Placidus bit
his lip in baffled anger, for he could not see his way ; never-
theless the boy-charioteer was a favourite, and he would not
visit the failure of the enterprise on him.

" I am glad the horses are safe," said he good-humouredly.
" Go, get some supper and a cup of wine. I will send for you
again presently."

Automedon, agreeably surprised, glanced up at his
master's face ere he departed, and observed that, although
deadly pale, it had assumed the fixed resolute expression his
dependants knew so well.

Placidus had indeed occasion to summon all the presence
of mind on which he prided himself, for even while he spoke,
his quick ear caught the tramp of feet, and the familiar clink
of steel. The blood gathered round his heart as he con-
templated the possibility that a maniple of Caesar's guards
might even now be occupying the court. It was with a sigh
of intense relief that, instead of the centurion's eagle crest,
he recognised the tall form of Rufus, accompanied by his
comrades, advancing respectfully, and even with awkward
diffidence, through the outer hall. The tribune could assume
— none better — any character it suited him to play at a
moment's notice ; nevertheless there was a ring of real
cordiality in his greeting, for the visitors were more welcome
than they guessed.

" Hail ! Rufus, Lutorius, Eumolpus ! " he shouted boister-
ously. " Gallant swordsmen and deep drinkers all ! What !
old Hirpinus, do I not see thy broad shoulders yonder in the
rear ? and Hippias too, the king of the arena ! Welcome,
every man of you ! Even now the feast is spread, and the
Chian cooling yonder amongst the flowers. Once again, a
hearty welcome to you all ! "

The gladiators, still somewhat abashed by the unaccus-
tomed splendour which met their eyes on every side,
responded with less than their usual confidence to their
entertainer. Rufus nudged Lutorius to reply in polite
language, and the Gaul, in a fit of unusual modesty, passed
the signal on to Eumolpus of Ravenna — a beetle-browed,
bow-legged warrior, with huge muscles and a heavy, sullen
face. This champion looked helplessly about him and
seemed inclined to turn tail and fly, when, to his great relief,
Hippias advanced from the rear of his comrades, and created
a diversion in his favour, of which he availed himself by
slinking incontinently into the background. Placidus clapped
his hands, an Asiatic fashion affected by the more luxurious

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REDIVIVUS

Romans ; and two or three slaves appeared in obedience to
the summons. The gladiators looked on in awe at the
sumptuous dresses and personal beauty of these domestics.

" Hand round wine here amongst my friends. I will
but say three words to your captain, and we will go to supper
forthwith."

So speaking, the tribune led Hippias apart, having
resolved that in the present critical state of affairs it would be
better to take him entirely into his confidence, and trust to
the scrupulous notions of fidelity to their bargains, which
such men entertained, for the result

" There is no time to lose," observed he anxiously, when
he had led Hippias apart from his followers. "Something
has occurred which was out of all our calculations. Can they
overhear us, think ye ? "

The fencing - master glanced carelessly at his band.
" Whilst they are at that game," said he, " they would not
hear the assembly sounding from all four quarters of the
camp. Never fear, illustrious! it will keep them busy till
supper time."

The band had broken up into pairs, and were hard at
work with their favourite pastime, old as the Alban hills, and
handed down to the Roman Empire from the dynasty of the
Pharaohs. It consisted in gambling for small coins at the
following trial of skill : — the players sat or stood, face to face ;
each held the left hand erect, on which he marked the
progress of his game. With the right he shot out any one
or more of his four fingers and thumb, or all together, with
immense rapidity, guessing aloud at the same time the sum-
total of the fingers thus brandished by himself and his
adversary, who was employed in the same manner. Whoever
guessed right won a point, which was immediately marked
on the left, held immovable at shoulder - height for the
purpose, and when five of these had been won the game
began again. Nothing could be more simple, nothing
apparently less interesting, and yet it seemed to engross the
attention of the gladiators to the exclusion of all other
subjects, even the prospect of supper and the flavour of the
Falernian.1

" They are children now," said Placidus contemptuously.
" They will be men presently, and tigers to-night. Hippias,
the slave has escaped. We must attack the palace forthwith."

1 This game is played to-day with equal zest, under its Italian name of
"Morro." Perhaps its nature was best rendered by the Latin phrase micare
digit os, "to flash the ringers."

2/5

ANTEROS

" I know it," replied the other quietly. " But the Germans
are relieving guard at this hour. My own people are hardly
ready, and it is not dark enough yet."

"You know it," repeated Placidus, even more irritated
than astonished by his companion's coolness, " you know it,
and yet you have not hastened your preparations ? Do you
know, too, that this yellow-haired barbarian has got your
head, and mine, and all the empty skulls of our intelligent
friends who are amusing themselves yonder, under his belt ?
Do you know that Caesar, true to his swinish propensities,
will turn like a hunted boar, when he suspects the least
shadow of danger ? Do you know that not one of us may
live to eat the very supper waiting for us in the next room ?
What are you made of, man, that you can thus look me so
coolly in the face with the sword at both our throats ? "

" I can keep my own throat with my hand," replied the
other, totally unmoved by his host's agitation. " And I am
certainly not accustomed to fear danger before it comes.
But that the barbarian has escaped I saw with my own eyes,
for I left him ten minutes since within a hundred paces of
your own gate."

The tribune's eyebrows went up in unfeigned surprise.

" Then he has not reached the palace ! " he exclaimed,
speaking rather to himself than his informant.

" Not reached the palace certainly," replied the latter
calmly, " since I tell you I saw him here. And in very good
company too," he added with a smile.

The tribune's astonishment had for once deprived him of
his self-command.

" With Valeria ? " he asked unguardedly ; and directly he
had spoken, a vague suspicion made him wish that he had
held his tongue.

The fencing-master started and knit his brows. His
head was more erect and his voice sterner when he
answered —

" I have seen the lady Valeria too, within the last
hour. She had no slaves with her beyond her usual
attendants."

Anger, curiosity, uncertainty, jealousy, a hundred con-
flicting emotions were rankling at the tribune's heart. What
had this handsome gladiator to do at Valeria's house? and
was it possible that she did not care for the slave after all ?
Then what could have been her object throughout? He
marked too the alteration in manner betrayed by Hippias at
the mention of this fair and flighty dame ; nor did it seem

276

REDIVIVUS

improbable under all the circumstances that he entertained a
kindly feeling, if nothing more, for his pupil. Judging men
and women by his own evil nature, and knowing well the
favour with which their female admirers regarded these
votaries of the sword, the tribune did not hesitate to put its
true construction on such kindly feelings, and their probable
result. From that moment he hated Hippias — hated him all
the more that in the tumult and confusion of the coming
night he might find an opportunity of gratifying his hatred
by the destruction of the gladiator. Many a bold leader has
been struck down from behind by the very followers he was
encouraging; and who would ask how a conspirator met his
death, in the attack on a palace and the murder of an
emperor? Even while the thought crossed his mind he
took the other by the hand, and laughed frankly in his
face.

"Thou art at home in the private apartments of every
lady in Rome, I believe, my warlike Apollo," said he. " But,
indeed, it is no question now of such trifling; the business
of to-night must be determined on — ay, and disposed of —
without delay. If my slave had reached the palace our
whole plan must have been altered. I wish, as you did come
across him, you had treated him to that deadly thrust of
yours under the short-ribs, and brought him in here dead or
alive."

" He will not trouble us," observed the other coolly.
"Take my word for it, tribune, he is disposed of for the
present."

" What mean you ? " asked Placidus, a devilish joy lighting
up his sallow face. " Did you bribe him to secrecy then and
there with the metal you are accustomed to lavish so freely ?
Gold will buy silence for a time, but steel ensures it for
ever."

"Nay, tribune," answered Hippias, with a frank laugh.
" We have been fencing too long in the dark. I will tell you
the whole truth. This young giant of yours is safe enough
for the present. I saw him depart with a pale-faced girl, in a
black hood, whom he promised to take care of as far as
Tiber-side. Depend upon it, he will think of nothing else to-
night. For all his broad shoulders the down is yet upon his
chin. And a man's beard must be grey before he leaves such
a fair young lass as that to knock his head against a wall,
even though it be the wall of a palace. No, no, tribune,
he is safe enough, I tell you, for the next twelve hours, at
least!"

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ANTEROS

" A pale-faced girl ? " repeated Placidus, still harping on
Valeria. " What and who was she ? Did you know her ? did
you speak to her ? "

" My people had some wild tale," replied the fencing-
master, " about a chariot with white horses, that had been
upset in the street, and a girl all gagged and muffled, whom
they pulled out of it, and for whom, of course, they quarrelled
amongst themselves. In faith, had it not been for to-night's
business and the oath, you might have seen some sweet
practice in your own porch, for I have two or three here that
can make as close and even work with a sword as a tailor
does with his needle. They said something about her being
a Jewess. Very likely she may be, for they swam across
Tiber since we have lost Nero. And the lad might as well
be a Jew as a Briton for that matter. Are you satisfied now,
tribune ? By the belly of Bacchus, I must wash my mouth
out with Falernian ! All this talking makes a man as thirsty
as a camel."

Satisfied ! and after what he had just learnt ! Chariot !
White horses ! Jewess ! There could be no doubt of it.
These gladiators must have blundered on her, thought the
tribune, and slain my freedman, and rescued her from my
people, and handed her over to the man whom most I hate
and fear on earth. Satisfied ! Perhaps I shall be better
satisfied when I have captured her, and humbled Valeria, and
put you out of the way, my gallant cut-throat, and seen the
slave scourged to death at my own doorpost ! Then, and not
till then, shall I be able to drink my wine without a heartburn,
and lay my head on the pillow with some chance of sleep.
In the meantime, to-night's work must be done. To-night's
work, that puts Vespasian virtually on the throne (for this
boy x of his shall only keep the cushion warm till his father
takes his seat), that makes Placidus the first man in the
empire. Nay, that might even open a path to the purple
itself. The general is well advanced in years; already
somewhat broken and worn with his campaigns. Titus,
indeed, is the darling of the legions, but all the heart black-
browed Berenice has left him, is wrapped up in war. He
loves it, I verily believe — the daring fool ! — for the mere
braying of trumpets, and the clash of steel. Not a centurion
exposes himself half so freely, nor so often. Well, a Zealot's
javelin, or a stone from the ramparts of some nameless town
in Judaea, may dispose of him at any time. Then there is but
Domitian — a clever youth indeed, and an unscrupulous. So

1 Domitian.
278

REDIVIVUS

much the worse for him ! A mushroom is not the only dish
that may be fatal to an emperor, and if the knot be so secure
as to baffle all dexterity, why, it must be cut with steel. Ay,
the Macedonian knew well how the great game should be
played. Satisfied ! Like him, I shall never be satisfied
while there is anything more to win ! These being the
tribune's thoughts, it is needless to say that he assumed a
manner of the utmost frankness and carelessness.

" Thirsty ! " he repeated, in a loud voice, clapping Hippias
on the shoulder. " Thirsty — I could empty an aqueduct !
Welcome again, and heartily, my heroes all ! See, the
supper waits. Let us go in and drink out the old
Falernian ! "

279

CHAPTER XVI

" MORITURI "

KNOWING well with whom he was to deal, Placidus had
ordered a repast to be prepared for his guests on a
scale of magnificence unusual even in his luxurious dwelling.
It was advisable, not only to impose on these rude natures
with unaccustomed pomp and parade, but also to excite their
cupidity by the display of gold and jewels while their fiercer
passions were inflamed with wine. The more reckless and
desperate they could be rendered, the more fit would they be
for his purpose. There were the tools, sharp and ready for
use, but he thought they would admit of a yet finer edge, and
prepared to put it on accordingly. Therefore, he had ordered
the supper to be laid in an inner apartment, reserved for
occasions of especial state, and in which it was whispered
that Vitellius himself had more than once partaken of his
subject's hospitality ; nay, had even expressed gratification
with his entertainment ; and which, while blazing with as
much of ornament and decoration as could be crowded into a
supper-room, was of such moderate dimensions as to bring
all the costly objects it contained within notice of the guests.
The tesselated pavement was of the richest and gaudiest
squares, laid together as smooth and bright as glass. The
walls were of polished citron-wood, heavily gilded round the
skirting and edges, while the panels were covered in the florid
and gradually deteriorating taste of the period, with paintings,
brilliant in colour, and beautiful in execution. These repre-
sented mythological subjects not of the purest nature, but
fauns, nymphs, and satyrs were to be found in the majority,
while Bacchus himself was more than once repeated in all the
glory of his swaying paunch ; his garland of vine-leaves, his
ivy-covered wand, and surrounding clusters of rich, ripe,
purple grapes. To fill the niches between these panels, the
goat — an animal always associated in the Roman mind with
wine, perhaps because he drinks no water — was imitated in
precious metals, and in every attitude. Here they butted,

280

" MORITURI "

there they browsed, in another corner a pair of them frisked
and gambolled in living kid-like glee, while yonder, horned
and bearded, a venerable sage in silver gazed upon the guests
with a wise Arcadian simplicity that was almost ludicrous.
The tables, which were removed with every change of dishes,
were of cedar, supported on grotesque claws of bronze, heavily
gilt ; the couches, framed of ivory and gold, were draped in
various coloured shawls of the softest Asiatic texture, and
strewed with cushions of so rich a crimson as to border nearly
on imperial purple. No dish was of a meaner metal than
gold, and the drinking-cups, in which Falernian blushed, or
Chian sparkled, were studded with rubies, emeralds, pearls,
and other precious stones. The sharp nail of a gladiator
might at any moment have picked out, unobserved, that which
would have purchased his freedom and his life, but the men
were honest, as they understood the term, and the gems were
as safe here, and indeed a good deal safer, than they would
have been in the temple of Vesta, or of the Capitoline Jove
himself. In a recess at one end of the apartment, reared like
an altar upon three wide low carpeted steps, from each of
which censers exhaled aromatic odours, stood the sideboard
of polished walnut, carved in exquisite imitation of birds,
insects, reptiles, flowers, and fruit. This was covered by a
snowy cloth, and on it glittered, richly chased and burnished,
the tribune's store of golden cups and vases, which men quoted
at every supper-table in Rome.

Lutorius, reclining opposite this blaze of magnificence,
shaded his eyes with his hand.

" What is it, my bold Gaul ? " asked his host, raising
himself on his elbow to pledge him, and signing to a slave to
fill the swordsman's cup. " Hast thou got thy guard up
already to save thy face ? "

" They dazzle me, most illustrious ! " answered the ready
Gaul. " I had rather blink at the sunrise flashing on the
blue waters from Ostia. I did not think there had been so
much gold in Rome."

" He has not seen the palace yet," said Placidus, laughing,
as he emptied his cup and turned to the other guests. " Some
of us will indeed be dazzled to-night, if I mistake not. What
think ye, my friends, must be the plates and drinking-vessels
where the very shields and helmets of the guards are solid
gold ? Meantime, let us wash our eyes with Falernian, lest
we mistake our way and intrude on the privacy of Caesar in
the dark."

So appropriate a sentiment met with universal approval.

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ANTEROS

The gladiators laughed loudly, and proffered their cups to
be filled. There was no question now of secrecy or disguise ;
there was even no further affectation of ignoring the purpose
for which they had met, or the probable result of the night's
enterprise. Eumolpus, indeed, and one or two more of the
thicker-witted, satisfied to know that the present moment
brought a magnificent reception and an abundance of good
cheer, were willing to remain in uncertainty about the future,
resolving simply to obey the orders of their captain, and „ to
ask no questions ; but even these could not help learning by
degrees that they had before them no work of ordinary blood-
shed, but that they were involved in a conspiracy which was
to determine the empire of the world. It did not destroy
their appetite, though it may have increased their thirst.

In proportion as the wine flowed faster the guests lost
their diffidence and found their tongues. Their host exerted
himself to win golden opinions from all, and entered with
ready tact into the characteristics and peculiarities of each.

" Eumolpus ! " said he, as a slave entered bearing an
enormous turbot on a yet larger dish, " fear not to encounter
him. He is a worthy foe, and a countryman of thine own.
He left Ravenna but yesterday. In truth, that fair-built town
sends us the widest turbots and the broadest shoulders in the
empire. Taste him, man, with a cup of Chian, and say if
the trainer's rations have spoiled thy palate for native food."

Half-brutalised as he was by nature and education, the
gladiator had still a kindly feeling for his birthplace. Even
now a memory of his boyhood would sometimes steal across
him like a dream. The stretch of sand, the breezy Adriatic,
the waves dashing against the harbour-walls, and a vision
of curly-headed, black-eyed children, of whom he was one,
tumbling and playing on the shore. He felt more human
when he thought of such things. While the tribune spoke he
rose in his own esteem ; for his host treated him like a man
rather than a beast ; and those few careless words gained a
champion for Placidus who was ready to follow him to the
death.

So was it with the rest. To Rufus he enlarged on the
happiness of a country life, and the liberty — none the less
dear for being imaginary — enjoyed by a Roman citizen, who,
within easy distance of the capital, could sit beneath his own
porch to watch the sunset crimsoning the Apennines, and
tread into home-made wine the grapes of his own vineyard.
He talked of pruning the elms and training the vines, of
shearing sheep and goading oxen, as though he had been a

282

" MORITURI "

rustic all his life, seasoning such glowing descriptions, to suit
his listener's palate, with the charms even of winter in the
snow amongst the hills — the boar driven through the leafless
copse, the wild-fowl lured from the half-frozen lake, the snug
and homely roof, the crackling fire, and the children playing
on the hearth.

"'Tis but another night-watch," said he cordially, "and
it will be my turn to sup with thee in thy mountain-home.
Half a dozen such strokes as I have seen thee deal in mere
sport, my hero ! and thou wilt never need to meddle with
steel again, save in the form of a ploughshare or a hunting-
spear. By the fillet of Ceres ! my friends, there is a golden
harvest to-night, only waiting for the sickle ! "

And Rufus, for whom a few acres of Italian soil, and
liberty to cultivate them in peace, with his wife and children,
comprised all of happiness that life could give, contemplated
the prospect thus offered with an imagination heated by wine,
and a determination, truly formidable in a man of his quiet,
dogged resolution, if hard fighting was to count for anything,
not to fail in at least deserving his reward.

" Hirpinus ! " exclaimed the host, turning to the veteran,
who was a sworn lover of good cheer, and had already con-
sumed supper enough for two ordinary men, washed down
by proportionate draughts of wine, " thy favourite morsel is
even now leaving the spit. Pledge me in Falernian ere it
comes. Nay, spoil it not with honey, which I hold to be a
mistake unworthy of a gladiator. We will pour a libation to
Diana down our throats, in her capacity of huntress only, my
friend ; I care not for the goddess in any other. Ho ! slaves !
bring here some wild boars ! "

As he spoke the domestics reappeared, in pairs, carrying
between them as many wild boars, roasted whole, as there
were guests. One of these huge dishes was set aside for
each man, and the carvers proceeded to their duty, unmoved
by the ejaculations of amazement that broke from the
gladiators at such prodigal magnificence.

Their attention was, however, somewhat distracted at this
stage of the feast by the entrance of Euchenor, who slunk
to the place reserved for him with a shade of sullen dis-
appointment lowering on his brow. The host, however, had
resolved that nothing should occur to mar the success of his
entertainment, so refrained from asking any questions as to
his absence, and motioned him courteously to a couch, with
as frank a greeting as though he had been aware of its cause.
He suspected treachery notwithstanding, none the less that

283

ANTEROS

Euchenor hastened to explain his tardy arrival. " He had
heard a tumult in the neighbourhood," he said, " whilst the
guests were entering the house, and had visited the nearest
post of his comrades to ascertain that they had not been
attacked. It was some distance to the palace-gardens, and
he could not avoid missing the earlier stages of the banquet."

"You must make up for lost time," observed Placidus,
signing to the slaves to heap the new-comer's plate and fill
his cup to the brim. " The later, the warmer welcome ; the
earlier, the better cheer ; " and whilst he spoke the friendly
words he was resolving that the Greek should be placed in
front that whole night, under his immediate supervision. At
the slightest symptom of treachery or wavering he would slay
him with his own hand.

And now the gigantic hunger of these champions seemed
to be appeased at last. Dish had succeeded dish in endless
variety, and they had applied themselves to each as it came
with an undiminished energy that astonished the domestics
accustomed to the palled appetites of jaded men of pleasure
like their lord. Even the latter — though he tried hard, for
he especially prided himself on his capacity of eating and
drinking — found it impossible to keep pace with his guests.
Their great bodily powers, indeed, increased by severe and
habitual training, enabled them to consume vast quantities
of food, without experiencing those sensations of lassitude
and repletion which overcome weaker frames. It seemed as
though most of what they ate went at once to supply the
waste created by years of toil, and as soon as swallowed,
fed the muscles instead of burdening the stomach. It was
equally so with wine. Such men can drink draught after
draught, and partake freely in the questionable pleasures
of intoxication, whilst they pay none of its penalties. A
breath of fresh air, a few minutes' exercise, and their brains
are cool, their eyes clear, their whole system strengthened
for the time, and stimulated, rather than stupefied, by their
excess.

The gladiators lay back on their couches in extreme
bodily content. The cups were still quickly filled and
emptied, but more in compliance with the customs of con-
viviality than the demands of thirst. They were all talking
at once, and every man saw both present and future through
the rosy medium of the wine he had imbibed.

There were two, however, of the party who had not
suffered their real inmost attention to stray for an instant
from the actual business of the night, who calculated the

284

" MORITURI "

time exactly as it passed — who watched the men through
the succeeding phases of satisfaction, good -humour, con-
viviality, and recklessness, stopping just short of inebriety,
and seized the very moment at which the iron was hot
enough to strike. The same thought was in the brain of
each, when their eyes met ; the same words were springing
to their lips, but Hippias spoke first.

" No more wine to-night, tribune, if work is to be done !
The circus is full ; the arena swept ; the show paid for.
When the praetor takes his seat we are ready to begin."

Placidus glanced significantly in his face, and rose,
holding a brimming goblet in his hand. The suddenness
of the movement arrested immediate attention. The men
were all silent, and looking towards their host.

" Good friends ! " said he. " Trusty swordsmen ! Welcome
guests ! Listen to me. To - night we burn the palace — we
overthrow the empire — we hurl Caesar from his throne. All
this you know, but there is something more you do not know.
One has escaped who is acquainted with the plot. In an
hour it may be too late. We are fast friends ; we are in the
same galley — the land is not a bowshot off. But the wind
is rising — the water rushing in beneath her keel. Will you
bend your backs forthwith and row the galley safe home
with me?"

The project was a favourite one, the metaphor suited to
their tastes. As the tribune paused, acclamations greeted
him on all sides, and " We will ! We will ! " " Through
storm and sunshine ! " " Against wind and weather ! " sprang
from many an eager lip. It was obvious the men were ready
for anything. " One libation to Pluto ! " added the host,
emptying his cup, and the guests leaping to their feet
followed his example with a mad cheer. Then they formed
in pairs, as they were accustomed in the amphitheatre, and
Euchenor with a malicious laugh exclaimed — Morituri te
salutant.

It was enough ! The ominous words were caught up and
repeated in wild defiance and derision, boding small scruples
of mercy or remorse. Twice they marched round the supper-
room to the burden of that ghastly chant, and when shaking
off the fumes of wine they snatched eagerly at their arms,
Placidus put himself at their head with a triumphant con-
viction that, come what might, they would not fail him in
his last desperate throw for the great game.

285

CHAPTER XVII

LL was in confusion at the palace of
the Caesars. The civil war that had
now been raging for several hours in
the capital, the tumults that pervaded
every quarter of the city, had roused
the alarm, and to a certain extent
the vigilance of such troops as still
owned allegiance to Vitellius. But
late events had much slackened the
discipline for which Roman soldiers
were so famous, and that could be
but a spurious loyalty which depended
on amount of pay and opportunities
for plunder, which was accustomed moreover to see the
diadem transferred from one successful general to another
at a few months' interval. Perhaps his German guards were
the only soldiers of Vitellius on whom he could place any
reliance ; but even these had been reduced to a mere handful
by slaughter and desertion, while the few who remained,
though unimpeachable in their fidelity, were wanting in every
quality that constitutes military efficiency, except the physical
strength and desperate courage they brought with them from
the north.

They were, however, the Emperor's last hope. They
occupied palace-gardens to-night, feeding their bivouac-fires
with branches from its stately cedars, or uprooting its exotic
shrubs to hurl them crackling in the blaze. The Roman
citizens looking on their gigantic forms moving to and fro
in the glare, shuddered and whispered, and pointed them out
to each other as being half men, half demons, while a passing
soldier would raise his eagle crest more proudly, relating how
those were the foes over whom the legions had triumphed,
and would turn forthwith into a wineshop to celebrate his
prowess at the expense of some admiring citizen in the crowd.

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THE GERMAN GUARD

One of these German mercenaries may be taken as a
sample of the rest. He was standing sentry over a narrow
wicket that afforded entrance to the palace-gardens, and was
the first obstacle encountered by Esca, after the latter had
hastened from the Esquiline to give intelligence of the design
against Caesar's life. Leaning on his spear, with his tall
frame and large muscles thrown into strong relief by the
light of the bivouac - fire behind him, he brought to the
Briton's mind many a stirring memory of his own warlike
boyhood, when by the side of just such champions, armed
in such a manner, he had struggled, though in vain, against
the discipline and the strategy of the invader. Scarcely
older than himself, the sentry possessed the comely features
and the bright colouring of youth, with a depth of chest and
squareness of shoulder that denoted all the power of mature
manhood. He seemed indeed a formidable antagonist for
any single foe, and able to keep at bay half a score of the
finest men who stood in the front rank of the legions. He
was clad in a long white garment of linen, reaching below
the knee, and fastened at the neck by a single clasp of gold ;
his shield and helmet too, although this was no state occasion,
but one on which he would probably be massacred before
morning, were of the same metal, his spear-head and sword
of the finest - tempered steel. The latter, especially, was a
formidable weapon. Considerably longer than the Roman's,
which was only used for the thrust at close quarters, it could
deal sweeping blows that would cleave a headpiece or lop a
limb, and managed lightly as a riding-wand by the German's
powerful arm, would hew fearful gaps in the ranks of an
enemy, if their line wavered, or their order was in any degree
destroyed.

Notwithstanding the warlike nature of his arms and
bearing, the sentry's face was fair and smooth as a woman's ;
the flaxen down was scarcely springing on his chin, and the
golden locks escaped beneath his helmet, and clustered in
curls upon his neck. His light blue eye, too, had a mild
and rather vacant expression as it roved carelessly around ;
but the Romans had long ago learned that those light blue
eyes could kindle into sparks of fire when steel was crossed,
could glare with invincible hatred and defiance even when
fixed in death.

Esca's heart warmed to the barbarian guardsman with a
feeling of sympathy and kindred. The latter sentiment may
have suggested the plan by which he obtained entrance to
the palace, for the difficulty of so doing had presented itself

287

ANTEROS

to him in brighter colours every moment as he approached.
Pausing, therefore, at a few paces from the sentry, who
levelled his spear and challenged when he heard footsteps,
the Briton unbuckled his sword and cast it down between
them, to indicate that he claimed protection and had no
intention of offence. The other muttered some unintelligible
words in his own language. It was obvious that he knew
no Latin and that their conversation must be carried on by
signs. This, however, rather smoothed than enhanced the
difficulty ; and it was a relief to Esca that the first impulse
of the German had not been to alarm his comrades and
resort to violence. The latter seemed to entertain no
apprehension from any single individual, whether friend or
foe, and looked, moreover, with favourable eyes on Esca's
appearance, which bore a certain family likeness to that of
his own countrymen. He suffered him therefore to approach
his post, questioning him by signs, to which the Briton replied
in the same manner, perfectly ignorant of their meaning, but
with a fervent hope that the result of these mysterious gestures
might be his admission within the wall.

Under such circumstances the two were not likely to
arrive at a clear understanding. After a while the German
looked completely puzzled, and passed the word in his own
language to a comrade within hearing, apparently for
assistance. Esca heard the sound repeated in more than
one voice, till it died away under the trees ; there was
obviously a strong chain of sentries round Caesar's palace.
In the meantime the German would not permit Esca to
approach within spear's-length of his post, though he kept
him back good-humouredly with the butt-end of that weapon,
nor would he suffer him to pick his sword up and gird it
round his waist again — making nevertheless, all the while,
signs of cordiality and friendship ; but though Esca responded
to these with equal warmth, he was no nearer the inside than
at first.

Presently the heavy tramp of armed men smote his ear,
and a centurion, accompanied by half a dozen soldiers,
approached the w'cket. These bore a strong resemblance,
both in form and features, to the sentry who had summoned
them; but their officer spoke Latin, and Esca, who had
gained a little time to mature his plan, answered the German
centurion's questions without hesitation.

" I belong to your own division," said he, " though I
come from farther north than your troop, and speak a
different dialect. We were disbanded but yesterday, by a

288

THE GERMAN GUARD

written order from Caesar. It has turned out to be a forgery.
We have been scattered through half the wineshops in
Rome, and a herald came round and found me drinking,
and bade me return to my duty without delay. He said
we were to muster somewhere hereabouts, that we should
find a post at the palace, and could join it till our own
officers came back. I am but a barbarian, I know little
of Rome, but this is the palace, is it not? and you are a
centurion of the German guard ? "

He drew himself up as he spoke with military respect,
and the officer had no hesitation in believing his tale, the
more so that certain of Caesar's troops had lately been dis-
banded at a time when their services seemed to be most in
requisition. Taking charge of Esca's weapon, he spoke a
few words in his own language to the sentry, and then
addressed the Briton.

" You may come to the main-guard," said he. " I should
not mind a few more of the same maniple. We are likely
to want all we can get to-night."

As he conducted him through the gardens, he asked
several questions concerning the strength of the opposing
party, the state of the town, and the general feeling of the
citizens towards Vitellius, all which Esca parried to the best
of his abilities, hazarding a guess where he could, and
accounting for his ignorance where he could not, on the
plea that he had spent his whole time since his dismissal
in the wineshops — an excuse which the centurion's know-
ledge of the tastes and habits of his division caused him to
accept without suspicion of its truth.

Arrived at the watch-fire, Esca's military experience,
slight as it had been, was enough to apprise him of the
imminent dangers that threatened the palace in the event
of an attack. The huge Germans lounged and lay about
in the glare of the burning logs, as though feast, and song,
and revelry were the objects for which they were mustered.
Wine was flowing freely in large flagons, commensurate
to the noble thirst of these Scandinavian warriors ; and even
the sentries leaving their posts at intervals, as caprice or
indolence prompted, strode up to the watch-fire, laughed a
loud laugh, drained a full beaker, and walked quietly back
again, none the worse, to their beat. All hailed a new
comrade with the utmost glee, as a further incentive to
drink ; and although Esca was pleased to find that none
but their centurion was familiar with Latin, and that he
was consequently free from much inconvenient cross-
T 289

ANTEROS

examination, it was obvious that there was no intention of
letting him depart without pledging them in deep draughts
of the rough and potent Sabine wine.

With youth, health, and a fixed resolve to keep his wits
about him, the Briton managed to perform this part of a
soldier's duty to the satisfaction of his entertainers. The
moments seemed very long, but whilst the Germans were
singing, drinking, and making their remarks upon him in
their own language, he had time to think of his plans. To
have declared at once that he knew of a plot against
Caesar, and to call upon the centurion to obtain his admit-
tance to the person of the Emperor, would, he was well
aware, only defeat his own object, by throwing suspicion on
himself as a probable assassin and confederate of the con-
spirators. To put the officer on the alert, would cause him,
perhaps, to double his sentries, and to stop the allowance of
wine in course of consumption ; but Esca saw plainly that
no resistance from within the palace could be made to the
large force his late master would bring to bear upon it.
The only chance for the Emperor was to escape. If he
could himself reach his presence, and warn him personally,
he thought he could prevail upon him to fly. This was the
difficulty. A monarch in his palace is not visible to every-
one who may wish to see him, even when his own safety is
concerned ; but Esca had already gained the interior of the
gardens, and that success encouraged him to proceed.

The Germans, though believing themselves more vigilant
than usual (to such a low state the boasted discipline of
Caesar's body-guard had fallen), were confused and careless
under the influence of wine, and their attention to the new-
comer was soon distracted by a fresh chorus and a fresh
flagon. Esca, under pretence that he required repose,
managed to withdraw himself from the glare of the fire-
light, and borrowing a cloak from a ruddy comrade with
a stentorian voice, lay down in the shadow of an arbutus,
and affected profound repose. By degrees, coiling himself
along the sward like a snake, he slipped out of sight, leaving
his cloak so arranged as to resemble a sleeping form, and
sped off in the direction of the palace, to which he was
guided by numerous distant lights.

Some alarm had evidently preceded him even here.
Crowds of slaves, both male and female, chiefly Greeks and
Asiatics, were pouring from its egresses and hurrying through
the gardens in obvious dismay. The Briton could not but
remark that none were empty-handed, and the value of

290

THE GERMAN GUARD

their burdens denoted that those who now fled had no in-
tention ever to return. They took little notice of him when
they passed, save that a few of the more timid, glancing
at his stalwart figure, turned aside and ran the swifter;
while others, perceiving that he was unarmed, for he had
left his sword with the Germans, shot at him some con-
temptuous gesture or ribald jest, which they thought the
barbarian would not understand in time to resent.

Thus he reached the spacious front of the palace, and
here, indeed, the trumpets were sounding, and the German
guard forming, evidently for resistance to an attack. There
was no mistaking the expression of the men's faces, nor the
clang of their heavy weapons. Though they filled the main
court, however, a stream of fugitives still poured from the
side -doors, and through one of these, the Briton deter-
mined he would find no difficulty in effecting an entrance.
Glancing at the fine men getting under arms with such
business-like rapidity, he thought how even that handful
might make such a defence as would give Caesar time to
escape, either at the back of the palace, or, if that were
invested, disguised as one of the slaves who were still
hurrying off in motley crowds; and notwithstanding his
new-born feelings, he could not help, from old association,
wishing that he might strike a blow by the side of these
stalwart guardsmen, even for such a cause as theirs.

Observing a door opening on a terrace which had
been left completely undefended, Esca entered the palace
unopposed, and roamed through hall after hall without
meeting a living creature. Much of value had already been
cleared away, but enough remained to have excited the
cupidity of the richest subject in Rome. Shawls, arms,
jewels, vases, statues, caskets, and drinking - cups were
scattered about in a waste of magnificent confusion, while
in many instances rapacious ignorance had carried off that
which was comparatively the dross, and left the more
precious articles behind. Esca had never even dreamed
of such gorgeous luxury as he now beheld. For a few
minutes his mind was no less stupefied than his eye was
dazzled, and he almost forgot his object in sheer wonder
and admiration ; but there was no time to be lost, and he
looked about in vain for some clue to guide him through
this glittering wilderness to the presence of the Emperor.

The rooms seemed endless, opening one into another,
and each more splendid than the last. At length he heard
the sound of voices, and darting eagerly forward, found

291

ANTEROS

himself in the midst of half a dozen persons clad in robes
of state, with garlands on their heads, reclining round the
fragments of a feast, a flagon or two of wine, and a golden
cornucopia of fruit and flowers. As he entered, these started
to their feet, exclaiming, " They are upon us ! " and huddled
together in a corner, like a flock of sheep when terrified by
a dog. Observing, however, that the Briton was alone and
unarmed, they seemed to take courage, and a fat figure
thrusting itself forward, exclaimed in one breath, " He is
not to be disturbed ! Caesar is busy. Are the Germans
firm?"

His voice shook and his whole frame quivered with fear,
nevertheless Esca recognised the speaker. It was his old
antagonist Spado, a favourite eunuch of the household, in dire
terror for his life, yet showing the one redeeming quality of
fidelity to the hand that fed him. His comrades kept behind
him, taking their cue from his conduct as the bellwether of
the flock, yet trusting fervently his wisdom would counsel
immediate flight.

" I know you," said Esca hurriedly. " I struck you that
night in anger. It is all over now. I have come to save your
lives, all of you, and to rescue Caesar."

" How ? " said Spado, ignoring his previous injuries in the
alarm of the hour. "You can save us? You can rescue
Caesar ? Then it is true. The tumult is grown to a rebellion !
The Germans are driven in, and the game is lost ! "

The others caught up their mantles, girded themselves,
and prepared for instant flight.

" The guard can hold the palace for half an hour yet,"
replied Esca coolly. " But the Emperor must escape. Julius
Placidus will be here forthwith, at the head of two hundred
gladiators, and the tribune means to murder his master as
surely as you stand trembling there."

Ere he had done speaking, he was left alone in the
room with Spado. The tribune's character was correctly
appreciated, even by the eunuchs of the palace, and they
stayed to hear no more ; but Spado only looked blankly in
the Briton's face, wringing his fat hands, and answered to the
other's urgent appeals, " His orders were explicit. Caesar is
busy. He must not be disturbed. He said so himself.
Caesar is busy ! "

292

CHAPTER XVIII

THE BUSINESS OF C^SAR

THRUSTING Spado aside without ceremony, and dis-
regarding the eunuch's expostulations in obedience to
the orders he had received, Esca burst through a narrow door,
tore down a velvet curtain, and found himself in the private
apartment of the Emperor. Caesar's business was at that
moment scarcely of an urgency to weigh against the con-
sideration of Caesar's life. Vitellius was reclining on a couch,
his dress disordered and ungirt, a garland of roses at his feet,
his heavy face, of which the swollen features had lost all their
early comeliness, expressing nothing but sullen torpid calm ;
his eye fixed on vacancy, his weak nerveless hands crossed in
front of his unwieldy person, and his whole attitude that of
one who had little to occupy his attention, save his own
personal indulgence and comfort. Yet for all this, the mind
was busy within that bloated form. There are moments in
existence, when the past comes back to us day by day, and
incident by incident, shining out in colours vivid and lifelike
as the present. On the eve of an important crisis, during the
crisis itself if we are not permitted to take an active part in it
but compelled to remain passive, the mere sport of its con-
tingencies, for the few minutes that succeed a complete
demolition of the fabric we have been building all our lives,
we become possessed of this faculty, and seem, in a strange
dream-like sense, to live our time over again.

For the last few days, even Vitellius had awoke to the
conviction that his diadem was in danger, for the last few
hours he had seen cause to tremble for his life ; nevertheless,
none of the usual habits of the palace had been altered ; and
even when Primus, the successful general of his dangerous
rival, Vespasian, occupied the suburbs, his reverses did but
elicit from the Emperor a call for more wine and a heartless
jest. To-day he must have seen clearly that all was lost, yet
the supper to which he sat down with half a dozen favourite
eunuchs, was no less elaborate than usual, the wine flowed as

293

ANTEROS

freely, the Emperor ate as enormously, and when he could
eat no more, retired to pass his customary half-hour in perfect
silence and repose, nor suffered the important process of
digestion to be disturbed by the fact that his very gates must
ere midnight be in possession of the enemy.

Nevertheless, as if in warning of what was to come, the
pageant of his life seemed to move past his half-closed eyes ;
and who shall say how vain and empty such a pageant may
have appeared even to the besotted glutton, who, though he
had the address to catch the diadem of the Caesars, when it
was thrown to him by chance, knew but too well that he had
no power to retain it on his head when wrested by the grasp
of force. Though feeble and worn out, he was not old, far
short of threescore years, yet what a life of change and
turmoil and vicissitudes his had been ! Proconsul of Africa,
favourite of four emperors, it must have been a certain
versatility of talent that enabled him to rule such an
important province with tolerable credit, and yet retain the
good graces of successive tyrants, resembling each other in
nothing save incessant caprice. An informer with Tiberius ;
a pander to the crimes, and a proselyte to the divinity of mad
Caligula ; a screen for Messalina's vices, and an easy adviser
to her easy and timid lord ; lastly, everything in turn with
Nero — chariot-driver, singer, parasite, buffoon, and in all these
various parts, preserving the one unfailing characteristic of
a consummate and systematic debauchee. It seemed but
yesterday that he had thrown the dice with Claudius, staking
land and villas as freely as jewels and gold, losing heavily to
his imperial master ; and, though he had to borrow the money
at high usury, quick-witted enough to perceive the noble
reversiqn he had thus a chance of purchasing. It seemed but
yesterday that he flew round the dusky circus, grazing the
goal with practised skill, and, by a happy dexterity, suffering
Caligula to win the race so narrowly, as to enchance the
pleasure of imperial triumph. It seemed but yesterday that
he sang with Nero, and flattered the monster by comparing
him with the sirens, whose voices charmed mariners to their
destruction.

And now was it all over? Must he indeed give up
the imperial purple and the throne of blazing gold? — the
luxurious banquets and the luscious wines ? He shuddered
and sickened while he thought of a crust of brown bread
and a pitcher of water. Nay, worse than this, was he sure
his life was safe ? He had seen death often — what Roman had
not ? But at his best, in the field, clad in corselet and head-

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THE BUSINESS OF C^SAR

piece, and covered with a buckler, he had thought him an
ugly and unwelcome visitor. Even at Bedriacum, when he
told his generals as he rode over the slain, putrefying on the
ground, that " a dead enemy smelt sweet, and the sweeter for
being a citizen," he remembered now that his gorge had risen
while he spoke. He remembered, too, the German body-
guard that had accompanied him, and the faithful courage
with which his German levies fought. There were a few of
them in the palace yet. It gave him confidence to recollect
this. For a moment the soldier-spirit kindled up within, and
he felt as though he could put himself at the head of those
blue-eyed giants, lead them into the very centre of the enemy,
and die there like a man. He rose to his feet, and snatched
at one of the weapons hanging for ornament against the wall,
but the weak limbs failed, the pampered body asserted itself,
and he sank back helpless on the couch.

It was at this moment that Esca burst so unceremoniously
into the Emperor's presence.

Vitellius did not rise again, less alarmed, perhaps, than
astonished. The Briton threw himself upon his knees,
and touched the broad crimson binding of the imperial
gown.

" There is not a moment to lose ! " said he. " They are
forcing the gates. The guard has been driven back. It is
too late for resistance ; but Csesar may yet escape if he will
trust himself to me."

Vitellius looked about him, bewildered. At that moment
a shout was heard from the palace-gardens, accompanied by
a rush of many feet, and the ominous clash of steel. Esca
knew that the assailants were gladiators. If they came in
with their blood up, they would give no quarter.

" Caesar must disguise himself," he insisted earnestly.
" The slaves have been leaving the palace in hundreds. If
the Emperor would put on a coarse garment and come with
me, I can show him the way to safety ; and Placidus, hasten-
ing to this apartment, will find it empty."

With all his sensual vices, there was yet something left of
the old Roman spirit in Vitellius, which sparkled out in an
emergency. After the first sudden surprise of Esca's entrance,
he became cooler every moment. At the mention of the
tribune's name he seemed to reflect.

" Who are you ? " said he, after a pause ; " and how came
you here ? "

Short as had been his reign he had acquired the tone of
royalty ; and could even assume a certain dignity, notwith-

295

ANTEROS

standing the urgency of his present distress. In a few words
Esca explained to him his danger, and his enemies.

" Placidus," repeated the Emperor thoughtfully, and as if
more concerned than surprised ; " then there is no chance of
the design failing ; no hope of mercy when it has succeeded.
Good friend ! I will take your advice. I will trust you, and
go with you, where you will. If I am an Emperor to-morrow,
you will be the greatest man in Rome."

Hitherto he had been leaning indolently back on the
couch. Now he seemed to rouse himself for action, and
stripped the crimson-bordered gown from his shoulders, the
signet-ring from his hand.

" They will make a gallant defence," said he, " but if I
know Julius Placidus, he will outnumber them ten to one.
Nevertheless they may hold him at bay with their long
swords till we get clear of the palace. The gardens are
dark and spacious ; we can hide there for a time, and take
an opportunity of reaching my wife's house on Mount
Aventine ; Galeria will not betray me, and they will never
think of looking for me there."

Speaking thus coolly and deliberately, but more to himself
than his companion, Caesar, divested of all marks of splendour
in his dress and ornaments, stripped to a plain linen garment,
turning up his sleeves and girding himself the while, like a
slave busied in some household work requiring activity and
despatch, suffered the Briton to lead him into the next
apartment, where, deserted by his comrades, and sorely
perplexed between a vague sense of duty and a strong
inclination to run away, Spado was pacing to and fro in a
ludicrous state of perturbation and dismay. Already the
noise of fighting was plainly distinguished in the outer court.
The gladiators, commanded by Hippias and guided by the
treacherous tribune, had overpowered the main body of the
Germans who occupied the imperial gardens, and were now
engaged with the remnant of these faithful barbarians at the
very doors of the palace.

The latter, though outnumbered, fought with the des-
perate courage of their race. The Roman soldier in his
cool methodical discipline, was sometimes puzzled to account
for that frantic energy, which acknowledged no superiority
either of position or numbers, which seemed to gather a
fresher and more stubborn courage from defeat ; and even
the gladiators, men whose very livelihood was slaughter, and
whose weapons were never out of their hands, found them-
selves no match for these large savage warriors in the struggle

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THE BUSINESS OF C^SAR

of a hand-to-hand combat, recoiled more than once in baffled
rage and astonishment from the long swords, and the blue
eyes, and the tall forms that seemed to tower and dilate in
the fierce revelry of battle.

The military skill of Placidus, exercised before many a
Jewish rampart, and on many a Syrian plain, had worsted
the main body of the Germans by taking them in flank.
Favoured by the darkness of the shrubberies, he had con-
trived to throw a hundred practised swordsmen unexpectedly
on their most defenceless point. Surprised and outnumbered,
they retreated nevertheless in good order, though sadly
diminished, upon their comrades at the gate. Here the
remaining handful made a desperate stand, and here Placidus,
wiping his bloody sword upon his tunic, whispered to
Hippias —

" We must put Hirpinus and the supper-party in front !
If we can but carry the gate, there are a score of entrances
into the palace. Remember ! we give no quarter, and we
recognise no one."

Whilst the chosen band who had left the tribune's table
were held in check by the guard, there was a moment's
respite, during which Caesar might possibly escape. Esca,
rapidly calculating the difficulties in his own mind, had re-
solved to hurry him through the most secluded part of the
gardens into the streets, and so running the chance of recog-
nition which in the darkness of night, and under the coarse
garb of a household slave, was but a remote contingency, to
convey him by a circuitous route to Galeria's house, of which
he knew the situation, and where he might be concealed for
a time without danger of detection. The great obstacle was
to get him out of the palace without being seen. The private
door by which he had himself entered, he knew must be de-
fended, or the assailants would have taken advantage of it ere
this, and he dared not risk recognition, to say nothing of the
chances of war, by endeavouring to escape through the midst
of the conflict at the main gate. He appealed to Spado for
assistance.

"There is a terrace at the back here," stammered the
eunuch ; " if Caesar can reach it, a pathway leads directly
down to the summer-house in the thickest part of the
gardens ; thence he can go between the fish-ponds straight
to the wicket that opens on the Appian Way."

" Idiot ! " exclaimed the Emperor angrily, " how am I to
reach the terrace ? There is no door, and the window must
be a man's height at least from the ground."

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ANTEROS

"It is your only chance of life, illustrious ! " observed
Esca impatiently. "Guide us to the window, friend," he
added, turning to Spado, who looked from one to the other
in helpless astonishment, "and tear that shawl from the
couch; we may want it for a rope to let the Emperor
down."

A fresh shout from the combatants at the gate, while
it completely paralysed the eunuch, seemed to determine
Vitellius. He moved resolutely forward, followed by his
two companions, Spado whispering to the Briton, " You are
a brave young man. We will all escape together, I — I will
stand by you to the last ! "

They needed but to cross a passage and traverse another
room. Caesar peered over the window-sill into the darkness
below, and drew back.

" It is a long way down," said he. " What if I were to
break a limb ? "

Esca produced the shawl he had brought with him from
the adjoining apartment, and offered to place it under his
arms and round his body.

"Shall I go first?" said Spado. "It is not five cubits
from the ground."

But the Emperor thought of his brother Lucius and the
cohorts at Terracina. Could he but gain the camp there he
would be safe, nay more, he could make head against his
rival ; he would return to Rome with a victorious army ; he
would retrieve the diadem and the purple, and the suppers
at the palace once more.

" Stay where you are ! " he commanded Spado, who was
looking with an eager eye at the window. " I will risk it.
One draught of Falernian, and I will risk it and be gone."

He turned back towards the banqueting-room, and while
he did so another shout warned him that the gate was carried,
and the palace in possession of the conspirators.

Esca followed the Emperor, vainly imploring him to fly.
Spado, taking one more look from the window ere he risked
his bones, heard the ring of armour and the tramp of feet
coming round the corner of the palace, on the very terrace
he desired to reach. White and trembling, he tore the
garland from his head and gnawed its roses with his teeth
in the inpotence of his despair. He knew the last chance
was gone now, and they must die.

The Emperor returned to the room where he had supped ;
seized a flagon of Falernian, filled himself a large goblet
which he half-emptied at a draught, and set it down on the

298

THE BUSINESS OF CAESAR

board with a deep sigh of satisfaction. The courtyard had
been taken at last, and the palace surrounded. Resistance
was hopeless, and escape impossible. The Germans were
still fighting, indeed, within the rooms, disputing inch by
inch the glittering corridors, and the carved doorways, and
the shining polished floors, now more slippery than ever
with blood. Pictures and statues seemed to look down in
calm amazement at thrust and blow and death-grapple, and
all the reeling confusion of mortal strife. But the noise came
nearer and nearer ; the Germans, falling man by man, were
rapidly giving ground. Esca knew the game was lost at
last, and he turned to his companions in peril with a grave
and clouded brow.

" There is nothing for it left," said he, " but to die like
men. Yet if there be any corner in which Caesar can hide,"
he added, with something of contempt in his tone, " I will
gain him five minutes more of life, if this glittering toy holds
together so long."

Then he snatched from the wall an Asiatic javelin, all
lacquered and ornamented with gold, cast one look at the
others, as if to bid them farewell, and hurried from the room.
Spado, a mass of shaking flesh, and tumbled garments and
festive ornaments strangely out of keeping with his attitude,
cowered down against the wall, hiding his face in his hands ;
but Vitellius, with something akin even to gratification on his
countenance, returned to the half-emptied cup, and raising it
to his lips, deliberately finished his Falernian.

299

CHAPTER XIX

AT BAY

IT was not in Esca's nature to be within hearing of shrewd
blows and yet abstain from taking part in the fray. His
recent sentiments had indeed undergone a change that would
produce timely fruit ; and neither the words of the preacher
in the Esquiline, nor the example of Calchas, nor the sweet
influence of Mariamne, had been without their effect. But it
was engrained in his very character to love the stir and
tumult of a fight. From a boy his blood leaped and tingled
at the clash of steel. His was the courage which is scarcely
exercised in the tide of personal conflict, and must be proved
rather in endurance than in action — so naturally does it force
itself to the front when men are dealing blow for blow. His
youth, too, had been spent in warfare, and in that most
ennobling of all warfare which defends home from the
aggression of an invader. He had long ago learned to love
danger for its own sake, and now he experienced besides a
morbid desire to have his hand on the tribune's throat, so he
felt the point and tried the shaft of his javelin with a thrill of
savage joy, while, guided by the sounds of combat he hurried
along the corridor to join the remnant of the faithful German
guard. Not a score of them were left, and of these scarce
one but bled from some grievous wound. Their white
garments were stained with crimson, their gaudy golden
armour was hacked and dinted, their strength was nearly
spent, and every hope of safety gone ; but their courage was
still unquenched, and as man after man went down, the
survivors closed in and fought on, striking desperately with
their faces to the foe. The tribune and his chosen band,
supported by a numerous body of inferior gladiators, were
pressing them sore. Placidus, an expert swordsman, and in
no way wanting physical courage, was conspicuous in the
front. Hippias alone seemed to vie with the tribune in
reckless daring, though Hirpinus, Eumolpus, Lutorius, and
the others, were all earning their wages with scrupulous

300

AT BAY

fidelity, and bearing themselves according to custom, as if
fighting were the one business of their lives.

When Esca reached the scene of conflict the tribune had
just closed with a gigantic adversary. For a minute they
reeled in the death-grapple, then parted as suddenly as they
met, the German falling backward with a groan, the tribune's
blade as he brandished it aloft dripping with blood to the
very hilt.

" Ettge!" shouted Hippias, who was at his side, parrying
at the same moment, with consummate address, a sweeping
sword-cut dealt at him from the dead man's comrade. " That
was prettily done, tribune, and like an artist ! "

Esca, catching sight of his enemy's hated face, dashed in
with the bound of a tiger, and taking him unawares, delivered
at him so fierce and rapid a thrust as would have settled
accounts between them, had Placid us possessed no other
means of defence than his own skilful swordsmanship ; but
the fencing-master, whose eye seemed to take in all the
combatants at once, cut through the curved shaft of the
Briton's weapon with one turn of his short sword, and its
head fell harmless on the floor. His hand was up for a
deadly thrust when Esca found himself felled to the ground
by some powerful fist, while a ponderous form holding him
down with its whole weight, made it impossible for him to
rise.

" Keep quiet, lad," whispered a friendly voice in his ear ;
" I was forced to strike hard to get thee down in time.
Faith ! the master gives short warning with his thrusts.
Here thou'rt safe, and here I'll take care thou shalt remain
till the tide has rolled over us, and I can pass thee out
unseen. Keep quiet ! I tell thee, lest I have to strike thee
senseless for thine own good."

In vain the Briton struggled to regain his feet ; Hirpinus
kept him down by main force. No sooner had the gladiator
caught sight of his friend, than he resolved to save him from
the fate which too surely threatened all who were found in
the palace, and with characteristic promptitude, used the
only means at his disposal for the fulfilment of his object.
A moment's reflection satisfied Esca of his old comrade's
good faith. Life is sweet, and with the hope of its preserva-
tion came back the thought of Mariamne. He lay still for a
few minutes, and by that time the tide of fight had rolled on,
and they were left alone. Hirpinus rose first with a jovial
laugh.

" Why, you went down, man," said he, " like an ox at an

301

ANTEROS

altar. I would have held my hand a little — in faith I would
— had there been time. Well, I must help thee up, I suppose,
seeing that I put thee down. Take my advice, lad, get out-
side as quick as thou canst. Keep the first turning to the
right of the great gate, stick to the darkest part of the
gardens, and run for thy life 1 "

So speaking, the gladiator helped Esca to his feet, and
pointed down the corridor where the way was now clear.
The Briton would have made one more effort to save the
Emperor, but Hirpinus interposed his burly form, and finding
his friend so refractory, half-led, half-pushed him to the door
of the palace. Here he bade him farewell, looking wistfully
out into the night, as though he would fain accompany him.

" I have little taste for the job here, and that's the truth,"
said he, in the tone of a man who has been unfairly deprived
of some expected pleasure. " The Germans made a pretty
good stand for a time, but I thought there were more of them,
and that the fight would have lasted twice as long. Good
luck go with thee, lad ; I shall perhaps never see thee again.
Well, well, it can't be helped. I have been bought and paid
for, and must go back to my work."

So, while Esca, hopeless of doing any more good, went
his way into the gardens, Hirpinus re-entered the palace to
follow his comrades, and assist in the search for the Emperor.
He was somewhat surprised to hear loud shouts of laughter
echoing from the end of the corridor. Hastening on to learn
the cause of such strangely-timed mirth, he came upon Rufus
lying across the prostrate body of a German, and trying hard
to stanch the blood that welled from a fatal gash inflicted by
his dead enemy, ere he went down. Hirpinus raised his
friend's head, and knew it was all over.

" I have got it," said Rufus, in a faint voice ; " my foot
slipped and the clumsy barbarian lunged in over my guard.
Farewell, old comrade ! Bid the wife keep heart. There is
a home for her at Picenum, and — the boys — keep them out
of the Family. When you close with these Germans — dis-
engage— at half distance, and turn your wrist down with the
— old — thrust, so as to " —

Weaker and weaker came the gladiator's last syllables,
his head sank, his jaw dropped, and Hirpinus, turning for a
farewell look at the comrade with whom he had trained, and
toiled, and drank, and fought, for half a score of years, dashed
his hand angrily to his shaggy eyelashes, for he saw him
through a mist of tears.

Another shout of laughter, louder still and nearer, roused

302

AT BAY

him to action. Turning into the room whence it proceeded,
he came upon a scene of combat, nearly as ludicrous as the
last was pitiful. Surrounded by a circle of gladiators, roaring
out their applause and holding their sides with mirth, two
most unwilling adversaries were pitted against each other.
They seemed, indeed, very loth to come to close quarters,
and stood face to face with excessive watchfulness and caution.
In searching for the Emperor, Placidus and his myrmidons
had scoured several apartments without success. Finding
the palace thus unoccupied, and now in their own hands, the
men had commenced loading themselves with valuables, and
prepared to decamp with their plunder, each to his home, as
having fulfilled their engagement, and earned their reward.
But the tribune well knew that if Vitellius survived the night,
his own head would be no longer safe on his shoulders, and
that it was indispensable to find the Emperor at all hazards ;
so gathering a handful of gladiators round him, persuading
some and threatening others, he instituted a strict search in
one apartment after another, leaving no hole nor corner un-
tried, persuaded that Caesar must be still inside the palace,
and consequently within his grasp. He entertained, never-
theless, a lurking mistrust of treachery roused by the late
appearance of Euchenor at supper, which was rather
strengthened than destroyed by the Greek's unwillingness
to engage in personal combat with the Germans. Whilst
he was able to do so, the tribune had kept a wary eye upon
the pugilist, and had indeed prevented him more than once
from slipping out of the conflict altogether. Now that the
Germans were finally disposed of, and the palace in his
power, he kept the Greek close at hand with less difficulty,
jeering him, half in jest and half in earnest, on the great care
he had taken of his own person in the fray. Thus, with
Euchenor at his side, followed by Hippias, and some half-
dozen gladiators, the tribune entered the room in which the
Emperor had supped, and from which a door, concealed by
a heavy curtain, led into a dark recess originally intended for
a bath. At the foot of this curtain, half-lying, half-sitting,
grovelled an obese unwieldy figure, clad in white, which
moaned and shook and rocked itself to and fro, in a
paroxysm of abject fear. The tribune leapt forward with
a gleam of diabolical triumph in his eyes. The next instant
his face fell, as the figure, looking up, presented the scared
features of the bewildered Spado. But even in his wrath and
disappointment Placidus could indulge himself with a brutal
jest.

303

ANTEROS

" Euchenor," said he, " thou hast hardly been well blooded
to-night. Drive thy sword through this carrion, and draw it
out of our way."

The Greek was only averse to cruelty when it involved
personal danger. He rushed in willingly enough, his blade
up, and his eyes glaring like a tiger's ; but the action roused
whatever was left of manhood in the victim, and Spado
sprang to his feet with the desperate courage of one who
has no escape left. Close at his hand lay a Parthian bow,
one of the many curiosities in arms that were scattered about
the room, together with a sandal-wood quiver of puny painted
arrows.

" Their points are poisoned," he shouted ; " and a touch is
death!"

Then he drew the bow to its full compass, and glared
about him like some hunted beast brought to bay.
Euchenor, checked in his spring, stood rigid as if turned
to stone. His beautiful form indeed, motionless in that
lifelike attitude, would have been a fat study for one of his
own country's sculptors ; but the surrounding gladiators,
influenced only by the ludicrous points of the situation,
laughed till their sides shook, at the two cowards thus con-
fronting each other.

" To him, Euchenor ! " said they, with the voice and
action by which a man encourages his dog at its prey.
" To him, lad ! Here's old Hirpinus come to back thee.
He always voted thee a cur. Show him some of thy
mettle now!"

Goaded by their taunts, Euchenor made a rapid feint, and
crouched for another dash. Terrified and confused, the
eunuch let the bowstring escape from his nerveless ringers,
and the light gaudy arrow, grazing the Greek's arm and
scarcely drawing blood, fell, as it seemed, harmless to the
floor between his feet. Again there was a loud shout of
derision, for Euchenor, dropping his weapon, applied this
trifling scratch to his mouth ; ere the laugh subsided, however,
the Greek's face contracted and turned pale. With a wild
yell he sprang bolt upright, raising his arms above his head,
and fell forward on his breast, dead.

The gladiators leaping in, passed half a dozen swords
through the eunuch's body, almost ere their comrade touched
the floor. Then Lutorius and Eumolpus tearing down the
curtain disappeared in the dark recess behind. There was
an exclamation of surprise, a cry for mercy, a scuffling of
feet, the fall of some heavy piece of furniture, and the two

304

poi

AT BAY

emerged again, dragging between them, pale and gasping, a
bloated and infirm old man.

" Caesar is fled ! " said he, looking wildly round. " You
seek Caesar? " then perceiving the dark smile on the tribune's
face, and abandoning all hope of disguise, he folded his arms
with a certain dignity that his coarse garments and disordered
state could not wholly neutralise, and added —

" I am Caesar ! Strike ! since there is no mercy and no
escape ! "

The tribune paused an instant and pondered. Already
the dawn was stealing through the palace, and the dead
upturned face of Spado looked grey and ghastly in the pale
cold light. Master of the situation, he did but deliberate^
whether he should- slay Caesar with his own hand, thus bidding
high for the gratitude of his successor, or whether, by deliver-
ing him over to an infuriated soldiery, who would surely
massacre him on the spot, he should make his death appear
an act of popular justice, in the furtherance of which he was
himself a mere dutiful instrument. A few moments' reflection
on the character of Vespasian, decided him to pursue the
latter course. He turned to the gladiators, and bade them
secure their prisoner.

Loud shouts and the tramp of many thousand armed
feet announced that the disaffected legions were converging
on the palace, and had already filled its courtyard with
masses of disciplined men, ranged under their eagles in all
the imposing precision and the glittering pomp of war. The
increasing daylight showed their serried files, extending far
beyond the gate, over the spacious gardens of the palace, and
the cold morning breeze unfurled a banner here and there,
on which were already emblazoned the initials of the new
emperor, " Titus Flavius Vespasian Caesar." As Vitellius
with his hands bound, led between two gladiators, passed
out of the gate which at midnight had been his own, one
of these gaudy devices glittered in the rising sun before his
eyes. Then his whole frame seemed to collapse, and his
head sank upon his breast, for he knew that the bitterness
of death had indeed come at last.

But it was no part of the tribune's scheme that his victim's
lineaments should escape observation. He put his own
sword beneath the Emperor's chin, and forced him to hold
his head up while the soldiers hooted and reviled, and
ridiculed their former lord.

" Let them see thy face," said the tribune brutally.
" Even now thou art still the most notorious man in Rome."
u 305

ANTEROS

Obese in person, lame in gait, pale, bloated, dishevelled,
and a captive, there was yet a certain dignity about the
fallen emperor, while he drew himself up, and thus answered
his enemy —

" Thou hast eaten of my bread and drunk from my cup.
I have loaded thee with riches and honours. Yesterday I
was thine emperor and thy host. To-day I am thy captive
and thy victim. But here, in the jaws of death, I tell thee
that not to have my life and mine empire back again, would
I change places with Julius Placidus the tribune ! "

They were the last words he ever spoke, for while they
paraded him along the Sacred Way, the legions gathered in
and struck him down, and hewed him in pieces, casting the
fragments of his body into the stream of Father Tiber,
stealing calm and noiseless by the walls of Rome. And
though the faithful Galeria collected them for decent interment,
few cared to mourn the memory of Vitellius the glutton ; for
the good and temperate Vespasian reigned in his stead.

306

CHAPTER XX

THE FAIR HAVEN

IN a land-locked bay sheltered by wooded hills, under a
calm cloudless sky, and motionless as some sleeping
seabird, a galley lay at anchor on the glistening surface of
the Mediterranean. Far out at sea, against a clear horizon
the breeze just stirred the waters to a purer deeper blue, but
here, behind the sharp black point, that shot boldly from the
shore, long sheets of light, unshadowed by a single ripple
traversed the bay, basking warm and still in the glaring
sunshine. The very gulls that usually flit so restless to and
fro, had folded their wings for an interval of repose, and the
hush of the hot southern noon lay drowsily on the burnished
surface of the deep.

The galley had obviously encountered her share of wind
and weather. Spars were broken and tackle strained. Her
large square sail, rent and patched, was under process of
repair; heaped up, neglected for the present, and half un-
furled upon the deck, while the double-banked seats of her
rowers were unoccupied, and the long oars shipped idly in
her sides. Like the seabird she resembled, and whose
destiny she shared, it seemed as though she also had folded
her wings, and gone peacefully to sleep.

Two figures were on the deck of the galley, drinking in
the beauty that surrounded them, with the avidity of youth,
and health, and love. They thought not of the dangers they
had so narrowly escaped — of the perils by [sea and perils by
land that were in store for them yet, of the sorrows they
must undergo, the difficulties they must encounter, the frail
thread on which their present happiness depended. It was
enough for them that they were gazing on the loveliness of
one of the fairest isles in the ^Egean, and that they were
together.

Surely there is a Fair Haven in the voyage of each of us,
to which we reach perhaps once in a lifetime, where we pause
and furl the sail and ship the oar, not that we are weary

307

ANTEROS

indeed, nor unseaworthy, but that we cannot resist, even the
strongest and bravest of us, the longing of poor humanity
for rest. Such seasons as these come to remind us of our
noble destiny, and our inherent unworthiness — of our capacity
for happiness, and our failure in attaining it — of the sordid
casket, and the priceless jewel we are sure that it contains.
At such seasons shall we not rejoice and revel in the happiness
they bring? Shall we not bathe in the glorious sunshine,
and snatch at the glowing fruit, and empty the golden cup,
ay to the very dregs ? What though there be a cloud behind
the hill, a bitter morsel at the fruit's core, a drop of wormwood
in the sparkling draught? — a 'consciousness of insecurity, a
foresight of sorrow, a craving for the infinite and the eternal,
which goads and guides us at once on the upward way?
Would we be without it if we could ? We cannot be more
than human ; we would not willingly be less. Is not failure
the teacher of humility? Is not humility the first step to
wisdom ? Where is least of self-dependence, there is surely
most of faith; and are not pain and sorrow the title-deeds
of our inheritance hereafter ?

It is a false moral, it is a morbid and unreal sentiment,
beautifully as it is expressed, which teaches us that " a sorrow's
crown of sorrows, is remembering happier things." All true
happiness is of spiritual origin. When we have been brushed,
though never so lightly by the angel's wing, we cannot after-
wards entirely divest ourselves of the fragrance breathed by
that celestial presence. Even in those blissful moments,
something warned us they would pass away ; now that they
have faded here, something assures us that they will come
again, hereafter. Hope is the birthright of immortality.
Without winter there would be no spring. In decay is the
very germ of life, and while suffering is transitory, mercy is
infinite, and joy eternal.

The sailors were taking their noonday rest below, to
escape the heat. Eleazar, the Jew, sat at the stern of the
vessel, deep in meditation, pondering on his country's resources
and his nation's wrongs — the dissensions that paralysed the
Lion of Judah, and the formidable qualities of the princely
hunter who was bringing him warily and gradually to bay.
It would be hard enough to resist Titus with both hands free,
how hopeless a task when one neutralised the efforts of the
other ! Eleazar's outward eye, indeed, took in the groves
of olives, and the dazzling porches, the jagged rocks and the
glancing water ; but his spirit was gazing the while upon a
very different scene. He saw his tumultuous countrymen

308

THE FAIR HAVEN

armed with sword and spear, brave, impetuous, full of the
headlong courage which made their race irresistible for attack,
but lacking the cool methodical discipline, the stern habitual
self-reliance so indispensable for a wearing and protracted
defence ; and he saw also the long even lines under the
eagles, the impregnable array of the legions ; their fortified
camp, their mechanical discipline, their exact manoeuvres,
and the calm confident strength that was converging day
by day for the downfall and destruction of his people. Then
he moved restlessly, like a man impatient of actual fetters
about his limbs, for he would fain be amongst them again,
with his armour on and his spear in his hand. Calchas, too,
was on board the anchored galley. He looked on the fair
scene around as those look who fsee good in everything.
And then his eye wandered from the glowing land, and the
cloudless heaven, and the sparkling sea, to the stately form
of Esca, and Mariamne with her gentle loving face, ere it
sought his task again, the perusal of his treasured Syriac
scroll ; for the old man, who took his share of all the labours
and hardships incidental to a sea-voyage, spent in sacred
study many of the hours devoted by others to rest ; his lips
moved in prayer, and he called down a blessing on the head
of the proselyte he had gained over, and the kinsman he
loved.

After the success of the tribune's plot, and the escape
of Esca from the imperial palace, Rome was no longer a
place in which the Briton might remain in safety. Julius
Placid us, although, from the prominent part taken by
Domitian in public affairs, he had not attained such power as
he anticipated, was yet sufficiently formidable to be a fatal
enemy, and it was obvious that the only chance of life was
immediately to leave the neighbourhood of so implacable
an adversary. The murder, too, of Vitellius, and the
accession of Vespasian, rendered Eleazar's further stay at
Rome unnecessary, and even impolitic, while the services
rendered t% Mariamne by her champion and lover, had
given him a claim to the protection of the Jewish household,
and the intimacy of its members. On condition of his con-
forming to certain fasts and observances, Eleazar therefore
willingly gave Esca the shelter of his roof, concealed him
whilst he himself made preparations for a hasty departure,
and suffered him to accompany the other two members that
constituted his family, on their voyage home to Jerusalem.
After many storms and casualties, half of that voyage was
completed, and the attachment between Esca and Mariamne

309

ANTEROS

which sprang up so unexpectedly at the corner of a street
in Rome, had now grown to the engrossing and abiding
affection which lasts for life, perhaps for eternity. Floating
in that fair haven, with the glow of love enhancing the
beauty of an earthly paradise, they quaffed at the cup of
happiness without remorse or misgiving, thankful for the
present and trusting for the future. As shipwreck had
threatened them but yesterday, as to-morrow they might
again be destined to weather stormy skies, and ride through
raging seas, so, although they had suffered great dangers
and hardships in life, greater were yet probably in store.
Nevertheless, to-day all was calm and sunshine, contentment,
security, and repose. They took it as it came, and standing
together on the galley's deck, the beauty of those two young
creatures seemed god-like, in the halo of their great joy.

" We shall never be parted here," whispered Esca, while
they stooped over the bulwark, and his hand stealing to his
companion's, pressed it in a gentle timid clasp.

With her large loving eyes full of tears, she leaned
towards him, nearer, nearer, till her cheek touched his
shoulder, and, pointing upward, she answered in the low
earnest tones that acknowledge neither doubt nor fear :
" Esca, we shall never be parted hereafter."

310

/I&ofra

CHAPTER I

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

HE Feast of the Passover was at
hand ; the feast that was wont to
call the children of Israel out of all
parts of Syria to worship in the
Holy City ; the feast that had cele-
brated their deliverance from the
relentless grasp of Pharaoh: that
was ordained to mark the fulfilment
of prophecy in the downfall of the
chosen people, and their national
extinction under the imperial might
of Rome. Nevertheless, even this,
the last Passover held in that Temple
of which Solomon was the founder, and in the destruction of
which, notwithstanding its sacred character, not one stone was
permitted to remain upon another, had collected vast multi-
tudes of the descendants of Abraham from all parts of Judsea,
Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and other regions, to increase the
sufferings of famine, and enhance the horrors of a siege. True
to the character of their religion, rigidly observant of outward
ceremonies, and admitting no exemptions from the require-
ments of the law, they swarmed in thousands and tens of
thousands to their devoted city, round which even now Titus
was drawing closer and closer the iron band of blockade, over
which the Roman eagles were hovering, ere they swooped
down irresistible on their prey.

There was the hush of coming destruction in the very
stillness of the Syrian noon, as it glowed on the white carved
pinnacles of the temple, and flashed from its golden roof.
There was a menace in the tall black cypresses, pointing as
it were with warning gesture towards the sky. There was

MOIRA

a loathsome reality of carnage about the frequent vulture,
poised on his wide wings over every open space, or flapping
heavily away with loaded gorge and dripping beak, from
his hideous meal. Jerusalem lay like some royal lady in
her death-pang ; the fair face changed and livid in its ghastly
beauty, the queenly brow warped beneath its diadem, and
the wasted limbs quivering with agony under their robe of
scarlet and gold.

Inside the walls, splendour and misery, unholy mirth and
abject despair, the pomp of war and the pressure of starvation,
were mingled in frightful contrast. Beneath the shadow of
princely edifices dead bodies lay unburied and uncared-for
in the streets. Wherever was a foot or two of shelter from
the sun, there some poor wretch seemed to have dragged
himself to die. Marble pillars, lofty porches, white terraces,
and luxuriant gardens denoted the wealth of the city, and
the pride of its inhabitants ; yet squalid figures crawling
about, bent low towards the ground, sought eagerly here and
there for every substance that could be converted into nourish-
ment, and the absence of all offal and refuse on the pavement
denoted the sad scarcity even of such loathsome food.

The city of Jerusalem, built upon two opposite hills, of
which the plan of the streets running from top to bottom
in each, and separated only by a narrow valley, exactly
corresponded, was admirably adapted to purposes of defence.
The higher hill, on which was situated the upper town and
the holy Temple, might, from the very nature of its position,
be considered impregnable ; and even the lower offered on
its outside so steep and precipitous an ascent as to be almost
inaccessible by regular troops. In addition to its natural
strength, the city was further defended by walls of enormous
height and solidity, protected by large square towers, each
capable of containing a formidable garrison, and supplied
with reservoirs of water and all other necessaries of war.
Herod the Great, who, notwithstanding his vices, his crimes,
and his occasional fits of passion amounting to madness,
possessed the qualities both of a statesman and a soldier,
had not neglected the means at his disposal for the security
of his capital. He had himself superintended the raising
of one of these walls at great care and expense, and had
added to it three lofty towers, which he named after his friend,
his brother, and his ill-fated wife.1 These were constructed

1 Hippicus, Phasaelus, and lovely Mariamne, for whom, in the dead of
night, the great king used to call out in his agony of remorse when she was
no more.

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A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

of huge blocks of marble, fitted to each other with such
nicety, and afterwards wrought out by the workman's hand
with such skill, that the whole edifice appeared to be cut
from one gigantic mass of stone. In the days, too, of that
magnificent monarch, these towers were nothing less than
palaces within, containing guest-chambers, banqueting-rooms,
porticoes, nay, even fountains, gardens, and cisterns, with
great store of precious stones, gold and silver vessels, and
all the barbaric wealth of Judaea's fierce and powerful king.
Defended by Herod, even a Roman army might have turned
away discomfited from before Jerusalem.

Agrippa, too, the first of that name, who was afterwards
stricken with a loathsome disease, and " eaten of worms," like
a mere mortal, while he affected the attributes of a god,
commenced a system of fortification to surround the city,
which would have laughed to scorn the efforts of an enemy ;
but the Jewish monarch was too dependent on his imperial
master at Rome to brave his suspicion by proceeding with
it ; and although a wall of magnificent design was begun,
and even raised to a considerable height, it was never
finished in the stupendous proportions originally intended.
The Jews, indeed, after the death of its founder, strengthened
it considerably, and completed it for purposes of defence, but
not to the extent by which Agrippa proposed to render the
town impregnable.

And even had Jerusalem been entered and invested by an
enemy, the Temple, which was also the citadel of the place,
had yet to be taken. This magnificent building, the very
stronghold of the wealth and devotion of Judaea, the very
symbol of that nationality which was still so prized by the
posterity of Jacob, was situated on the summit of the higher
hill, from which it looked down and commanded both the
upper and lower cities. On three sides it was artificially
fortified with extreme caution, while on the fourth, it was so
precipitous as to defy even the chances of a surprise. To
possess the Temple was to hold the whole town as it were in
hand ; nor was its position less a matter of importance to the
assailed than its splendour rendered it an object of cupidity
to the assailants. Every ornament of architecture was
lavished upon its cloisters, its pillars, its porticoes, and its
walls. Its outward gates even, according to their respective
positions, were brass, silver, and gold ; its beams were of
cedar, and other choice woods inlaid with the precious metal,
which was also thickly spread over doorposts, candlesticks,
cornices — everything that would admit of such costly

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decoration. The fifteen steps that led from the Court of the
Women to the great Corinthian gate, with its double doors of
forty cubits high, were worth as many talents of gold as they
numbered.1

To those who entered far enough to behold what was
termed the Inner Temple, a sight was presented which
dazzled eyes accustomed to the splendour of the greatest
monarchs on earth. Its whole front was covered with plates
of beaten gold ; vines bearing clusters of grapes the size of a
man's finger, all of solid gold, were twined about and around
its gates, of which the spikes were pointed sharp, that birds
might not pollute them by perching there. Within were
golden doors of fifty-five cubits in height; and before this
entrance hung the celebrated veil of the Temple. It
consisted of a curtain embroidered with blue, fine linen,
scarlet and purple, signifying by mystical interpretation, a
figure of the universe, wherein the flax typified earth ; the
blue, air ; the scarlet, fire ; and the purple, water. Within
this sumptuous shrine were contained the candlestick, the
table of shew-bread, and the altar of incense : the seven
lamps of the first denoting the seven planets of heaven ; the
twelve loaves on the second representing the circle of the
zodiac and the year ; while the thirteen sweet-smelling spices
on the third, reminded men of the Great Giver of all good
things in the whole world. In the inmost part, again, of this
Inner Temple was that sacred space, into which mortal eye
might not look, nor mortal step enter. Secluded, awful,
invisible, divested of all material object, it typified forcibly to
the Jew the nature of that spiritual worship which was taught
him through Abraham and the Patriarchs, direct from heaven.

All men, however, of all creeds and nations, might gaze
upon the outward front of the Temple, and judge by the
magnificence of the covering the costly splendour of the
shrine it contained. While a dome of pure white marble
rose above it like a mountain of snow, the front itself of the
Temple was overlaid with massive plates of gold, so that
when it flashed in the sunrise men could no more look upon
it than on the god of day himself. Far off in his camp,
watching the beleaguered city, how often may the Roman
soldier have pondered in covetous admiration, speculating on
the strength of its defenders and the value of his prey !

The Temple of Jerusalem then was celebrated through all
the known earth for its size, its splendour, and its untold
wealth. The town, strong in its natural position and its

1 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book v. sec. 5.

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

artificial defences, garrisoned, moreover, by a fierce and
warlike people, whose impetuous valour could be gauged by
no calculations of military experience, was justly esteemed so
impregnable a fortress, as might mock the attack of a Roman
army even under such a leader as the son of Vespasian.
Had it been assailed by none other than the enemy outside
the walls, the Holy Place need never have been desecrated
and despoiled by the legions, the baffled eagles would have
been driven westward, balked of their glorious prey. But
here was a "house divided against itself." The dissension
within the walls was far more terrible than the foe without.
Blood flowed faster in the streets than on the ramparts.
Many causes originating in his past history, had combined to
shake the loyalty and undermine the nationality of the Jew.
Perhaps, for the wisest purposes, it seems ordained that true
religion should be especially prone to schism. Humanity,
however high its aspirations, cannot be wholly refined from
its earthly dross ; and those who are the most in earnest
are sometimes the most captious and unforgiving. While
worship for his Maker appears to be a natural instinct of man,
it needed a teacher direct from heaven to inculcate forbear-
ance and brotherly love. The Jews were sufficiently ill-
disposed to those of their own faith, who differed with them
on unimportant points of doctrine, or minute observance of
outward ceremonies ; but where the heresy extended to
fundamental tenets of their creed, they seemed to have hated
each other honestly, rancorously, and mercilessly, as only
brethren can.

Now for many generations they have been divided into
three principal sects, differing widely in belief, principle, and
practice. These were distinguished by the names of Pharisees,
Sadducees, and Essenes. The first, as is well known, were
rigid observers of the traditional law, handed down to them
from their fathers, attaching fully as much importance to its
letter as to its spirit. With a vague belief in what is
understood by the term predestination, they yet allowed
to mankind the choice between good and evil, confounding,
perhaps, the foreknowledge of the Creator with the freewill of
the creature, and believed in the immortality of souls, and the
doctrine of eternal punishment. Their failings seem to have
been inordinate religious pride, and undue exaltation of
outward forms to the neglect of that which they symbolised ;
a grasping ambition of priestly power, and an utter want of
charity for those who differed in opinion with themselves.

The Sadducees, though professing belief in the Deity,

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MOIRA

argued an entire absence of influence from above on the
conduct of the human race. Limiting the dispensation of
reward and punishment to this world, they esteemed it a
matter of choice with mankind to earn the one or incur the
other ; and as they utterly ignored the life to come, were
content to enjoy temporal blessings, and to deprecate
physical evil alone. Though wanting a certain genial
philosophy on which the heathen prided himself, the
Sadducee, both in principles and practice, seems closely
to have resembled the Epicurean of ancient Greece and
Rome.

But there was also a third sect which numbered many
votaries throughout Judaea, in whose tenets we discover
several points of similarity with our own, and whose ranks, it is
not unfair to suppose, furnished numbers of the early converts
to Christianity. These were the Essenes, a persuasion that
rejected pleasure as a positive evil, and with whom a com-
munity of goods was the prevailing and fundamental rule of
the order. These men, while they affected celibacy, chose
out the children of others to provide for and educate. While
they neither bought nor sold, they never wanted the neces-
saries of life, for each gave and received ungrudgingly,
according to his own and his neighbour's need. While they
despised riches, they practised a strict economy, appointing
stewards to care for and dispense that common patrimony
which was raised by the joint subscription of all. Scattered
over the whole country, in every city they were sure of finding
a home, and none took on a journey either money, food, or
raiment, because he was provided by his brethren with all he
required wherever he stopped to rest. Their piety, too, was
exemplary. Before sunrise not a word was spoken referring
to earthly concerns, but public prayer was offered, imploring
the blessing of light day by day before it came. Then they
dispersed to their different handicrafts, by which they earned
wages for the general purse. Meeting together once more,
they bathed in cold water and sat down in white garments to
their temperate meal, in which a sufficiency and no more was
provided for each person, and again separated to labour till
the evening, when they assembled for supper in the same
manner before going to rest.

The vows taken by all who were admitted into their
society, and that only after a two years' probation, sufficiently
indicated the purity and benevolence of their code. These
swore to observe piety towards God, and justice towards men ;
to do no one an injury, either voluntarily or by command of

316

HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

others ; to avoid the evil, and to aid the good ; to obey legal
authority as coming from above ; to love truth, and openly
reprove a lie ; to keep the hands clean from theft, and the
heart from unfair gain ; neither to conceal anything from
their own sect, nor to discover their secrets to others, but to
guard them with life; also to impart these doctrines to a
proselyte literally and exactly as each had received them
himself. If one of the order committed any grievous sin, he
was cast out of their society for a time ; a sentence which
implied starvation, as he had previously sworn never to eat
save in the presence of his brethren. When in the last stage
of exhaustion he was received again, as having suffered a
punishment commensurate with his crime, and which, by the
maceration of the body, should purify and save the soul.

With such tenets and such training, the Essenes were con-
spicuous for their confidence in danger, their endurance of
privation, and their contempt for death. The flesh they
despised as the mere corruptible covering of the spirit,
that imperishable essence, of which the aspiration was ever
upwards, and which, when released from prison, in obedience
to the dictates of its very nature, flew direct to heaven. Un-
doubtedly such doctrines as these, scattered here and there
throughout the land, partially redeemed the Jewish character
from the fierce unnatural stage of fanaticism, to which it had
arrived at the period of the Christian era — afforded, it may
be, a leavening which preserved the whole people from utter
reprobation ; and helped, perhaps, to smooth the way for
those pioneers, who carried the good tidings first heard
beneath the star of Bethlehem, westward through the world.

But at the period when Jerusalem lay beleaguered by
Titus and his legions, three political parties raged within her
walls, to whose furious fanaticism her three religious sects
could offer no comparison. The first and most moderate of
these, though men who scrupled not to enforce their opinions
with violence, had considerable influence with the great bulk
of the populace, and were, indeed, more than either of the
others, free from selfish motives, and sincere in their desire
for the common good. They affected a great concern for
the safety and credit of their religion, making no small outcry
at the fact that certain stones and timber, provided formerly
by Agrippa for the decoration of the Temple, had been
desecrated by being applied to the repair of the defences and
the construction of engines of war. They observed, also, how
the rivalry of faction, in which, nevertheless, they took a
prominent part, devastated the city more than any efforts of

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the enemy ; and they did not scruple to paralyse the energies
of the besieged, by averring that the military rule of the
Romans, wise and temperate, though despotic, was preferable
to the alternations of tyranny and anarchy under which they
lived.

This numerous party was especially displeasing to Eleazar,
whose restless force of character and fanatical courage were
impatient of any attempt at capitulation, who was determined
on resistance to the death, and the utter destruction of the
Holy City rather than its surrender. He was now living in
the element of storm and strife, which seemed most congenial
to his nature. No longer a foreign intriguer, disguised in
poor attire, and hiding his head in a back street of Rome, the
Jew seemed to put on fresh valour every day with his breast-
plate, and walked abroad in the streets or directed operations
from the ramparts ; a mark for friend and foe, in his splendid
armour, with the port of a warrior, a patriarch and a king.
He was avowedly at the head of a numerous section of the
seditious, who had adopted the title of Zealots; and who,
affecting the warmest enthusiasm in the cause of patriotism
and religion, were utterly unscrupulous as to the means by
which they furthered their own objects and aggrandisement.
Their practice was indeed much opposed to the principles
they professed, and to that zeal for religion from which they
took their name. They had not scrupled to cast lots for the
priesthood, and to confer the highest and holiest office of the
nation on an illiterate rustic, whose only claim to the sacer-
dotal dignity consisted in his relationship with one of the
pontifical tribes. Oppression, insult, and rapine inflicted on
their countrymen, had rendered the very name of Zealot
hateful to the mass of the people ; but they numbered in
their ranks many desperate and determined men, skilled in
the use of arms, and ready to perpetrate any act of violence
on friend or foe. In the hands of a bold unscrupulous leader,
they were sharp and efficient weapons. As such Eleazar
considered them, keeping them under his own control and
fit for immediate use.

The third of these factions, which was also perhaps the
most numerous, excited the apprehensions of the more peace-
ably disposed no less than the hatred of the last-mentioned
party who had put Eleazar at their head. It was led by a
man distinguished alike for consummate duplicity and reckless
daring — John of Gischala, so called from a small town in
Judaea, the inhabitants of which he had influenced to hold
out against the Romans, and whence he had himself escaped

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

by a stratagem, redounding as much to the clemency of Titus
as to his own dishonour.

Gischala being inhabited by a rural and unwarlike popula-
tion, unprovided besides with defences against regular troops,
would have fallen an easy prey to the prince with his handful
of horsemen, had it not been for that disposition to clemency
which Titus, in common with other great warriors, seems to
have indulged when occasion offered. Knowing that if the
place were carried by storm it would be impossible to restrain
his soldiers from putting the inhabitants to the sword, he rode
in person within earshot of the wall, and exhorted the de-
fenders to open their gates and trust to his forbearance, a
proposal to which John, who with his adherents completely
overmastered and dominated the population, took upon him-
self to reply. He reminded the Roman commander that it
was the Sabbath, a day on which not only was it unlawful
for the Jews to undertake any matters of war, policy, or
business, but even to treat of such, and therefore they could
not so much as entertain the present proposals of peace ; but
that if the Romans would give them four-and-twenty hours'
respite, during which period they could surround the city
with their camp, so that none could escape from it, the keys
of the gate should be given up to him on the following day,
when he might enter in triumph and take possession of the
place. Titus withdrew accordingly, probably for want of
forage, to a village at some distance, and John with his
followers, accompanied by a multitude of women and children,
whom he afterwards abandoned, made his escape in the night
and fled to Jerusalem.

After such a breach of faith, he could expect nothing from
the clemency of the Roman general ; so that John of Gischala,
like many others of the besieged, might be said to fight with
a rope round his neck.

Within the city there had now been a fierce struggle for
power between the Zealots under Eleazar, and the reckless
party called by different opprobrious terms, of which
" Robbers " was the mildest, who followed the fortunes of
John. The peaceful section, unable to make head against
these two, looked anxiously for the entrance of the eagles,
many indeed of the wealthier deserting when practicable to
the camp of the enemy. Meanwhile the Romans pushed the
siege vigorously. Their army now consisted of Vespasian's
choicest legions, commanded by his son in person. Their
engines of war were numerous and powerful. Skilful, scien-
tific, exact in discipline, and unimpeachable in courage, they

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MOIRA

were gradually but surely converging, in all their strength,
for one conclusive effort on the devoted city. Already the
second wall had been taken, retaken in a desperate struggle
by the besieged, and once more stormed and carried by the
legions. Famine, too, with her cruel hand, was withering
the strongest arms and chilling the bravest hearts in the city.
It was time to forget self-interest, faction, fanaticism, every-
thing but the nationality of Judaea, and the enemy at the
gate.

320

CHAPTER II

THE LION OF JUDAH

T 7* LEAZAR had resolved to obtain supreme command.

IJ In a crisis like the present, no divided authority could
be expected to offer a successful resistance. John of Gischala
must be ruined % by any means and at any sacrifice. His
unscrupulous rival, regardless of honour, truth, every con-
sideration but the rescue of his country, laid his plans accord-
ingly. With a plausible pretence of being reconciled, and
thus amalgamating two formidable armies for the common
good, he proposed to hold a conference with John in the
Outer Court of the Temple, where, in presence of the elders
and chief men of the city, they should arrange their past
differences and enter into a compact of alliance for the future.
The Great Council of the nation, ostensibly the rulers of
public affairs, and influenced alternately by the two antag-
onists, were to be present. Eleazar thought it would go hard,
but that, with his own persuasive powers and public services,
he should gain some signal advantage over his adversary ere
they separated.

He appeared, accordingly, at the place of conference,
splendidly armed indeed in his own person, but accompanied
by a small retinue of adherents all attired in long peaceful
robes, as though inviting the confidence of his enemy.
Observant eyes, it is true, and attentive ears, caught the
occasional clank and glitter of steel under these innocent
linen mantles, and the friends, if few in number, were of tried
valour and fidelity, while a mob of warlike men outside, who
had gathered ostensibly to look idly on, belonged obviously
to the party of the Zealots. Nevertheless, Eleazar had so
contrived matters that, while he guarded against surprise,
he should appear before the Council as a suppliant im-
ploring justice rather than a leader dictating terms. He
took up his position, accordingly, at the lower end of the
court, and after a deep obeisance to the assembled elders,
stood, as it were, in the background, assuming an air of
X 321

MOIRA

humility somewhat at variance with his noble and warlike
exterior.

His rival, on the contrary, whose followers completely
blocked up the entrance from the Temple, through which he
had thought it becoming to arrive, strode into the midst with
a proud and insolent bearing, scarcely deigning to acknow-
ledge the salutations he received, and glancing from time to
time back amongst his adherents, with scornful smiles, that
seemed to express a fierce contempt for the whole proceeding.
He was a man who, though scarcely past his youth, wore in
his face the traces of his vicious and disorderly career. His
features were flushed and swollen with intemperance ; and
the deep lines about his mouth, only half concealed by the
long moustache and beard, denoted the existence of violent
passions, indulged habitually to excess. His large stature
and powerful frame set off the magnificence of his dress and
armour, nor was his eye without a flash of daring and defiance
that boded evil to an enemy ; but his bearing, bold as it was,
smacked rather of the outlaw than the soldier, and his rude,
abrupt gestures contrasted disadvantageously with the cool
self-possession of his rival. The latter, asking permission, as
it were, of the Senate by another respectful obeisance, walked
frankly into the middle of the court to meet his foe. John
changed colour visibly, and his hand stole to the dagger at
his belt. He seemed to expect the treachery of which he
felt himself capable; but Eleazar, halting a full pace off,
looked him steadily in the face, and held out his right hand
in token of amity and reconciliation. A murmur of approval
ran through the Senate, which increased John's uncertainty
how to act ; but after a moment's hesitation, unwillingly and
with a bad grace, he gave his own in return.

Eleazar's action, though apparently so frank and spon-
taneous, was the result of calculation. He had now made
the impression he desired on the Senate, and secured the
favourable hearing which he believed was alone necessary for
his triumph.

" We have been enemies," said he, releasing the other's
hand and turning to the assembly, while his full voice rang
through the whole court, and every syllable reached the
listeners outside. " We have been fair and open enemies, in
the belief that each was opposed to the interests of his
country ; but the privations we have now undergone in the
same cause, the perils we have confronted side by side on the
same ramparts, must have convinced us that however we may
differ in our political tenets, nay, in our religious practices,

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THE LION OF JUDAH

we are equally sincere in a determination to shed our last
drop of blood in the defence of the Holy City from the
pollution of the heathen. This is no time for any considera-
tion but one — Jerusalem is invested, the Temple is threatened,
and the enemy at the gate. I give up all claim to authority,
save as a leader of armed men. I yield precedence in rank,
in council, in everything but danger. I devote my sword and
my life to the salvation of Judaea ! Who is on my side? "

Loud acclamations followed this generous avowal ; and it
was obvious that Eleazar's influence was more than ever in
the ascendant. It was no time for John to stem the torrent
of popular feeling, and he wisely floated with the stream.
Putting a strong control upon his wrath, he expressed to the
Senate in a few hesitating words, his consent to act in unison
with his rival, under their orders as Supreme Council of the
nation ; a concession which elicited groans and murmurs from
his own partisans, many of whom forced their way with
insolent threats and angry gestures into the court. Eleazar
did not suffer the opportunity to escape without a fresh effort
for the downfall of his adversary.

" There are men," said he, pointing to the disaffected, and
raising his voice in full clear tones, "who had better have
swelled the ranks of the enemy than stood side by side with
Judah on the ramparts of Agrippa's wall. They may be
brave in battle, but it is with a fierce undisciplined courage
more dangerous to friend than foe. Their very leader, bold
and skilful soldier as he is, cannot restrain such mutineers
even in the august presence of the Council. Their excesses
are laid to his charge ; and a worthy and patriotic commander
becomes the scapegoat of a few ruffians whose crimes he is
powerless to prevent. John of Gischala, we have this day
exchanged the right hand of fellowship. We are friends, nay,
we are brothers-in-arms once more. I call upon thee, as a
brother, to dismiss these robbers, these paid cut-throats, whom
our very enemies stigmatise as ' Sicarii,' and to cast in thy
lot with thine own people, and with thy father's house ! "

John shot an eager glance from his rival to his followers.
The latter were bending angry brows upon the speaker, and
seemed sufficiently discontented with their own leader that
he should listen tamely to such a proposal. Swords, too,
were drawn by those in the rear, and brandished fiercely over
the heads of the seething mass. For an instant the thought
crossed his mind, that he had force enough to put the
opposing assemblage, Senate and all, to the sword ; but his
quick practised glance taught him at the same time, that

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Eleazar's party gathered quietly towards their chief, with
a confidence unusual in men really without arms, and a
methodical precision that denoted previous arrangement;
also that certain signals passed from them to the crowd, and
that the court was filling rapidly from the multitude without.
He determined then to dissemble for a time, and turned to
the Senate with a far more deferential air than he had yet
assumed.

" I appeal to the elders of Judah," said he, repressing at
the same time by a gesture the turbulence of his followers —
" I am content to abide by the decision of the National
Council. Is to-day a fitting season for the reduction of our
armament ? Shall I choose the present occasion to disband
a body of disciplined soldiers, and turn a host of outraged
and revengeful men loose into the city with swords in their
hands ? Have we not already enough idle mouths to feed,
or can we spare a single javelin from the walls ? My brother"
— he laid great stress upon the word, and gripped the haft of
his dagger under his mantle while he spoke it — " My brother
gives strange counsel, but I am willing to believe it sincere.
I too, though the words drop not like honey from my beard
as from his, have a right to be heard. Did I not leave
Gischala and my father's vineyard for a prey to the enemy ?
Did I not fool the whole Roman army, and mock Titus to
his face, that I might join in the defence of Jerusalem ? and
shall I be schooled like an infant, or impeached for a traitor
to-day ? Judge me by the result. I was on the walls this
morning ; I saw not my brother there. The enemy were
preparing for an assault. The engine they call Victory had
been moved yet nearer by a hundred cubits. While we prate
here the eagles are advancing. To the walls ! To the walls,
I say ! Every man who calls himself a Jew ; be he Priest or
Levite, Pharisee or Sadducee, Zealot or Essene. Let us see
whether John and his Sicarii are not as forward in the ranks
of the enemy as this brother of mine, Eleazar, and the bravest
he can bring ! "

Thus speaking, and regardless of the presence in which
he stood, John drew his sword and placed himself at the head
of his adherents, who with loud shouts demanded to be led
instantly to the ramparts. The enthusiasm spread like wild-
fire, and even communicated itself to the Council. Eleazar's
own friends caught the contagion, and the whole mass poured
out of the Temple, and, forming into bands in the streets,
hurried tumultuously to the walls.

What John had stated to the Council was indeed true.

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The Romans, who had previously demolished the outer wall
and a considerable portion of the suburbs, had now for the
second time obtained possession of the second wall, and of
the high flanking tower called Antonia, which John, to do
him justice, had defended with great gallantry after he had
retaken it once from the assailants. It was from this point
of vantage that an attack was now organised by the flower of
the Roman army, having for its object the overthrow of her
last defences and complete reduction of the city. When
Eleazar and his rival appeared with their respective bands
they proved a welcome reinforcement to the defenders, who,
despite of their stubborn resistance, were hardly pressed by
the enemy.

Every able-bodied Jew was a soldier on occasion. Troops
thus composed are invariably more formidable in attack than
defence. They have usually undaunted courage and a blind
headlong valour that sometimes defies the calculations of
military science or experience ; but they are also susceptible
of panic under reverses, and lack the cohesion and solidity
which is only found in those who make warfare the profession
of a lifetime. The Jew armed with spear and sword, utter-
ing wild cries as he leaped to the assault, was nearly irre-
sistible ; but once repulsed, his final discomfiture was imminent.
The Roman, on the contrary, never suffered himself to be
drawn out of his ranks by unforeseen successes, and preserved
the same methodical order in the advance as the retreat. He
was not, therefore, to be lured into an ambush however well
disguised ; and even when outnumbered by a superior force,
could retire without defeat.

The constitution of the legion, too, was especially adapted
to enhance the self-reliance of well-drilled troops. Every
Roman legion was a small army in itself, containing its
proportion of infantry, cavalry, engines of war, and means
for conveyance of baggage. A legion finding itself never so
unexpectedly detached from the main body, was at no loss
for those necessaries without which an army melts away like
snow in the sunshine, and was capable of independent action,
in any country and under any circumstances. Each man too
had perfect confidence in himself and his comrades; and
while it was esteemed so high a disgrace to be taken prisoner
that many soldiers have been known rather to die by their
own hands than submit to such dishonour, it is not surpris-
ing that the imperial armies were often found to extricate
themselves with credit from positions which would have
ensured the destruction of any other troops in the world.

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MOIRA

The internal arrangement, too, of every cohort, a title
perhaps answering to the modern word regiment, as does the
legion to that of division, was calculated to promote individual
intelligence and energy in the ranks. Every soldier not only
fought, but fed, slept, marched, and toiled, under the im-
mediate eye of his decurion or captain of ten, who again was
directly responsible for those under his orders to his centurion,
or captain of a hundred. A certain number of these centuries
or companies, varying according to circumstances, constituted
a maniple, two of which made up the cohort. Every legion
consisted of ten cohorts, under the charge of but six tribunes,
who seem to have entered on their onerous office in rotation.
These were again subservient to the general, who, under the
different titles of praetor, consul, etc., commanded the whole
legion. The private soldiers were armed with shield, breast-
plate, helmet, spear, sword, and dagger ; but in addition to
his weapons every man carried a set of intrenching tools, and
on occasion two or more strong stakes, for the rapid erection
of palisades. All were, indeed, robust labourers and skilful
mechanics, as well as invincible combatants.

The Jews, therefore, though a fierce and warlike nation,
had but little chance against the conquerors of the world.
It was but their characteristic self-devotion that enabled
them to hold Titus and his legions so long in check. Their
desperate sallies were occasionally crowned with success, and
the generous Roman seems to have respected the valour and
the misfortunes of his foe ; but it must have been obvious to
so skilful a leader, that his reduction of Jerusalem and eventual
possession of all Judaea was a question only of time.

At an earlier period of the siege the Romans had made a
wide and shallow cutting capable of sheltering infantry, for
the purpose of advancing their engines closer to the wall,
but from the nature of the soil this work had been afterwards
discontinued. It now formed a moderately-secure covered-
way, enabling the besieged to reach within a short distance
of the Tower of Antonia, the retaking of which was of the
last importance — none the less that from its summit Titus
himself was directing the operations of his army. There was
a breach in this tower on its inner side, which the Romans
strove in vain to repair, harassed as they were by showers of
darts and javelins from the enemy on the wall. More than
once, in attempting to make it good at night, their materials
had been burnt and themselves driven back upon their works
with great loss, by the valour of the besieged. The Tower of
Antonia was indeed the key to the possession of the second

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THE LION OF JUDAH

wall. Could it but be retaken, as it had already been, the
Jews might find themselves once more with two strong lines
of defence between the upper city and the foe.

When Eleazar and John, at the head of their respective
parties, now mingled indiscriminately together, reached the
summit of the inner wall, they witnessed a fierce and desperate
struggle in the open space below.

Esca, no longer in the position of a mere household slave,
but the friend and client of the most influential man in
Jerusalem, who had admitted him, men said, as a proselyte
to his faith, and was about to bestow on him his daughter
in marriage, had already so distinguished himself by various
feats of arms in the defence of the city, as to be esteemed one
of the boldest leaders in the Jewish army. Panting to achieve
a high reputation, which he sometimes dared to hope might
gain him all he wished for on earth — the hand of Mariamne
— and sharing to a great extent with the besieged their vener-
ation for the Temple and abhorrence of a foreign yoke, the
Briton lost no opportunity of adding a leaf to the laurels he
had gained, and thrust himself prominently forward in every
enterprise demanding an unusual amount of strength and
courage. His lofty stature and waving golden hair, so con-
spicuous amongst the swarthy warriors who surrounded him,
were soon well known in the ranks of the Romans, who
bestowed on him the title of the Yellow Hostage, as inferring
from his appearance that he must have lately been a stranger
in Jerusalem ; and many a stout legionary closed in more
firmly on his comrade, and raised his shield more warily to
the level of his eyes, when he saw those bright locks waving
above the press of battle, and the long sword flashing with
deadly strokes around that fair young head. He was now
leading a party of chosen warriors, along the covered-way
that has been mentioned, to attack the Tower of Antonia.
For this purpose, the trench had been deepened during the
night by the Jews themselves, who had for some days medi-
tated a bold stroke of this nature ; and the chosen band had
good reason to believe that their movements were unseen and
unsuspected by the enemy.

As they deployed into the open space, but a few furlongs
from the base of the tower, the Jews caught sight of Titus on
the summit, his golden armour flashing in the sun, and, with
a wild yell of triumph, they made one of their fierce, rushing,
disorderly charges to the attack. They had reached within
twenty paces of the breach, when swooping round the angle
of the tower, like a falcon on his prey, came Placidus, at the

327

MOIRA

head of a thousand horsemen, dashing forward with lifted
shields and levelled spears amongst the disorganised mass of
the Jews, broken by the very impetus of their own advance.

The tribune had but lately joined the Roman army, having
been employed in the subjugation of a remote province of
Judaea — a task for which his character made him a peculiarly
fit instrument. Enriched by a few months of extortion and
rapine, he had taken care to rejoin his commander in time to
share with him the crowning triumphs of the siege. Julius
Placidus was a consummate soldier. His vigilance had de-
tected the meditated attack, and his science was prepared to
meet it in the most effectual manner. Titus, from the summit
of his tower, could not but admire the boldness and rapidity
with which the tribune dashed from his concealment, and
launched his cavalry on the astonished foe.

But he had to do with one, who, though his inferior in
skill and experience, was his equal in that cool hardihood
which can accept and baffle a surprise. Esca had divided
his force into two bodies, so that the second might advance
in a dense mass to the support of the first, whether its dis-
orderly attack should be attended by failure or success. This
body, though clear of the trench, yet remaining firm in its
ranks, now became a rallying point for its comrades, and
although a vast number of the Jews were ridden down and
speared by the attacking horsemen, there were enough left
to form a bristling phalanx, presenting two converging fronts
of level steel impervious to the enemy. Placidus observed
the manoeuvre and ground his teeth in despite ; but though
his brow lowered for one instant, the evil smile lit up his
face the next, for he espied Esca, detached from his band
and engaged in rallying its stragglers ; nor did he fail to
recognise at a glance the man he most hated on earth.
Urging his horse to speed, and even at that moment of
gratified fury glancing towards the tower to see whether
Titus was looking on, he levelled his spear and bore down
upon the Briton in a desperate and irresistible charge. Esca
stepped nimbly aside, and receiving the weapon on his
buckler, dealt a sweeping sword-cut at the tribune's head,
which stooping to avoid, the latter pulled at his horse's reins
so vigorously as to check the animal's career and bring it
suddenly on its haunches. The Briton, watching his oppor-
tunity, seized the bit in his powerful grasp, and with the aid
of his massive weight and strength, rolled man and horse to
the ground in a crashing fall. The tribune was undermost,
and for the moment at the mercy of his adversary. Looking

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THE LION OF JUDAH

upward with a livid face and deep bitter hatred glaring in his
eye, he did but hiss out 5" Oh, mine enemy ! " from between
his clenched teeth, and prepared to receive his deathblow ;
but the hand that was raised to strike, fell quietly to Esca's
side, and he turned back through the press of horsemen,
buffeting them from him as a swimmer buffets the waves,
till he reached his own men. Placidus, rising from the ground,
shook his clenched fist at the retreating figure ; but he never
knew that he owed his preservation to the first-fruits of that
religion which had now taken root in the breast of his former
slave. When he groaned out in his despair "Oh, mine
enemy ! " the Briton remembered that this man had, indeed,
shown himself the bitterest and most implacable of his foes.
It was no mere impulse, but the influence of a deep abiding
principle that bade him now forgive and spare for the sake
of One whose lessons he was beginning to learn, and in whose
service he had resolved to enter. Amongst all the triumphs
and the exploits of that day, there was none more noble
than Esca's, when he lowered his sword and turned away,
unwilling, indeed, but resolute, from his fallen foe.

The fight raged fiercely still. Eleazar with his Zealots —
John of Gischala with his Robbers — rushed from the walls to
the assistance of their countrymen. The Roman force was
in its turn outnumbered and surrounded, though Placidus,
again on horseback, did all in the power of man to make
head against the mass of his assailants. Titus at length
ordered the Tenth Legion, called by his own name and con-
stituting the very flower of the Roman army, to the rescue
of their countrymen. Commanded by Licinius, in whose
cool and steady valour they had perfect confidence, these
soon turned the tide of combat, and forced the Jews back
to their defences ; not, however, until their general had re-
cognised in the Yellow Hostage the person of his favourite
slave, and thought, with a pang, that the fate of war would
forbid his ever seeing him face to face again, except as a
captive or a corpse.

329

CHAPTER III

THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT

1 ^ VER since the night which changed the imperial master
Jj of Rome, Esca had dwelt with Eleazar as if he were
a member of the same family and the same creed. Though
Mariamne, according to the custom of her nation, confined
herself chiefly to the women's apartments, it was impossible
that two who loved each other so well as the Jewess and
the Briton should reside under the same roof without an
occasional interview. These usually took place when the
latter returned to unarm after his military duties ; and
though but a short greeting was interchanged, a hurried
inquiry, a few words of thanksgiving for his safety, and
assurances of her continued affection, these moments were
prized and looked forward to by both, as being the only
occasions on which they could enjoy each other's society
uninterrupted and alone.

After the repulse of the tribune's attack beneath the
Tower of Antonia, Esca returned in triumph to Eleazar's
house. He was escorted to the very door by the chief men
of the city, and a band of those chosen warriors who had
witnessed and shared in his exploits. Mariamne, from the
gallery which surrounded it, saw him enter her father's court
at the head of her father's friends, heard that father address
him before them all in a few soldierlike words of thanks
and commendation — nay, even observed him lead the suc-
cessful combatant away with him as though for some
communication of unusual confidence. The girl's heart
leaped within her; and vague hopes, of which she could
not have explained the grounds, took possession of her
mind. She loved him very dearly : they slept under the
same roof, they ate at the same board ; notwithstanding the
perils of warfare to which she was now habituated, they
met every day : but this was not enough ; something was
wanting still ; so she watched him depart with her father,
and grudged not the loss of her own short interview with

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THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT

its congratulations that she so longed to pour into his ear,
because the indefinite hopes that dawned on her, seemed to
promise more happiness than she could bear.

Eleazar took the helmet from his brow, and signed to
Esca to do the same. Then he filled a measure of wine,
and draining the half of it eagerly, handed the rest to his
companion. For a few minutes he paced up and down the
room, still wearing his breastplate, and with his sword girded
to his side, deep in thought, ere turning abruptly to
his companion he placed his hand on his shoulder, and
said —

"You have eaten my bread — you have drunk from my
cup. Esca, you are to me as a son ; will you do my
bidding?"

" Even as a son," replied the Briton ; to whom such an
address seemed at once to open the way for the fulfilment
of his dearest wishes.

Eleazar ignored the emphasis on the word. It may be
that his mind was too entirely engrossed with public interests
to admit a thought upon private affairs ; it may be that he
considered Esca, like the sword upon his thigh, as a strong
and serviceable weapon, to be laid aside when no longer
wanted for conflict; or it may be that his purpose was
honest, and that, after the salvation of his country, he would
have been actuated by the kindlier motives of a father and
a friend ; but in the meantime he had a purpose in view,
and no considerations of affection or partiality would have
led him to swerve from it by a hair's-breadth.

" Look around you," said he, " and behold the type of
Judaea, and especially of Jerusalem, in this very building.
See how fair and stately are the walls of my house, how
rich its ornaments, how costly its hangings and decorations.
Here are ivory, and sandal-wood, and cedar ; webs of divers
colours; robes of purple, stores of fine linen, vessels of
silver, and drinking-cups of gold ; frankincense and wine
are here in plenty, but of barley we have scarce a few
handfuls ; and if the same visitors that my father Abraham
entertained on the plains of Mamre were at my door to-day,
where should I find a kid that I might slay it, and set it
before them to eat? I have everything here in the house,
save that alone without which everything else is of no avail
— the daily bread that gives man strength for his daily task.
And so is it with my country : we have men, we have
weapons, we have wealth ; but we lack that which alone
renders those advantages efficient for defence — the constant

331

MOIRA

unshrinking reliance on itself and its faith, from which a
nation derives its daily resources as from its daily bread.
There are men here in the city now who would hand
Jerusalem over to the heathen without striking another blow
in her defence."

" Shame on them ! " answered the other warmly. " Bar-
barian, stranger as I am, I pledge myself to die there, ere
a Roman soldier's foot shall pollute the threshold of the
Temple."

" You are a warrior," answered Eleazar ; " you have
proved it to-day. As a warrior I consult with you on the
possibility of our defence. You saw the result of the conflict
under the Tower of Antonia, and the bravery of the Tenth
Legion ; we cannot resist another such attack till our de-
fences are repaired. We must gain time; at all hazards,
and at any sacrifice, we must gain time."

" In two days the breach might be strengthened," replied
the other ; " but Titus is an experienced soldier ; he was
watching us to-day from the summit of his tower. He will
hardly delay the assault beyond to-morrow."

" He must ! " answered Eleazar vehemently. " I have
my preparations for defence, and in less than two days the
city shall be again impregnable. Listen, Esca ; you little
know the opposition I have met with, or the hatred I have
incurred in overcoming it. I have sought means to preserve
the city from all quarters, and have thus given a handle to
my enemies that they will not fail to use for my destruction.
Have I not taken the holy oil from the sacrifice, to pour
boiling on the heads of the besiegers ? and will not John of
Gischala and the Robbers fling this sacrilege in my teeth
when it becomes known? Even at this moment I have
seized the small quantity of chaff there is yet remaining in
the city, to fill the sacks with which we may neutralise the
iron strokes of that heavy battering-ram, which the soldiers
themselves call Victory. There is scarce a grain of wheat
left, and many a hungry stomach must sleep to-night with-
out even the miserable meal it had promised itself, for want
of this poor measure of chaff. Men will curse Eleazar in
their prayers. It is cruel work, — cruel work. But, no ! I
will never abandon my post, and the seed of Jacob shall
eat one another for very hunger in the streets, ere I deliver
the Holy City into the keeping of the heathen."

Something almost like a tear shone in the eye of this
iron-hearted fanatic while he spoke, but his resolution was
not to be shaken ; and he only spoke the truth when he

332

THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT

avowed that famine, stalking abroad in its most horrible
form, would be a less hateful sight to him than the crest of
a Roman soldier within the walls of Jerusalem. His brain
had been hard at work on his return from the conflict of the
day ; and he had woven a plan by which he hoped to gain
such a short respite from attack as would enable him to bid
defiance to Titus once more. This could only be done,
however, with the aid of others, and by means of a perfidy
that even he could scarcely reconcile to himself — that he
could not but fear must be repugnant to his agent.

The well-known clemency of the Roman commander,
and his earnest wish to spare, if it were possible, the beauti-
ful and sacred city from destruction, had caused him to
listen patiently at all times to any overtures made by the
Jews for the temporary suspension of hostilities. Titus
seemed not only averse to bloodshed, but also extended
his goodwill in an extraordinary degree to an enemy whose
religion he respected, and whose miseries obtained his sincere
compassion. On many occasions he had delayed his orders
for a final and probably irresistible assault, in the hope that
the city might be surrendered ; and that he could hand over
to his father this beautiful prize, undefaced by the violence
inflicted on a town taken by storm. The great Roman
commander was not only the most skilful leader of his day,
but a wise and far-sighted politician, as well as a humane and
generous man. Eleazar knew the character with which he
had to deal ; but he stifled all scruples of honour in the one
consideration, that his first and only duty was to the cause
of Judah ; yet in his breast were lying dormant the instincts
of a brave man, and it was not without misgivings of oppo-
sition from his listener, that he disclosed to Esca the scheme
by which he hoped to overreach Titus and gain a few hours'
respite for the town.

" Two days," said he, resuming his restless walk up and
down the apartment — " two days is all I ask — all I require.
Two days I must have. Listen, young man. I have proved
you, I can trust you ; and yet the safety of Judah hangs on
your fidelity. Swear, by the God of Israel, that you will
never reveal the secret I disclose to you this day. It is but
known to my brother, my daughter, and myself. You are
the adopted son of my house. Swear ! "

" I swear ! " replied Esca solemnly ; and his hopes grew
brighter as he found himself thus admitted, as it were, to
a place in the family of the woman he loved.

Eleazar looked from the casement and through the door,

333

to assure himself against listeners ; then he filled the Briton's
cup once mere, and proceeded with his confidences.

" Around that dried-up fountain," said he, pointing to the
terraces on which his stately house was built, " there lie seven
slabs of marble, with which its basin is paved. If you put
the point of your sword under the left-hand corner of the
centre one, you may move it sufficiently to admit your hand.
Lift it, and you find a staircase leading to a passage ; follow
that passage, in which a full-grown man can stand upright,
and along which you may grope your way without fear, and
you come to an egress choked up with a few faggots and
briers. Burst through these, and, lo ! you emerge beyond
the Tower of Antonia, and within fifty paces of the Roman
camp. Will you risk yourself amongst the enemy for
Judah's sake?"

" I have been nearer the Romans than fifty paces,"
answered Esca proudly. "It is no great service you ask;
and if they seize upon me as an escaped slave, and condemn
me to the cross, what then ? It is but a soldier's duty I am
undertaking after all. When shall I depart ? "

Eleazar reflected for a moment The other's unscrupulous,
unquestioning fidelity touched even his fierce heart to the
quick. It would be, doubtless, death to .the messenger, who,
notwithstanding his character of herald, would be too surely
treated as a mere runaway ; but the message must be
delivered, and who was there but Esca for him to send ? He
bent his brows, and proceeded in a harder tone —

" I have confided to you the secret way, that is known to
but three besides in Jerusalem. I need keep nothing from
you now. You shall bear my written proposals to Titus for
a truce till the sun has again set twice, on certain terms ; but
those terms it will be safer for the messenger not to know.
Will you run the risk, and when ? "

"This instant, if they are ready," answered the other
boldly ; but even while he spoke, Calchas entered the apart-
ment ; and Eleazar, conscious of the certain doom to which
he was devoting his daughter's preserver and his own guest,
shrank from his brother's eye, and would have retired to
prepare his missive without further question.

Fierce and unscrupulous as he was, he could yet feel
bitterly for the brave, honest nature that walked so unsuspici-
ously into the trap he laid. It was one thing to overreach a
hostile general, and another to sacrifice a faithful and devoted
friend. He had no hesitation in affecting treason to Titus,
and promising the Romans that, if they would but grant him

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THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT

that day and the next, to obtain the supremacy of his own
faction and chief power within the walls, he would deliver
over the city, with the simple condition that the Temple
should not be demolished, and the lives of the inhabitants
should be spared.. He acknowledged no dishonour in the
determination, which he concealed in his own breast, to
employ that interval strenuously in defensive works, and
when it had elapsed to break faith unhesitatingly with his
foe. In the cause of Judah — so thought this fanatic, half-
soldier, half-priest — it was but a fair stratagem of war, and
would, as a means of preserving the true faith, meet with the
direct approval of Heaven. But it seemed hard — very hard —
that, to secure these advantages, he must devote to certain
destruction one who had sat at his board and lived under his
roof for months ; and a pang, of which he did not care to
trace the origin, smote the father's heart when he thought of
Mariamne's face, and her question to-morrow, " Where s
Esca ? and why is he not come back ? "

He took his brother aside, and told him, shortly, that Esca
was going as a messenger of peace to the Roman camp.
Calchas looked him full in the face, and shook his head.

" Brother," said he, " thy ways are tortuous, though thy
bearing is warlike and bold. Thou trustest too much to the
sword of steel and the arm of flesh — the might of man's
strength, which a mere pebble on the pavement can bring
headlong to the ground ; and the scheming of man's brain,
which cannot foresee, even for one instant, the trifle that shall
baffle and confound it in the next. It is better to trust boldly
in the right. This youth is of our own household : he is more
to us than friend and kindred. Wouldst thou send him up
with his hands bound to the sacrifice ? Brother, thou shalt
not do this great sin ! "

" What would you ? " said Eleazar impatiently. " Every
man to his duty. The priest to the offering ; the craftsman
to his labour ; the soldier to the wall. He alone knows the
secret passage. Whom have I but Esca to send ? "

" I am a man of peace," replied Calchas, and over his face
stole that ray of triumphant confidence which at seasons of
danger seemed to brighten it like a glory ; " who so fitting to
carry a message of peace as myself? You have said, every-
one to his appointed task. I cannot — nay, I would not — put
a breastplate on my worthless body, and a helmet on my old
grey head, and brandish spear, or javelin, or deadly weapon
in my feeble hands ; but do you think it is because I fear ?
Remember, brother, the blood of the sons of Manahem runs in

335

MOIRA

my veins as in yours, and I, too, have a right to risk every drop
of it in the service of my country ! Oh ! I have sinned !
I have sinned ! " added the old man, with a burst of contrition,
after this momentary outburst. " What am I to speak such
words? I, the humblest and least worthy of my Master's
servants ! "

" You shall not go ! " exclaimed Eleazar, covering his face
with his hands as the horrid results of such a mission rose
before his eyes. Should the Romans keep the herald for a
hostage, as most probably they would, until the time of
surrender had elapsed, what must be his certain fate ? Had
they not already crucified more than one such emissary in
face of the walls ? and could they be expected to show mercy
in a case like this? His love for his brother had been the
one humanising influence of Eleazar's life. It tore his heart
now with a grief that was something akin to rage, when he
reflected that even that brother, if requisite, must be sacrificed
to the cause of Jerusalem.

Esca looked from one to the other, apparently unmoved.
To him the whole affair seemed simply a matter of duty, in
the fulfilment of which he would himself certainly run con-
siderable risk, that did not extend to Calchas. He was
perfectly willing to go; but could not, at the same time,
refrain from thinking that the latter was the fitter person to
undertake such a mission at such a time. He could not guess
at the perfidy which Eleazar meditated, and which brought
with it its own punishment in his present sufferings for his
brother. " I am ready," said he quietly, resting his hand on
his helmet, as though prepared to depart forthwith.

" You shall not go," repeated Calchas, looking fixedly at
his brother the while. " I tell thee, Eleazar," he added, with
kindling eye and heightened tone, " that I will not stand by
and see this murder done. As an escaped slave, Esca will be
condemned to death unheard. It may be that they will even
subject him to the scourge, and worse. As the bearer of
terms for a truce, our enemies will treat me as an honoured
guest. If thou art determined to persevere, I will frustrate
thine intention by force. I need but whisper to the Sanhedrim
that Eleazar is trafficking with those outside the walls, and
where would be the house of Ben-Manahem ? and how long
would the Zealots own allegiance to their chief? Nay,
brother, such discord and such measures can never be between
thee and me. When have we differed in our lives, since we
clung together to our mother's knees ? Prepare thy missive.
I will take it to the Roman camp forthwith, and return in

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THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT

safety as I went. What have I to fear ? Am I not protected
by Him whom I serve?"

When Eleazar withdrew his hands from his face it was
deadly pale, and large drops stood upon his forehead. The
struggle had been cruel indeed, but it was over. " Jerusalem
before all," was the principle from which he had never been
known to swerve, and now he must sacrifice to it that life so
much dearer than his own.

" Be it as you will," said he, commanding himself with a
strong effort; "you can only leave the city by our secret
passage. The scroll shall be ready at midnight. It must be
in the hand of Titus by dawn ! "

337

CHAPTER IV

THE MASTERS OF THE WORLD

AN hour before sunrise Calchas was stopped by one of the
sentinels on the verge of the Roman camp. He had
made his escape from the city, as he hoped, without arousing
the suspicions of the besieged. The outskirts of Jerusalem
were, indeed, watched almost as narrowly by its defenders as
its assailants, for so many of the peaceful inhabitants had
already taken refuge with the latter, and so many more were
waiting their opportunity to fly from the horrors within the
walls, and trust to the mercy of the conquerors without, that
a strict guard had been placed by the national party on the
different gates of the city, and all communication with the
enemy forbidden and made punishable with death. It was
no light risk, therefore, that Calchas took upon himself in
carrying his brother's proposals to the Roman general.

Following the high-crested centurion, who, summoned by
the first sentinel that had challenged, offered to conduct him
at once to the presence of Titus ; the emissary, man of peace
though he was, could not but admire the regularity of the
encampment in which he found himself, and the discipline
observed by those who occupied it. The line of tents was
arranged with mathematical order and precision, forming a
complete city of canvas, of which the principal street, so to
speak, stretching in front of the tents occupied by the tribunes
and other chief officers, was not less than a hundred feet
wide. From this great thoroughfare all the others struck off
at right angles, completing a simple figure, in which com-
munication was unimpeded and confusion impossible, whilst
an open space of some two hundred feet was preserved
between the camp and the ramparts that encircled the whole.
In this interval troops might parade, spoil and baggage be
stored, or beasts of burden tethered, whilst its width afforded
comparative security to those within from darts, firebrands,
or other missiles of offence.

If Calchas had ever dreamed of the possibility that his

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THE MASTERS OF THE WORLD

countrymen would be able to make head against the Romans,
he abandoned the idea now. As he followed his conductor
through the long white streets in which the legions lay at rest,
he could not but observe the efficient state of that army which
no foe had ever yet been able to resist — he could not fail to
be struck by the brightness of the arms, piled in exact
symmetry before each tent; by the ready obedience and
cheerful respect paid by the men to their officers, and by the
abundant supplies of food and water, contrasting painfully
with the hunger and thirst of the besieged. Line after line
he traversed in silent wonder, and seemed no nearer the
pavilion of the general than at first ; and he could not conceal
from himself that the enemy were no less formidable to the
Jews in their numerical superiority than in discipline, organisa-
tion, and all the advantages of war.

His conductor halted at length in front of a large canvas
dome, opposite to which a strong guard of the Tenth Legion
were resting on their arms. At a sign from the centurion,
two of these advanced like machines, and stood motionless
one on each side of Calchas. Then the centurion disap-
peared, to return presently with a tribune, who, after a
short investigation of the emissary, bade him follow, and,
lifting a curtain, Calchas found himself at once in the presence
of the Roman conqueror and his generals. As the latter
gave way on each side, the hero advanced a step and con-
fronted the ambassador from the besieged. Titus, according
to custom, was fully armed, and with his helmet on his
head. The only luxury the hardy soldier allowed himself
was in the adornment of his weapons, which were richly
inlaid with gold. Many a time had he nearly paid the
penalty of this warlike fancy with his life ; for, in the thick
of battle, who so conspicuous as the bold prince in his
golden armour? Who such a prize, alive or dead, as the
son of Vespasian, and heir to the sovereignty of the world ?
He stood now, erect and dignified, a fitting representative
of the mighty engine he wielded with such skill. His firm
and well-knit frame wore its steel covering lightly and easily
as a linen tunic. His noble features and manly bearing bore
witness to the generous disposition and the fearless heart
within ; and his gestures denoted that self- reliance and
self-respect which spring from integrity and conscious
power combined. He looked every inch a soldier and a
prince.

But there was a peculiarity in the countenance of Titus
which added a nameless charm to his frank and handsome

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features. With all its manly daring, there was yet in the
depths of those keen eyes a gleam of womanly compassion
and tenderness, that emboldened a suppliant and reassured
a prisoner. There was a softness in the unfrequent smile
that could but belong to a kindly guileless nature. It was
the face of a man capable, not only of lofty deeds and daring
exploits, but of gentle memories, loving thoughts, home
affections, generosity, commiseration, and self-sacrifice.

Close behind the general, affording a striking contrast
in every respect to his chief, stood the least-trusted, but by
no means the least efficient, of his officers. Almost the first
eye that Calchas met when he entered the tent was that
of Julius Placidus, whose services to Vespasian, though never
thoroughly understood, had been rewarded by a high com-
mand in the Roman army. The most right-thinking of
Caesars could not neglect the man whose energies had helped
him to the throne ; and Titus, though he saw through the
character he thoroughly despised, was compelled to do
justice to the ready courage and soldierlike qualities of the
tribune. So Julius Placidus found himself placed in a
position from which he could play his favourite game to
advantage, and was still courting ambition as zealously as
when he intrigued at Rome against Vitellius, and bargained
with Hippias over a cup of wine for the murder of his
emperor.

That retired swordsman, too, was present in the tent; no
longer the mere trainer of professional gladiators, but com-
manding a band that had made itself a name for daring at
which the besieged grew pale, and which the Tenth Legion
itself could hardly hope to emulate. After the assassination
of the last Caesar, this host of gladiators had formed them-
selves into a body of mercenaries, with Hippias at their
head, and offered their services to the new emperor. Under
the ominous title of "The Lost Legion," these desperate
men had distinguished themselves by entering on all such
enterprises as promised an amount of danger to which it
was hardly thought prudent to expose regular troops, and
had gained unheard-of credit during the siege, which from
its nature afforded them many opportunities for the display
of wild and reckless courage. Their leader was conspicuous,
even in the general's tent, by the lavish splendour of his
arms and appointments ; but, though his bearing was proud
and martial as ever, his face had grown haggard and care-
worn, his beard was thickly sprinkled with grey. Hippias
had played for the heaviest stakes of life boldly, and had

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THE MASTERS OF THE WORLD

won. He seemed to be little better off, and little better
satisfied, than the losers in the great game.

Near him stood Licinius, — staid, placid, determined ; the
commander of the Tenth Legion ; the favoured councillor
of Titus ; the pride of the whole army ; having all the ex-
periences, all the advantages, all the triumphs of life at his
feet. Alas ! knowing too well what they were worth. It
was a crown of parsley men gave the young athlete who
conquered in the Isthmian Games; and round the un-
wrinkled brows that parsley was precious as gold. Later
in life the converse holds too true, and long before the hair
turns grey, all earthly triumphs are but empty pageantry;
all crowns but withered parsley at the best.

Titus, standing forward from amongst his officers, glanced
with a look of pity at the worn hungry face of the messenger.
Privation, nay, famine, was beginning to do its work even
on the wealthiest of the besieged, and Calchas could not
hide under his calm, dignified bearing, the lassitude and
depression of physical want.

" The proposal is a fair one," said the prince, turning to
his assembled captains. "Two days' respite, and a free
surrender of the city, with the simple condition that the
holy places shall be respected, and the lives of the in-
habitants spared. These Jews may do me the justice to
remember that my wish throughout the war has ever been
to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, and had they treated me
with more confidence, I would long ago have shown them
how truly I respected their Temple and their faith. It is
not too late now. Nevertheless, illustrious friends, I called
you not together so soon after cock-crow1 for a council of
war, without intending to avail myself of your advice. I
hold in my hand a proposal from Eleazar, an influential
patrician, as it appears, in the city, to deliver up the keys
of the Great Gate, within forty-eight hours, provided I will
pledge him my word to preserve his Temple from demolition,
and his countrymen from slaughter ; provided also, that the
Roman army abstain during that time from all offensive
measures, whatever preparations for resistance they may
observe upon the walls. He further states that the city
contains a large party of desperate men, who are opposed
to all terms of capitulation, and that he must labour during
these two days to coerce some and cajole others to his own
opinion. It is a fair proposal enough, I repeat. The Tenth

1 The first call of the Roman trumpets in camp, about two hours before
dawn, was distinguished by that name.

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MOIRA

Legion is the first in seniority as in fame — I call upon its
commander for his opinion."

Licinius, thus appealed to, earnestly advised that any
terms which might put an end to the loss of life on both
sides, should be entertained from motives of policy as well
as humanity.

" I speak not," said the general, " for myself or my legion.
Our discipline is unshaken, our supplies are regular, our
men have been inured by long campaigning to a Syrian
climate and a Syrian sun. We have lost comparatively few
from hardships or disease. But no commander knows
better than Titus, how an army in the field melts by the
mere influence of time, and the difference that a few weeks
can make in its efficiency and numerical strength is the
difference between victory and defeat. Other divisions have
not been so fortunate as my own. I will put it to the
leader of the Lost Legion, how many men he could march
to-day to the assault ? "

Hippias stroked his beard gravely, and shook his head.

" Had I been asked the question five days ago," said he
frankly, " I could have answered a thousand. Had I been
asked it yesterday, seven hundred. Great prince, at noon,
to-day, I must be content to muster five hundred swordsmen.
Nevertheless," he added, with something of his old abrupt
manner, " not one of them but claims his privilege of leading
the other cohorts to the breach.!"

It was too true that the influence of climate, acting upon
men disposed to intemperance in pleasure, added to the
severity of their peculiar service, had reduced the original
number of the gladiators by one half. The remnant, how-
ever, were still actuated, like their commander, by the fierce
reckless spirit of the amphitheatre. Titus, looking from
one to the other, pondered for a few moments in earnest
thought, and Placidus, seizing the opportunity, broke in with
his smooth courteous tones.

" It is not for me," said he, " to differ with such illustrious
leaders as those who have just spoken. The empire has
long acknowledged Licinius as one of her bravest com-
manders ; and Hippias the gladiator lives but in his natural
element of war. Still, my first duty is to Caesar and to
Rome. Great prince, when a short while ago you bade a
noble Jewish captive address his countrymen on the wall,
what was the result ? They knew him to be a patrician of
their oldest blood, and, I believe, a priest also of their own
superstitions. They had proved him a skilful general, and

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THE MASTERS OF THE WORLD

I myself speak of him without rancour, though he foiled me
before Jotapata. Till taken prisoner by Vespasian Caesar,
he had been their staunchest patriot and their boldest
leader. When he addressed them, notwithstanding the
length of his appeal, they had no reason but to believe him
sincere. And what, I say, was the result? A few hours
gained for resistance ; a fiercer defiance flung at Rome ; a
more savage cruelty displayed towards her troops. I would
not trust them, prince. This very proposal may be but a
stratagem to gain time. The attack of yesterday, covered
by my cavalry, must have shaken them shrewdly. Probably
their stores are exhausted. The very phalanx that opposed
us so stubbornly looked gaunt and grim as wolves. Observe
this very emissary from the most powerful man in Jerusalem.
Is there not famine in his hollow cheeks and sunken eyes?
Give him to eat. See how his visage brightens at the very
name of food ! Give him to eat, now, in presence of the
council of war, and judge by his avidity of the privations
he has endured behind the walls."

" Hold ! " exclaimed Titus indignantly ; " hold, tribune,
and learn, if you have one generous feeling left, to respect
misfortune, most of all when you behold it in the person of
your enemy. This venerable man shall indeed be supplied
with wine and food ; but he shall not be insulted in my camp
by feeling that his sufferings are gauged as the test of his
truth. Licinius, my old and trusty counsellor, my very
instructor in the art of war, I confide him to your care.
Take him with you to your tent; see that he wants for
nothing. I need not remind you to treat an enemy with
all the kindness and courtesy compatible with the caution
of a soldier. But you must not lose sight of him for a
moment, and you will send him back with my answer under
a strong guard to the chief gate of Jerusalem. I will have
no underhand dealings with this unhappy people ; though
much, I fear, my duty to my father and the empire will not
permit me to grant them the interval of repose that they
desire. This is for my consideration. I have taken your
opinions, for which I thank you. I reserve to myself the
option of being guided by them. Friends and comrades,
you are dismissed. Let this man be forthcoming in an hour,
to take my answer back to those who sent him. Vale ! "

Vale ! repeated each officer, as he bowed and passed out
of the tent.

Hippias and Placidus lingered somewhat behind the rest,
and halting when out of hearing of the sentinel who guarded

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the eagles planted before the commander's quarters, or
Praetorium, as it was called, looked in each other's faces, and
laughed.

"You put it pointedly," said the former, "and took an
ugly thrust in return. Nevertheless, the assault will be
delayed after all, and my poor harmless lambs will scarce
muster in enough force to be permitted to lead the attack."

"Fear not," replied the tribune; "it will take place
to-morrow. It would suit neither your game nor mine, my
Hippias, to make a peaceable entry by the Great Gate,
march in order of battle to the Temple, and satisfy ourselves
with a stare at its flashing golden roof. I can hardly stave
off my creditors. You can scarce pay your men. Had it
not been for the prospect of sacking the Holy Place, neither
of us would have been to-day under a heavy breastplate in
this scorching sun. And we shall sack it, I tell you, never
fear."

" You think so ? " said the other doubtfully ; " and yet the
prince spoke very sternly, as if he not only differed with you,
but disapproved of your counsel. I am glad I was not in
your place ; I should have been tempted to answer even the
son of Vespasian."

The tribune laughed gaily once more. " Trifles," said he ;
" I have the hide of a rhinoceros when it is but a question
of looks and words, however stern and biting they may be.
Besides, do you not yet know this cub of the old lion ? The
royal beast is always the same ; dangerous when his hair is
rubbed the wrong way. Titus was only angry because his
better judgment opposed his inclinations, and agreed with
me — me to whom he pays the compliment of his dislike. I
tell you we shall give the assault before two days are out,
with my cohort swarming on the flanks, and thy Lost Legion,
my Hippias, maddening to the front. So now for a draught
of wine and a robe of linen, even though it be under one of
these suffocating tents. I think when once the siege is over
and the place taken, I shall never buckle on a breastplate
again."

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CHAPTER V

GLAD TIDINGS

HE eye of Calchas did indeed
brighten, and his colour went and
came when food was placed before
him in the Roman general's tent.
It was with a strong effort that he
controlled and stifled the cravings
of hunger, never so painful as when
the body has been brought down
by slow degrees to exist on the
smallest possible quantity of nour-
ishment. It was long since a full
meal had been spread even on
Eleazar's table ; and the sufferings

from famine of the poorer classes in Jerusalem had reached
a pitch unheard-of in the history of nations. Licinius could
not but admire the self-control with which his guest partook
of his hospitality. The old man was resolved not to betray,
in his own person, the straits of the besieged. It was a staunch
and soldierlike sentiment to which the Roman was keenly
alive, and Licinius turned his back upon his charge, affecting
to give long directions to some of his centurions from the
tent-door, in order to afford Calchas the opportunity of satisfy-
ing his hunger unobserved.

After a while, the general seated himself inside,
courteously desiring his guest to do the same. A decurion,
with his spearmen, stood at the entrance, under the standard
where the eagles of the Tenth Legion hovered over his
shining crest. The sun was blazing fiercely down on the
white lines of canvas that stretched in long perspective on
every side, and flashing back at stated intervals from shield,
and helm, and breastplate, piled in exact array at each tent-
door. It was too early in the year for the crackling locust;
and every trace of life, as of vegetation, had disappeared from
the parched surface of the soil, burnished and slippery with

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the intense heat. It was an hour of lassitude and repose
even in the beleaguering camp, and scarce a sound broke
the drowsy stillness of noon, save the stamp and snort of
a tethered steed, or the scream of an ill-tempered mule.
Scorched without, and stifled within, even the well-disciplined
legionary loathed his canvas shelter ; longing, yearning vainly
in his day-dreams for the breeze of cool Praeneste, and the
shades of darkling Tibur, and the north wind blowing through
the holm-oaks off the crest of the snowy Apennines.

In the general's pavilion the awning had been raised a
cubit from the ground, to admit what little air there was, so
faint as scarce to stir the fringe upon his tunic. Against the
pole that propped the soldier's home, rested a mule's pack-
saddle, and a spare breastplate. On the wooden frame which
served him for a bed, lay the general's tablets, and a sketch
of the Tower of Antonia. A simple earthenware dish con-
tained the food offered to his guest, and, like the coarse clay
vessel into which a wineskin had been poured, was nearly
empty. Licinius sat with his helmet off, but otherwise
completely armed. Calchas, robed in his long dark mantle,
fixed his mild eye steadily on his host.

The man of war and the man of peace seemed to have
some engrossing thought, some all - important interest in
common. For a while they conversed on light and trivial
topics, the discipline of the camp, the fertility of Syria, the
distance from Rome, and the different regions in which her
armies fought and conquered. Then Licinius broke through
his reserve, and spoke out freely to his guest.

" You have a hero," said the Roman, " in your ranks, of
whom I would fain learn something, loving him as I do like
a son. Our men call him the Yellow Hostage ; and there is
not a warrior among all the brave champions of Jerusalem
whom they regard with such admiration and dread. I
myself saw him but yesterday save your whole army from
destruction beneath the walls."

" It is Esca ! " exclaimed Calchas. " Esca, once a chief
in Britain, and afterwards your slave in Rome."

" The same," answered Licinius ; " and, though a slave,
the noblest and the bravest of men. A chief, you say, in
Britain. What know you of him ? He never told me who
he was, or whence he came."

" I know him," replied Calchas, " as one who lives with
us like a kinsman, who takes his share of hardship, and far
more than his share of danger, as though he were a very
chief in Israel — who is to me, indeed, and those dearest to

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GLAD TIDINGS

me, far more precious than a son. We escaped together
from Rome — my brother, my brother's child, and this young
Briton. Many a night on the smooth ^Egean has he told
me of his infancy, his youth, his manhood, the defence his
people made against your soldiers, the cruel stratagems by
which they were foiled and overcome, how nobly he himself
had braved the legions ; and yet how the first lessons he
learned in childhood were to feel kindly for the invader, how
the first accents his mother taught him were in the Roman
tongue."

" It is strange," observed Licinius, musing deeply, and
answering, as it seemed, his own thought. " Strange lesson
for one of that nation to learn. Strange, too, that fate
seems to have posted him continually in arms against the
conqueror."

"They were his mother's lessons," resumed Calchas;
"and that mother he has not forgotten even to-day. He
loves to speak of her as though she could see him still. And
who shall say she cannot? He loves to tell of her stately
form, her fond eyes, and her gentle brow, with its lines of
thought and care. He says she had some deep sorrow in
her youth, which her child suspected, but of which she never
spoke. It taught her to be kind and patient with all ; it
made her none the less loving for her boy. Ay, 'tis the same
tale in every nation and under every sky. The garment has
not yet been woven in which the black hank of sin and
sorrow does not cross and recross throughout the whole web.
She had her burden to bear, and so has Esca, and so hast
thou, great Roman commander, one of the conquerors of
the earth; and so have I, but I know where to lay mine
down, and rest in peace."

" They are a noble race, these women of Britain," said
Licinius, following out the thread of his own thoughts with
a heavy heart, on which one of them had impressed her
image so deeply, that while it beat, a memory would reign
there, as it had reigned already for years, undisturbed by a
living rival. " And so the boy loves to talk of his childhood,
and his lost mother— lost," he added bitterly, "surely lost,
because so loved ! "

" Even so," replied Calchas ; " and deep as was the child's
grief, it carried a sharper sting from the manner of her death.
Too young to bear arms, he had seen his father hurry away
at the head of his tribe to meet the Roman legions. His
father, a fierce, imperious warrior, of whom he knew but little,
and whom he would have dreaded rather than loved, had

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MOIRA

the boy dreaded anything on earth. His mother lay on a
bed of sickness ; and even the child felt a nameless fear on
her account, that forbade him to leave her side. With pain
and difficulty they moved her on her litter to a fastness in
their deep, tangled forests, where the Britons made a last
stand. Then certain long-bearded priests took him by force
from his mother's side, and hid him away in a cavern, because
he was a chiefs son. He can recall now the pale face and
the loving eyes, turned on him in a last look, as he was borne
off struggling and fighting like a young wolf-cub. From his
cavern he heard plainly the shouts of battle and the very
clash of steel ; but he heeded them not, for a vague and
sickening dread had come over him that he should see his
mother no more. It was even so. They hurried the child
from his refuge by night. They never halted till the Sim had
risen and set again. Then they spoke to him with kind,
soothing words ; but when he turned from them, and called
for his mother, they told him she was dead. They had not
even paid her the last tribute of respect. While they closed
her eyes, the legions had already forced their rude defences ;
her few attendants fled for their lives, and the high-born
Guenebra was left in the lonely hut wherein she died, to
the mercy of the conquerors."

When Calchas ceased speaking, he saw that his listener
had turned ghastly pale, and that the sweat was standing on
his brow. His strong frame, too, shook till his armour
rattled. He rose and crossed to the tent-door as if for air,
then turned to his guest, and spoke in a low but steady
voice —

" I knew it," said he — " I knew it must be so ; this Esca
is the son of one whom I met in my youth, and why should
I be ashamed to confess it? whose influence has pervaded
my whole life. I am old and grey now. Look at me ; what
have such as I to do with the foolish hopes and fears that
quicken the young fresh heart, and flush the unwrinkled
cheek ? But now, to-day, I tell thee, warworn and saddened
as I am, it seems to me that the cup of life has been but
offered, and dashed cruelly away ere it had so much as cooled
my thirsty lips. Why should I have known happiness, only
to be mocked by its want ? What ! thou hast a human heart ?
Thou art a brave man, too, though thy robes denote a voca-
tion of peace, else thou hadst not been here to-day in the
heart of an enemy's camp. Need I tell thee, that when I
entered that rude hut in the Briton's stronghold, and saw all
I loved on earth stretched cold and inanimate on her litter

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GLAD TIDINGS

at my feet, had I not been a soldier of Rome my own good
sword had been my consolation, and I had fallen by her
there, to be laid in the same grave ; and now I shall never
see her more ! " He passed his hand across his face, and
added, in a broken whisper, " Never more ! never more ! "

" You cannot think so. You cannot believe in such utter
desolation," exclaimed Calchas, roused like some old war-
horse by the trumpet sound, as he saw the task assigned him,
and recognised yet another traveller on the great road, whom
he could guide home.

" Do you think that you or she, or any one of us, were
made to suffer, and to cause others suffering — to strive and
fail, and long and sorrow, for a little while, only to drop into
the grave at last, like an over-ripe fig from its branch, and be
forgotten ? Do you think that life is to end for you, or for
me, when the one falls in his armour, at the head of the Tenth
Legion, pierced by a Jewish javelin, or the other is crucified
before the walls for a spy, by Titus, or stoned in the gate for
a traitor, by his own countrymen ? And this is the fate which
may await us both before to-morrow's sun is set. Believe it
not, noble Roman ! That frame of yours is no more Licinius
than is the battered breastplate yonder on the ground, which
you have cast aside because it is no longer proof against sword
and spear ; the man himself leaves his worn-out robe behind,
and goes rejoicing on his journey — the journey that is to lead
him to his home elsewhere."

"And where?" asked the Roman, interested by the
earnestness of his guest, and the evident conviction with
which he spoke. " Is it the home to which, as our own poets
have said, good JEneas, and Tullus, and Ancus have gone
before ? the home of which some philosophers have dreamed,
and at which others laugh — a phantom - land, a fleeting
pageant, impalpable plains beyond a shadowy river ? These
are but dreams, the idle visions of men of thought. What
have we, who are the men of action, to do with aught but
reality?"

" And what is reality ? " replied Calchas. " Is it without
or within? Look from your own tent-door, noble Roman,
and behold the glorious array that meets your eye — the even
camp, the crested legionaries, the eagles, the trophies, and the
piles of arms. Beyond, the towers and pinnacles of Jerusalem,
and the white dome of the Temple with its dazzling roof of
gold. Far away, the purple hills of Moab looking over the
plains of the Dead Sea. It is a world of beautiful reality.
There cometh a flash from a thunder-cloud or an arrow off

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MOIRA

the wall, and your life is spared, but your eyesight is gone :
which is the reality now, the light or the darkness ? the wide
expanse of glittering sunshine, or the smarting pain and the
black night within ? So is it with life and death. Titus in
his golden armour, Vespasian on the throne of the Caesars,
that stalwart soldier leaning yonder on his spear, or the
wasted captive dying for hunger in the town — are they
beings of the same kind? and why are their shares so
unequal in the common lot? Because it matters so little
what may be the different illusions that deceive us now, when
all may attain equally to the same reality at last."

Licinius pondered for a few minutes ere he replied. Like
many another thinking heathen, he had often speculated on
the great question which forces itself at times on every re-
flective being, " Why are these things so ? " He, too, had
been struck ere now with the obvious discrepancy between
man's aspirations and his efforts — the unaccountable caprices
of fortune, the apparent injustice of fate. He had begun life
in the bold confidence of an energetic character, believing all
things possible to the resolute strength and courage of man-
hood. When he failed, he blamed himself with something of
contempt ; when he succeeded, he gathered fresh confidence
in his own powers and in the truth of his theories. But in
the pride of youth and happiness, sorrow took him by the
hand, and taught him the bitter lesson that it is good to learn
early rather than late ; because, until the plough has passed
over it, there can be no real fertility, no healthy produce on
the untilled soil. The deeper they are scored, the heavier is
the harvest from these furrows of the heart. Licinius, in the
prime of life, and on the pinnacle of success, became a
thoughtful, because a lonely and disappointed, man. He
saw the complications around him ; he acknowledged his
inability to comprehend them. While others thought him
so strong and self-reliant, he knew his own weakness and his
own need ; the broken spirit was humble and docile as a
child's.

" There must be a reason for everything," he exclaimed at
last; "there must be a clue in the labyrinth, if a man's hand
could only find it. What is truth? say our philosophers.
Oh, that I did but know!"

Then, in the warlike tent, in the heart of the conquering
army, the Jew imparted to the Roman that precious wisdom
to which all other learning is but an entrance and a path.
Under the very shadow of the eagles that were gathered to
devastate his city, the man to whom all vicissitudes were alike,

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GLAD TIDINGS

to whom all was good, because he knew " what was truth,"
showed to his brother, whose sword was even then sharpened
for the destruction of his people, that talisman which gave
him the mastery over all created things : which made him
superior to hunger and thirst, pain and sorrow, insult, dis-
honour, and death. It is something, even in this world, to
wear a suit of impenetrable armour, such as is provided for
the weakest and the lowest who enter the service that requires
so little and that grants so much. Licinius listened eagerly,
greedily, as a blind man would listen to one who taught him
how to recover his sight Gladdening was the certainty of
a future to one who had hitherto lived so mournfully in the
past Fresh and beautiful was the rising edifice of hope to
one whose eye was dull with looking on the grey ruins of
regret There was comfort for him, there was encourage-
ment, there was example. When Calchas told, in simple,
earnest words, all that he himself had heard and seen of
glorious self-sacrifice, of infinite compassion, and of priceless
ransom, the soldier's knee was bent, and his eyes were wet
with tears.

By the orders of his commander, Licinius conducted his
guest back to the Great Gate of Jerusalem with all the
customary honours paid to an ambassador from a hostile
power. He bore the answer of Titus, granting to the
besieged the respite they desired. Placidus had been so
far right that the prince's better judgment condemned the
ill-timed reprieve; but in this, as in many other instances,
Titus suffered his clemency to prevail over his experience in
Jewish duplicity and his anxiety to terminate the war.

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CHAPTER VI

WINE ON THE LEES

THE commander of the Lost Legion, when he parted
with Placidus after the council of war, retired moodily
to his tent. He, too, was disappointed and dissatisfied,
wearied with the length of the siege, harassed and uneasy
about the ravages made by sickness among his men, and
anxious moreover as to his share of the spoil. Hippias, it
is needless to say, was lavish in his expenses, and luxurious
in his personal habits : like the mercenaries he commanded,
he looked to the sacking of Jerusalem as a means of paying
his creditors, and supplying him with money for future
excesses. Not a man of the Lost Legion but had already
calculated the worth of that golden roof, to which they
looked so longingly, and his own probable portion when it
was melted into coin. Rumour, too, had not failed to multiply
by tens the amount of wealth stored in the Temple, and the
jewels it contained. The besiegers were persuaded that
every soldier who should be fortunate enough to enter it
sword in hand, would be enriched for life ; and the gladiators
were the last men to grudge danger or bloodshed for such
an object.

But there is a foe who smites an army far more surely
than the enemy that meets it face to face in the field. Like
the angel who breathed on the host of the Assyrians in the
night, so that when the Jews rose in the morning, their
adversaries were " all dead men," this foe takes his prey by
scores as they sleep in their tents, or pace to and fro watching
under their armour in the sun. His name is Pestilence ;
and wherever man meets man for mutual destruction, he
hovers over the opposing multitudes, and secures the lion's
share of both. Partly from their previous habits, partly from
their looser discipline, he had been busier amongst the
gladiators than in any other quarter of the camp. Dwindling
day by day in numbers and efficiency, Hippias began to fear
that they would be unable to take the prominent part he

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WINE ON THE LEES

had promised them in the assault, and the chance of such a
disappointment was irritating enough ; but when to this
grievance was added the proposal he had just heard, for
the peaceful surrender of the city — a proposal which Titus
seemed to regard with favourable eyes, and which would
entail the distribution in equal portions of whatever treasure
was considered the spoil of the army, so that the gladiator
and legionary should but share alike — the contingency was
nothing less than maddening. He had given Titus a true
report of his legion in council ; for Hippias was not a man
to take shelter in falsehood, under any pressure of necessity,
but he repented, nevertheless, of his frankness ; and, cursing
the hour when he embarked for Syria, began to think of
Rome with regret, and to believe that he was happier and
more prosperous in the amphitheatre after all. Passing
amongst the tents of his men, he was distressed to meet old
Hirpinus, who reported to him that another score had been
stricken by the sickness since watch-setting the previous
night. Every day was of the utmost importance now, and
here were two more to be wasted in negotiations, even if the
assault should be ordered to take place after all. The
reflection did not serve to soothe him, and Hippias entered
his own tent with a fevered frame, and a frown of ill-omen
on his brow.

For a soldier it was indeed a luxurious home ; adorned
with trophies of arms, costly shawls, gold and silver drinking-
vessels, and other valuables scattered about. There was
even a porcelain vase filled with fresh flowers standing
between two wineskins ; and a burnished mirror, with
a delicate comb resting against its stand, denoted either
an extraordinary care for his personal appearance in the
owner, or a woman's presence behind the crimson curtain
which served to screen another compartment of the tent.
Kicking the mirror out of his way, and flinging himself
on a couch covered with a dressed leopard - skin, Hippias
set his heavy headpiece on the ground, and called angrily
for a cup of wine. At the second summons, the curtain
was drawn aside, and a woman appeared from behind its
folds.

Pale, haughty, and self-possessed, tameless, and defiant,
even in her degradation, Valeria, though fallen, seemed to
rise superior to herself, and stood before the man whom she
had never loved, and yet to whom, in a moment of madness,
she had sacrificed her whole existence, with the calm, quiet
demeanour of a mistress in the presence of her slave. Her

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MOIRA

beauty had not faded — far from it — though changed some-
what in its character, growing harder and colder than of old.
If less womanly, it was of a deeper and loftier kind. The
eyes, indeed, had lost the loving, laughing look which had
once been their greatest charm, but they were keen and
dazzling still; while the other features, like the shapely
figure, had gained a severe and majestic dignity in exchange
for the flowing outlines and the round comeliness of youth.
She was dressed sumptuously, and with an affectation of
Eastern habits that suited her beauty well. Alas ! that beauty
was her only weapon left; and although she had turned it
against herself, a true woman to the end, she had kept it
bright and pointed still.

When Valeria left her home to follow the fortunes of a
gladiator, she had not even the excuse of blindness for her
folly. She knew that she was abandoning friends, fortune,
position — all the advantages of life for that which she did
not care to have. She believed herself to be utterly desperate,
depraved, and unsexed. It was her punishment that she
could not rid herself of her woman's nature, nor stifle the
voice that no woman ever can stifle in her heart. For a
time, perhaps, the change of scene, the voyage, the excitement
of the step she had taken, the determination to abide by her
choice and defy everything, served to deaden her mind to
her own misery. It was her whim to assume on occasions
the arms and accoutrements of a gladiator ; and it was even
said in the Lost Legion, that she had fought in their ranks
more than once in some of their desperate enterprises against
the town. It was certain that she never appeared abroad
in the female dress she wore within her tent : Titus, indeed,
would have scarcely failed to notice such a flagrant breach
of camp-discipline ; and many a fierce swordsman whispered
to his comrade, with a thrill of interest, that in a force like
theirs she might mingle unnoticed in their ranks, and be
with them at any time. It was but a whisper, though,
after all, for they knew their commander too well to canvass
his conduct openly, or to pry into matters he chose to keep
secret.

These outbreaks, however, so contrary to all the impulses
and instincts of a woman's nature, soon palled on the high-
born Roman lady ; and as the siege, with its various fortunes,
was protracted from day to day, the yoke under which she
had voluntarily placed her proud white neck, became too
galling to endure. She hated the long glistening line of
tents ; she hated the scorching Syrian sky, the flash of armour,

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WINE ON THE LEES

the tramp of men, the constant trumpet-calls, the eternal
guard-mounting, the wearisome and monotonous routine of
a camp. She hated the hot tent, with its stifling atmosphere
and its narrow space ; above all, she was learning daily to
hate the man with whom she shared its shelter and its
inconveniences.

She handed him the wine he asked for without a word,
and standing there in her cold scornful beauty, never noticed
him by look or gesture. She seemed miles away in thought,
and utterly unconscious of his presence.

He remembered when it was so different. He remembered
how, even when first he knew her, his arrival used to call a
smile of pleasure to her lips, a glance of welcome to her
eye. It might be only on the surface, but still it was there ;
and he felt for his own part, that as far as he had ever
cared for any woman, he had cared for her. It was gall-
ing, truly, this indifference, this contempt. He was hurt,
and his fierce undisciplined nature urged him to strike
again.

He emptied the cup, and flung it from him with an angry
jerk. The golden vessel rolled out from under the hangings
of the tent ; she made no offer to pick it up and fetch it
back. He glared fiercely into her eyes, and they met his
own with the steady scornful gaze he almost feared ; for that
cold look chilled him to the very heart. The man was
hardened, depraved, steeped to the lips in cruelty and crime ;
but there was a defenceless place in him still that she could
stab when she liked, for he would have loved her if she had
let him.

" I am very weary of the siege," said he, stretching his
limbs on the couch with affected indifference, "weary of
the daily drudgery, the endless consultations, the scorching
climate, above all, this suffocating atmosphere, where a man
can hardly breathe. Would that I had never seen this
accursed tent, or aught that it contains ! "

"You cannot be more weary of it than I am," she
replied, in the same contemptuous quiet tone that maddened
him.

"Why did you come?" he retorted, with a bitter laugh.
" Nobody wanted such a delicate dainty lady in a soldier's
tent — and certainly nobody ever asked you to share it with
him ! "

She gave a little gasp, as though something touched her
to the quick, but recovered herself on the instant, and
answered calmly and scornfully, " It is kindly said, and

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MOIRA

generously, considering all things. Just what I might have
expected from a gladiator ! "

" There was a time you liked the Family well enough ! "
he exclaimed angrily; and then, softened by his own
recollections of that time, added in a milder tone, " Valeria,
why will you thus quarrel with me ? It used not to be so
when I brought the foils and dumbbells to your portico, and
spared no pains to make you the deadliest fencer, as you
were the fairest, in Rome. Those were happy days enough,
and so might these be, if you had but a grain of common
sense. Can you not see, when you and I fall out, who must
necessarily be the loser ? What have you to depend on now
but me?"

He should have stopped at his tender recollections.
Argument, especially if it has any show of reason in it, is to
an angry woman but as the bandillerds goad to the Iberian
bull. Its flutter serves to irritate rather than to scare, and
the deeper its pointed steel sinks in, the more actively indeed
does the recipient swerve aside, but returns the more rapidly
and the more obstinately to the charge. Of all considerations,
that which most maddened Valeria, and rendered her utterly
reckless, was that she should be dependent on a gladiator.
The cold eyes flashed fire ; but she would not give him the
advantage over her of acknowledging that he could put her
in a passion, so she restrained herself, though her heart was
ready to burst Had she cared for him she might have
stabbed him to death in such a mood.

" I thank you for reminding me," she answered bitterly.
" It is not strange that one of the Mutian line should
occasionally forget her duty to Hippias, the retired prize-
fighter. A patrician, perhaps, would have brought it more
delicately to her remembrance ; but I have no right to
blame the fencing - master for his plebeian birth and
bringing up."

" Now, by the body of Hercules, this is too much ! " he
exclaimed, springing erect on the couch, and grinding his
teeth with rage. " What ! you tax me with my birth ! You
scout me for my want of mincing manners and white hands,
and syllables that drop like slobbered wine from the close-
shaven lip ! You, the dainty lady, the celebrated beauty, the
admired, forsooth, of all admirers, whose porch was choked
with gilded chariots, whose litter was thronged with every
curly - headed, white - shouldered, crimson - cloaked, young
Narcissus in Rome, and yet who sought her chosen lovers in
the amphitheatre — who scanned with judicious eye the points

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WINE ON THE LEES

and the vigour and the promise of naked athletes, and could
find at last none to serve her turn, but war-worn old Hippias,
the roughest and the rudest, and the worst-favoured, but the
strongest, nevertheless, amongst them all ! "

The storm was gathering apace, but she still tried hard to
keep it down. An experienced mariner might have known by
the short-coming breath, the white cheek,and the dilated nostril,
that it was high time to shorten sail, and run for shelter before
the squall.

" It was indeed a strange taste," she retorted. " None can
marvel at it more than myself."

" Not so strange as you think," he burst out, somewhat
inconsistently. "Do not fancy you were the only lady in
Rome who was proud to be admired by Hippias the gladiator.
I tell you I had my choice amongst ,a hundred maids and
matrons, nobler born, fairer, ay, and of better repute than
yourself ! any one of whom would have been glad to be here
to-day in your place. I was a fool for my pains; but I
thought you were the fittest to bear the toil of campaigning,
and the least able to do without me, so I took you, more out
of pity than of love ! "

" Coward ! " she hissed between her clenched teeth.
" Traitor and fool, too ! Must you know the truth at last ?
Must you know what I have spared you this long time? what
alone has kept me from sinking under the weight of these
weary days with their hourly degradation ? what has been
disease and remedy, wound and balm, bitterest punishment,
and yet dearest consolation ? Take it then, since have it you
will ! Can you think that such as I could ever love such as
you ? Can you believe you could be more to Valeria than
the handle of the blade, the shaft of the javelin, the cord of the
bow, by which she could inflict a grievous wound in another's
bosom ? Listen ! When you wooed me, I was a scorned, an
insulted, a desperate woman. I loved one who was nobler,
handsomer, better. Ay, you pride yourself on your fierce
courage and your brutal strength. I tell you who was twice
as strong, and a thousand times as brave as the best of you.
I loved him, do you hear? as men like you never can be
loved — with an utter and entire devotion, that asked but to
sacrifice itself without hope of a return, and he scorned me,
not as you would have done, with a rough brutal frankness
that had taken away half the pain, but so kindly, so delicately,
so generously, that even while I clung to him, and he turned
away from me, I felt he was dearer than ever to my heart.
Ay, you may sit there and look at me with your eyes glaring

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MOIRA

and your beard bristling like some savage beast of prey ; but
you brought it on yourself, and if you killed me I would not
spare you now. I had never looked at you but for your hired
skill, which you imparted to the man I loved. I took you
because he scorned me, as I would have taken one of my
Liburnians, had I thought it would have wounded him deeper,
or made him hate me more. You are a fencer, I believe —
one who prides himself on his skill in feints and parries, in
giving and taking, in judging accurately of the adversary's
strength and weakness at a glance. Have I foiled you to
some purpose? You thought you were the darling of the
high-born lady, the favourite of her fancy, the minion to
whom she could refuse nothing, not even her fair fame, and
she was using you all the time as a mere rod with which to
smite a slave ! A slave, do you hear ? Yes, the man I
preferred, not only to you, but to a host of your betters, the
man I loved so dearly, and love so madly still, is but your
pupil Esca, a barbarian, and a slave ! "

Her anger had supported her till now, but with Esca's
name came a flood of tears, and, thoroughly unstrung, she sat
down on the ground and wept passionately, covering her face
with her hands. He could have almost found it in his heart
to strike her, but for her defenceless attitude, so exasperated
was he, so maddened by the torrent of her words. He could
think of nothing, however, more bitter than to taunt her with
her helplessness, whilst under his charge.

"Your minion," said he, "is within the walls at this
moment. From that tent door, you might almost see him on
the rampart, if he be not skulking from his duty like a slave
as he is. Think, proud lady, you who are so ready, asked
or unasked, for slave or gladiator, you need but walk five
hundred paces to be in his arms. Surely, if they knew your
mission, Roman guards and Jewish sentries would lower their
spears to you as you passed ! Enough of this ! Remember
who and what you are. Above all, remember where you are,
and how you came here. I have forborne too long, my
patience is exhausted at last. You are in a soldier's tent, and
you must learn a soldier's duty — unquestioning obedience.
Go ! pick up that goblet I let fall just now. Fill it, and bring
it me here, without a word ! "

Somewhat to his surprise, she rose at once to do his
bidding, leaving the tent with a perfectly composed step and
air. He might have remarked, though, that when she
returned with his wine, the red drops fell profusely over her
white trembling fingers, though she looked in his face as

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proudly and steadily as ever. The hand might, indeed, shake,
but the heart was fixed and resolute. In the veins of none of
her ancestors did the Mutian blood, so strong for good and
evil, ebb and flow with a fuller, more resistless tide, than in
hers. Valeria had made up her mind in the space of time it
took to lift a goblet from the ground.

359

CHAPTER VII

THE ATTAINDER

JOHN OF GISCHALA would never have obtained the
ascendency he enjoyed in Jerusalem, had he not been
as well versed in the sinuous arts of intrigue, as in the
simpler stratagems of war. After confronting his rival in the
Council, and sustaining in public opinion the worst of the
encounter, he was more than ever impressed with the necessity
of ruining Eleazar at any price ; therefore, keeping a wary
eye upon all the movements of the Zealots, he held himself
ready at every moment to take advantage of the first false
step on the part of his adversary.

Eleazar, with the promptitude natural to his character,
had commenced a repair of the defences, almost before his
emissary was admitted to the Roman camp, thinking it
needless to await the decision of Titus, either for or against
his proposal. Labouring heart and soul at the works, with
all the available force he could muster, he left John and his
party in charge of the Great Gate, and it happened that his
rival was present there in person, when Calchas was brought
back to the city by the Roman guard of honour Titus had
ordered for his safe-conduct — a compliment his brother never
expected, and far less desired. Eleazar made sure his
messenger would be permitted to return the way he came,
and that his own communications with the enemy would
remain a secret from the besieged.

John saw his opportunity, and availed himself of it on the
instant. No sooner had Calchas placed his foot once more
within the town, than his head was covered, so that he might
not be recognised ; and he was carried off by a guard of
John's adherents, and placed in secure ward, their chief
adroitly arresting him by a false name, for the information of
the populace, lest the rumour should reach Eleazar's ears.
He knew his rival's readiness of resource, and determined to
take him by surprise. Then he rent his garment, and ran
bareheaded through the streets towards the Temple, calling

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THE ATTAINDER

with a great voice, " Treason ! Treason ! " and sending
round the fragments of his gown amongst the senators, to
convoke them in haste upon a matter of life and death, in
their usual place of deliberation. So rapidly did he take his
measures that the Outer Court was already filled and the
Council assembled, ere Eleazar, busied with his labours at the
wall far off, opposite the Tower of Antonia, knew that they
had been summoned. Covered with sweat and dust, he
obeyed at once the behest of the Levite who came breathlessly
to require his presence, as an elder of Israel ; but it was not
without foreboding of evil that he observed the glances of
suspicion and mistrust shot at him by his colleagues when he
joined them. John of Gischala, with an affectation of extreme
fairness, had declined to enter upon the business of the State,
until this, the latest of her councillors, had arrived ; but he
had taken good care, by means of his creatures, to scatter
rumours amongst the Senate, and even amongst the Zealots
themselves, deeply affecting the loyalty of their chief.

No sooner had Eleazar, still covered with the signs of
his toil, taken his accustomed station, than John stood forth
in the hall and spoke out in a loud, clear voice.

"Before the late troublous times," said he, "and when
every man in Judaea ate of his own figs from his own fig-
tree, and trod out his own grapes in his own vineyard ; when
we digged our wells unmolested, and our women drew water
unveiled, and drank it peacefully at sundown ; when our
children played about our knees at the door, and ate butter
and honey, and cakes baked in oil ; when the cruse was
never empty, and the milk mantled in the milking-vessels,
and the kid seethed in the pot — yea, in the pleasant time,
in the days of old, it chanced that I was taking a prey in
the mountain by the hunter's craft, in the green mountain,
even the mountain of Lebanon. Then at noon I was wearied
and athirst, and I laid me down under a goodly cedar and
slept, and dreamed a dream. Behold, I will discover to the
elders my dream and the interpretation thereof.

" Now the cedar under which I lay was a goodly cedar,
but in my dream it seemed that it reached far into the
heavens, and spread its roots abroad to the springs of many
waters, and sheltered the birds of the air in its branches,
and comforted the beasts of the field with its shade. Then
there came a beast out of the mountain — a huge beast with
a serpent between its eyes and horns upon its jaws — and
leaned against the cedar, but the tree neither bent nor broke.
So there came a great wind against the cedar — a mighty

MOIRA

wind that rushed and roared through its branches, till it
rocked to and fro, bending and swaying to the blast — but
the storm passed away, and the goodly tree stood firm and
upright as before. Again the face of heaven was darkened,
and the thunder roared above, and the lightning leaped
from the cloud, and smote upon the cedar, and rent off one
of its limbs with a great and terrible crash ; but when the
sky cleared once more, the tree was a fair tree yet. So I
said in my dream, 'Blessed is the cedar among the trees
of the forest, for destruction shall not prevail against it.'

" Then I looked, and behold, the cedar was already rotting,
and its arms were withered up, and its head was no longer
black, for a little worm, and another, and yet another were
creeping from within the bark, where they had been eating
at its heart. Then one drew near bearing fagots on his
shoulders, and he builded the fagots round the tree, and
set a light to them, and burned them with fire, and the worms
fell out by myriads from the tree, and perished in the smoke.

" Then said he unto me, ' John of Gischala, arise ! The
cedar is the Holy City, and the beast is the might of the
Roman Empire, and the storm and the tempest are the
famine and the pestilence, and none of these shall prevail
against it, save by the aid of the enemies from within.
Purge them therefore with fire, and smite them with the
sword, and crush them, even as the worm is crushed beneath
thy heel into the earth ! '

"And the interpretation of the dream hath remained
with me to this day, for is it not thus even now when the
Roman is at the gate, as it hath ever been with the Holy
City in the times of old? When the Assyrian came up
against her, was not his host greater in number than the
sands of the seashore ? But he retired in discomfiture from
before her, because she was true to herself. Would Nebuzar-
adan have put his chains on our people's neck, and Gedaliah
scorned to accept honour from the conqueror, and to pay
him tribute? When Pompey pitched his camp at Jericho
and surrounded the Holy City with his legions, did not
Aristobulus play the traitor and offer to open the gate?
and when the soldiers mutinied, and prevented so black a
treason, did not Hyrcanus, who was afterwards high-priest,
assist the besiegers from within, and enable them to gain
possession of the town ? In later days, Herod, indeed, who
was surnamed the Great, fortified Jerusalem like a soldier
and a patriot ; but even Herod, our warrior king, soiled his
hands with Roman gold, and bowed his head to the Roman

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yoke. Will you tell me of Agrippa's wall, reared by the
namesake and successor of the mighty monarch? Why
was it never finished? Can you answer me that? I trow
ye know too well ; there was fear of displeasing Caesar,
there was the old shameful truckling to Rome. This is the
leaven that leaveneth all our leaders ; this is the palsy that
withereth all our efforts. Is not the chief who defended
Jotapata now a guest in the tent of Titus ? Is not Agrippa
the younger a staunch adherent of Vespasian? Is he not
a mere procurator of the Empire, for the province, forsooth,
of Judaea? And shall we learn nothing from our history?
Nothing from the events of our own times, from the scenes
we ourselves witness day by day? Must the cedar fall
because we fail to destroy the worms that are eating at its
core? Shall Jerusalem be desecrated because we fear to
denounce the hand that would deliver her to the foe ? We
have a plague-spot in the nation. We have an enemy in
the town. We have a traitor in the Council. Eleazar Ben-
Manahem ! I bid thee stand forth ! "

There is an instinct of danger which seems to warn the
statesman like the mariner of coming storms, giving him
time to trim his sail, while they are yet below the horizon.
When the assembled Senate turned their startled looks on
Eleazar, they beheld a countenance unmoved by the sudden-
ness and gravity of the accusation, a bearing that denoted,
if not conscious innocence, at least a fixed resolution to
wear its semblance without a shadow of weakness or fear.
Pointing to his dusty garments, and the stains of toil upon
his hands and person, he looked round frankly among the
elders, rather, as it seemed, appealing to the Senate than
answering his accuser, in his reply.

" These should be sufficient proofs," said he, " if any were
wanting, that Eleazar Ben-Manahem hath not been an
instant absent from his post. I have but to strip the gown
from my breast, and I can show yet deeper marks to attest my
loyalty and patriotism. I have not grudged my own blood,
nor the blood of my kindred, and of my father's house, to
defend the walls of Jerusalem. John of Gischala hath dealt with
you in parables, but I speak to you in the plain language of
truth. This right hand of mine is hardened with grasping sword
and spear against the enemies of Judah ; and I would cut it
off with its own fellow, ere I stretched it forth in amity to
the Roman or the heathen. Talk not to me of thy worms
and thy cedars ! John of Gischala, man of blood and rapine
— speak out thine accusation plainly, that I may answer it ! "

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MOIRA

John was stepping angrily forward, when he was arrested
by the voice of a venerable long-bearded senator.

" It is not meet," said the sage, " that accuser and accused
should bandy words in the presence of the Council. John
of Gischala, we summon thee to lay the matter at once
before the Senate, warning thee that an accusation without
proofs will but recoil upon the head of him who brings it
forward."

John smiled in grim triumph.

" Elders of Israel," said he, " I accuse Eleazar Ben-
Manahem of offering terms to the enemy."

Eleazar started, but recovered himself instantaneously.
It was war to the knife, as well he knew, between him and
John. He must not seem to hesitate now when his ascen-
dency amongst the people was at such a crisis. He took
the plunge at once.

"And I reply," he exclaimed indignantly, "that rather
than make terms with the Roman, I would plunge the sword
into my own body."

A murmur of applause ran through the assembly at this
spirited declaration. The accused had great weight amongst
the nobility and the national party in Jerusalem, of which
the Council chiefly consisted. Could Eleazar but persevere
in his denial of communication with Titus, he must triumph
signally over his adversary; and, to do him justice, there
was now but little personal ambition mingled with his desire
for supremacy. He was a fanatic, but he was a patriot as
well. He believed all things were lawful in the cause of
Jerusalem, and trusting to the secret way by which Calchas
had left the city for the Roman camp, and by which he
felt assured he must have returned, as, thanks to John's
precautions, nothing had been heard of his arrival at the
Great Gate and subsequent arrest, he resolved to persevere
in his denial, and trust to his personal influence to carry
things with a high hand.

" There hath been a communication made from his own
house, and by one of his own family, to the Roman com-
mander," urged John, but with a certain air of deference and
hesitation, for he perceived the favourable impression made
on the Council by his adversary, and he was crafty enough
to know the advantage of reserving his convincing proofs
for the last, and taking the tide of opinion at the turn.

" I deny it," said Eleazar firmly. " The children of Ben-
Manahem have no dealings with the heathen ! "

" It is one of the seed of Ben-Manahem whom I accuse,"

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THE ATTAINDER

replied John, still addressing himself to the elders. " I can
prove he hath been seen going to and fro, between the camp
and the city."

" His blood be on his own head ! " answered Eleazar
solemnly.

He had a vague hope that after all they might but have
intercepted some poor half-starved wretch whom the pangs
of hunger had driven to the enemy. John looked back
amongst his adherents crowding in the gate that led towards
the Temple.

" I speak not without proofs," said he ; " bring forward
the prisoner!"

There was a slight scuffle amongst the throng, and a
murmur which subsided almost immediately as two young
men appeared: in the court, leading between them a figure,
having its hands tied, and a mantle thrown over its head.

" Eleazar Ben-Manahem ! " said John, in a loud, clear voice
that seemed to ring amongst the porticoes and pinnacles of
the overhanging Temple, " stand forth, and speak the truth !
Is not this man thy brother ? "

At the same moment, the mantle was drawn from the
prisoner's head, revealing the mild and placid features of
Calchas, who looked round upon the Council, neither intimi-
dated nor surprised. The Senate gazed in each other's faces
with concern and astonishment : John seemed, indeed, in a
fair way of substantiating his accusation against the man
they most trusted in all Jerusalem. The accuser continued,
with an affectation of calm unprejudiced judgment, in a cool
and dispassionate voice —

" This man was brought to the Great Gate to-day, under
a guard of honour, direct from the Roman camp. I happened
to be present, and the captain of the gate handed him over at
once to me. I appeal to the Council whether I exceeded my
duty in arresting him on the spot, permitting him no com-
munication with anyone in the town until I had brought him
before them in this court. I soon learned that he was the
brother of Eleazar, one of our most distinguished leaders, to
whom more than to any other the defence of the city has been
entrusted, who knows better than anyone our weakness and
the extremity of our need. By my orders he was searched,
and on his person was found a scroll, purporting to be from
no less a person than the commander of the Tenth Legion,
an officer second only in authority to Titus himself, and ad-
dressed to one Esca, a Gentile, living in the very house, and I
am informed a member of the very family, of Eleazar Ben-

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MOIRA

Manahem, this elder in Judah, this chief of the Zealots, this
member of the Senate, this adviser in Council, this man whose
right hand is hardened with sword and spear, but who would
cut it off with his left, rather than that it should traffic with
the enemy ! I demand from the Council an order for the
arrest of Esca, that he too may be brought before it, and con-
fronted with him whose bread he eats. From the -mouth of
three offenders, our wise men may peradventure elicit the
truth. If I have erred in my zeal let the Senate reprove me.
If Eleazar can purge himself from my accusation, let him
defile my father's grave, and call me liar and villain to my
very beard ! "

The Senate, powerfully affected by John's appeal, and yet
unable to believe in the treachery of one who had earned their
entire confidence, seemed at a loss how to act. The conduct
of the accused, too, afforded no clue whereby to judge of his
probable guilt or innocence. His cheek was very pale, and
once he stepped forward a pace, as if to place himself at his
brother's side. Then he halted and repeated his former
words, " His blood be on his own head," in a loud and broken
voice, turning away the while, and glaring round upon the
senators like some fierce animal taken in the toils. Calchas,
too, kept his eyes fixed on the ground ; and more than one
observer remarked that the brothers studiously abstained from
looking each other in the face. There was a dead silence for
several seconds. Then the senator who had before spoken,
raised his hand to command attention, and thus addressed the
Council —

" This is a grave matter, involving as it does not only the
life and death of a son of Judah, but the honour of one of our
noblest houses, and the safety, nay, the very existence of the
Holy City. A grave matter, and one which may not be dealt
with, save by the highest tribunal in the nation. It must be
tried before our Sanhedrim, which will assemble for the
purpose without delay. Those of us here present who are
members of that august body, will divest their minds of all
they have heard in this place to-day, and proceed to a clear
and unbiassed judgment of the matters that shall be then
brought before them. Nothing has been yet proved against
Eleazar Ben-Manahem, though his brother, and the Gentile
who has to answer the same accusation, must be kept in
secure ward. I move that the Council, therefore, be now
dissolved, holding itself ready, nevertheless, seeing the im-
minent peril of the times, to reassemble at an hour's notice,
for the welfare of Judah, and the salvation of the Holy City."

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THE ATTAINDER

Even while he ceased speaking, and ere the grave
senators broke up, preparing to depart, a wail was heard
outside the court that chilled the very heart of each, as it
rose and fell like a voice from the other world, repeating
ever and again, in wild unearthly tones, in solemn warning —

" Woe to Jerusalem ! Woe to the Holy City ! Sin, and
sorrow, and desolation ! Woe to the Holy City ! Woe to
Jerusalem ! "

367

CHAPTER VIII

THE SANHEDRIM

THE highest tribunal acknowledged by the Jewish law,
taking cognisance of matters especially affecting the
religious and political welfare of the nation, essentially im-
partial in its decisions, and admitting of no appeal from its
sentence, was that assembly of Seventy, or rather of Seventy-
three members, which was called the Sanhedrim. This court
of justice was supposed to express and embody the opinions
of the whole nation, consisting as it did of a number which
subdivided would have given six representatives for each
tribe, besides a president to rule the proceedings of the whole.
The latter, who was termed the Nasi or Prince of the Sanhe-
drim, was necessarily of illustrious birth, venerable years, and
profound experience in all matters connected with the law —
not only the actual law as laid down by inspiration for the
guidance of the Chosen People, but also the traditional law,
with its infinite variety of customs, precedents, and cere-
monious observances, which had been added to, and as it
were overlaid on the other, much to the detriment of that
simpler code, which came direct from heaven. The members
themselves of this supreme council were of noble blood. In
no nation, perhaps, was the pride of birth more cherished than
amongst the Jews ; and in such an assemblage as the Sanhe-
drim, untainted lineage was the first indispensable qualifica-
tion. The majority, indeed, consisted of priests and Levites ;
but other families of secular distinction who could count their
ancestors step by step, from generation to generation, through
the Great Captivity, and all the vicissitudes of their history,
back to the magnificence of Solomon and the glories of
David's warlike reign, had their representatives in this solemn
conclave.

Not only was nobility a requirement, but also maturity of
years, a handsome person, and a dignified bearing ; nor were
mental attainments held in less regard than the adventitious
advantages of appearance and station. Every elder of the

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THE SANHEDRIM

Sanhedrim was obliged to study physic, to become an adept
in the science of divination in all its branches, comprising
astrology, the casting of nativities and horoscopes, the pre-
diction of future events, and those mysteries of White Magic,
as it was called, which bordered so narrowly on the forbidden
limits of the Black Art. He was also required to be an
excellent linguist ; and was indeed supposed to be proficient
in the seventy languages, believed to comprise all the tongues
of the habitable earth. No eunuch nor deformed person could
aspire to hold a place in this august body, no usurer, no
Sabbath-breaker, none who were in the practice of any un-
lawful business or overt sin. Those who sat in the highest
place of the Jewish nation, who ruled her councils and held
the right of life and death over her children, must be prudent,
learned, blameless men, decked with the patent of true
nobility both in body and mind.

The Sanhedrim, in its original constitution, was the only
Court which had the right of judging capital cases ; and this
right, involving so grave a responsibility, it was careful to
preserve during all the calamities of the nation, until it fell
under the Roman yoke. The Empire, however, reserved to
itself the power of condemning its criminals to death ; but no
sooner had the Jews broken out once more in open resistance
to their conquerors, than the Sanhedrim resumed all its
former privileges and sat again in judgment upon its
countrymen.

In a large circular chamber, half within and half without
the Temple, this awful Court held its deliberations, the
members, ranged in order by seniority, occupying the outer
semicircle, as it was not lawful to sit down in the sacred
precincts. That chamber was now the theatre of a solemn
and imposing scene. The hall itself, which, though wide and
lofty, appeared of yet larger proportions from its circular form,
was hung round with cloth of a dark crimson colour, that
added much to the prevailing sentiments of gloom which its
appearance called forth. Over its entrance was suspended a
curtain of the same hue ; and the accused who underwent
examination in this dreaded locality, found themselves en-
circled by an unbroken wall the colour of blood. A black
carpet was spread on the floor, bordered with a wide yellow
margin, on which were written in black Hebrew characters
certain texts of the law, inculcating punishment rather than
pardon, inflexible justice rather than a leaning towards mercy
and forbearance. The heart of the guilty died within him as
he looked uneasily around ; and even the innocent might
2 A 369

MOIRA

well quail at these preparations for a trial over which an
exacting severity was so obviously to hold sway.

The Sanhedrim were accustomed to assemble in an outer
chamber, and march in grave procession to the court of trial.
The crimson curtain, drawn by an unseen hand, rolled slowly
from the door, and the members, dressed in black, came in
by pairs and took their places in order. As they entered,
their names were called over by an official concealed behind
the hangings ; and each man notified his arrival as he passed
on to his seat, by the solemn answer : " Here ! In the
presence of the Lord ! " Last of all, the president made his
appearance, and assumed a higher chair, set apart a little
from the rest. Then the youngest member offered up a short
prayer, to which the whole assembly responded with a deep
and fervent Amen ! The Court was now considered to be
opened, and qualified for the trial of all causes that should
be brought before it during its sitting.

On the present occasion the junior member was a Levite,
nearly threescore years of age, of a stately presence, which
he had preserved notwithstanding the hardships of the siege,
and who retained much of his youthful comeliness with the
flowing beard and grave countenance of maturer years.
Phineas Ben -Ezra possessed the exterior qualities by which
men are prone to be influenced, with a ready tongue, a
scheming brain, and an unscrupulous heart. He was attached
to John's faction, and a bitter enemy of the Zealots, by whom
he had himself been formerly accused of treasonable corre-
spondence with Vespasian ; an accusation that he refuted to
his own exultation and the utter confusion of his enemies, but
which those who had the best means of judging believed to
be true nevertheless. He took his seat now with an expres-
sion of cold triumph on his handsome features, and exchanged
looks with one or two of the colleagues who seemed deepest
in his confidence, that the latter knew too well boded con-
siderable danger to the accused whom they were about to
try.

The Prince of the Sanhedrim, Matthias the son of Boethus,
who had already filled the office of high-priest, was a stern
and conscientious man of the old Jewish party, whose opinions
indeed were in accordance with those of Eleazar, and who
entertained, besides, a personal friendship for that determined
enthusiast, but whose inflexible obstinacy was to be moved
by no earthly consideration from the narrow path of duty
which he believed his sacred character compelled him to
observe. His great age and austere bearing commanded

370

THE SANHEDRIM

considerable influence among his countrymen, enhanced by
the high office he had previously filled ; nor was he the less
esteemed that his severe and even morose disposition, while
it gained him few friends, yielded no confidences and afforded
no opportunity for the display of those human weaknesses by
which a man wins their affections, while he loses the command
over his fellow-creatures. His face was very pale and grave
now, as he moved haughtily to the seat reserved for him ; and
his dark flowing robes, decorated, in right of his former
priesthood, with certain mystic symbols, seemed well-fitted
to the character of a stern and inflexible judge. The other
members of the assembly, though varying in form and feature,
were distinguished one and all by a family likeness, originat-
ing probably in similarity of habits and opinions, no less
than in a common nationality and the sharing of a common
danger, growing daily to its worst. The dark flashing eye,
the deep sallow tint, the curving nostril and the waving beard,
were no more distinguishing marks of any one individual in
the assembly, than were his long black gown and his ex-
pression of severe and inscrutable gravity; but even these
universal characteristics were not so remarkable as a certain
ominous shadow that cast its gloom upon the face of each.
It was the shadow of that foe against whom sword and spear
and shield and javelin, bodily strength, dauntless courage,
and skill in the art of war, were all powerless to make head —
the foe who was irresistible because he lay at the very heart
of the fortress. The weary, anxious, longing look of hunger
was on the faces even of these, the noblest and the most
powerful behind the wall. They had stores of gold and
silver, rich silks, sparkling jewels, costly wines within their
houses ; but there %was a want of bread, and gaunt uneasy
famine had set his seal, if not as deeply at least as surely,
upon these faces in the Sanhedrim as on that of the meanest
soldier, who girded his sword-belt tighter to stay his pangs,
as he stood pale and wasted in his armour on the ramparts,
over against the foe.

There was a hush for several seconds after the Prince of
the Sanhedrim had taken his seat, and the general prayer had
been offered up. It was broken at length by Matthias, who
rose with slow impressive gestures, drew his robe around him
so as to display the sacred symbols and cabalistic figures with
which its hem was garnished, and spoke in stern and measured
tones —

"Princes of the House of Judah," said he, "elders and
nobles, and priests and Levites of the nation, we are met

371

MO1RA

once more to-day, in accordance with our ancient prerogative,
for the sifting of a grave and serious matter. In this, the
highest Council of our country, we adhere to the same forms
that have been handed down to us by our fathers from the
earliest times, even from their sojourn in the wilderness, that
have been preserved through the Great Captivity of our
nation, that may have been prohibited by our conquerors,
but that we have resumed with that independence which we
have recently asserted, and which the Ruler to whom alone
we owe allegiance will assuredly enable us to attain. We
will not part with one iota of our privileges, and least of all
with our jurisdiction in matters involving life and death ; a
jurisdiction as inseparable from our very existence as the
Tabernacle itself, which we have accompanied through so
many vicissitudes, and with which we are so closely allied.
That inferior assemblage from which our chosen body is
selected has already considered the heavy accusation which
has collected us here. They have decided that the matter is
of too grave a character to be dealt with by their own
experience — that it involves the condemnation to death of
one if not two members of the illustrious family of Ben-
Manahem — that it may deprive us of a leader who claims to
be among the staunchest of our patriots, who has proved
himself the bravest of our defenders. But what then, princes
of the House of Judah, elders and nobles, and priests and
Levites of the nation? Shall I spare the pruning-hook,
because it is the heaviest branch in my vineyard that is
rotting from its stem ? Shall I not rather lop it off with
mine own hand, and cast it from me into the consuming
fire? If my brother be guilty shall I screen him, brother
though he be? Shall I not rather hand him over to the
Avenger, and deliver my own soul ? We are all assembled
in our places, ready to hear attentively, and to try impartially,
whatsoever accusations may be brought before us. Phineas
Ben-Ezra, youngest member of the Sanhedrim, I call on thee
to count over thy colleagues, and proclaim aloud the sum
thereof."

In compliance with established usage, Phineas, thus
adjured, rose from his seat, and walking gravely through the
hall, told off its inmates one by one, in a loud and solemn
voice, then finding the tale to be correct, stopped before the
high chair of the Nasi, and proclaimed thrice —

" Prince of the Sanhedrim, the mystic number is complete ! "
The president addressed him again in the prescribed
formula —

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THE SANHEDRIM

"Phineas Ben-Ezra, are we prepared to try each cause
according to the traditions of our nation, and the strict letter
of the law ? Do we abide by the decisions of wisdom without
favour, and justice without mercy ? "

Then the whole Sanhedrim repeated as with one voice,
" Wisdom without favour, and justice without mercy ! "

The president now seated himself, and looked once more
to Phineas, who, as the youngest member present, was
entitled to give his opinion first. The latter, answering his
glance, rose at once and addressed his fellows in a tone of
diffidence which would have seemed misplaced in one of his
venerable appearance, had he not been surrounded by men of
far greater age than himself.

" I am but as a disciple," said he, " at the feet of a master,
in presence of Matthias the son of Boethus, and my honoured
colleagues. Submitting to their experience, I do but venture
to ask a question, without presuming to offer my own opinion
on its merits. Supposing that the Sanhedrim should be
required to try one of its own number, is it lawful that
he should remain and sit, as it were, in judgment upon
himself? "

Eleazar, who was present in his place as a member of
the august body, felt that this attack was specially directed
against his own safety. He knew the virulence of the speaker,
and his rancorous enmity to the Zealots, and recognised the
danger to himself of exclusion from the coming deliberations.
He was in the act of rising in indignant protest against such
an assumption, when he was forestalled by Matthias, who
replied in tones of stern displeasure —

" He must indeed be a mere disciple, and it will be long
ere he is worthy of the name of master in the Sanhedrim,
who has yet to learn, that our deliberations are uninfluenced
by aught we have heard or seen outside the chamber — that
we recognise in our august office no evidence but the proofs
that are actually brought before us here. Phineas Ben-Ezra,
the Court is assembled ; admit accusers and accused. Must
I tell thee that we are still ignorant of the cause we are here
to try ? "

The decision of the Nasi, which was in accordance with
traditional observance and established custom, afforded
Eleazar a moment's respite, in which to resolve on the course
he should adopt ; but though his mind was working busily,
he sat perfectly unmoved, [and to all outward appearance
calm and confident; whilst' the hangings were again drawn
back, and the tread of feet announced the approach of accuser

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MOIRA

and accused. The latter were now two in number: for
by John's orders a strong guard had already proceeded to
Eleazar's house, and laid violent hands on Esca, who, con-
fident in his own innocence and in the influence of his host,
accompanied them without apprehension of danger into the
presence of the awful assembly. The Briton's surprise was,
however, great, when he found himself confronted with
Calchas, of whose arrest, so skilfully had John managed it, he
was as unconscious as the rest of the besieged. The two
prisoners were not permitted to communicate with each
other ; and it was only from a warning glance shot at him by
his fellow-sufferer, that Esca gathered they were both in a
situation of extreme peril.

It was not without considerable anxiety that Eleazar
remarked, when the curtains were drawn back, how a large
body of armed men filled the adjoining cloister of the
Temple: like the guard who watched the prisoners, these
were partisans of John ; and so well aware were the Sanhe-
drim of that fierce soldier's lawless disposition, that they
looked uneasily from one to the other, with the painful
reflection that he was quite capable of massacring the whole
conclave then and there, and taking the supreme government
of the city into his own hands.

It was the influence, however, of no deliberative assembly
that was feared by a man like John of Gischala. Fierce and
reckless to the extreme, he dreaded only the violence of a
character bold and unscrupulous as his own. Could he but
pull Eleazar from the pinnacle on which he had hitherto
stood, he apprehended no other rival. The chief of the
Zealots was the only man who could equal him in craft as
well as in courage, whose stratagems were as deep, whose
strokes were even bolder, than his own. The opportunity
he had desired so long was come, he believed, at last. In
that circular chamber, thought John, before that council of
stern and cruel dotards, he was about to throw the winning
cast of his game. It behoved him to play it warily, though
courageously. If he could enlist the majority of the Sanhe-
drim on his own side, his rival's downfall was certain. When
he had assumed supreme power in Jerusalem — and he made
no doubt that would be his next step — it would be time
enough to consider whether he too might not ensure his own
safety, and make terms with Titus by delivering up the town
to the enemy.

Standing apart from the prisoners, and affecting an air of
extreme deference to his audience, John addressed the Nasi,

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THE SANHEDRIM

in the tones rather of an inferior who excused himself for
an excess of zeal in the performance of his duty, than of
an equal denouncing a traitor and demanding justice for an
offence.

" I leave my case," said he, " in the hands of the
Sanhedrim, appealing to them whether I have exceeded
my authority, or accused any man falsely of a crime which
I am unable to prove. I only ask for the indulgence due
to a mere soldier, who is charged with the defence of the
city, and is jealous of everything that can endanger her
safety. From each member here present without a single
exception, from Matthias the son of Boethus to Phineas
Ben-Ezra of the family of Nehemiah, I implore a favourable
hearing. There stands the man whom I secured at noon
this day, coming direct from Titus, with a written scroll
upon his person, of which the superscription was to a certain
Gentile dwelling in the house of Eleazar, who is also present
before you, and purporting to be in the writing of that
warrior of the heathen who commands the Tenth Legion.
Was it not my duty to bring such a matter at once before
the Council? and was it not expedient that the Council
should refer so grave a question to the Sanhedrim?"

Matthias bent his brows sternly upon the speaker, and
thus addressed him —

" Thou art concealing thy thoughts from those to whose
favour thou makest appeal. John of Gischala, thou art no
unpractised soldier to draw a bow at a venture, and heed
not where the shaft may strike. Speak out thine accusation,
honestly, boldly, without fear of man, before the assembly,
or for ever hold thy peace ! "

Thus adjured, John of Gischala cast an anxious glance
at the surrounding faces turned towards him, with varying
expressions of expectation, anger, encouragement, and mis-
trust. Then he looked boldly at the president, and made
his accusation before the Sanhedrim as he had already made
it before the Council —

" I charge Eleazar Ben-Manahem," said he, " with treason,
and I charge these two men as his instruments. Let them
clear themselves if they can ! "

375

CHAPTER IX

THE PAVED HALL

LL eyes were now turned on Eleazar,
who sat unmoved in his place, af-
fecting a composure which he was
far from feeling. His mind, indeed,
was tortured to agony, by the con-
flict that went on within. Should
he stand boldly forward and confess
that he had sent his own brother
into the Roman camp, with pro-
posals for surrender? Well he
knew that such a confession would
be tantamount to placing his neck
at once under John of Gischala's foot.

Who amongst his most devoted partisans would have courage
to profess a belief in his patriotic motives, or allow that he was
satisfied with the explanation offered for such a flagrant act of
treason ? The condemnation of the Sanhedrim would be the
signal for his downfall and his death. When he was gone
who would be left to save Jerusalem? This was the con-
sideration that affected him, far more than any personal
apprehensions of danger or disgrace. On the other hand,
should he altogether renounce his brother, and disavow the
authority he had given him? It has already been said,
that as far as he loved any living being, he loved Calchas ;
perhaps had it not been so, he might have shrunk from the
disgrace of abandoning one who had acted under his own
immediate orders, and risked so much in obeying them ; but
in the depths of his fierce heart, something whispered that
self-sacrifice was essentially akin to duty, and that because
he loved him, therefore he must offer up his brother, as a
man offers up a victim at the altar.

Nevertheless, he ran his eye hastily over his seventy-two
colleagues, as they sat in grave deliberation, and summed up
rapidly the score of friends and foes. It was nearly balanced,

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THE PAVED HALL

yet he knew there were many who would take their opinions
from the Nasi ; and from that stern old man he could expect
nothing but the severity of impartial justice. He dared not
look at Calchas, he dared not cover his face with his hand to
gain a brief respite from the cold grave eyes that were fixed
upon him. It was a bitter moment, but he reflected that, in
the cause of Jerusalem, shame and suffering and sorrow, and
even sin, became sacred, and he resolved to sacrifice all, even
his own flesh and blood, to his ascendency in the town.

He was spared the pain, however, of striking the fatal
blow with his own hand. Matthias, scrupulous in all matters
of justice, had decided that until the accusation against him
was supported by some direct evidence, no member of the
Sanhedrim could] be placed in the position of a culprit. He
therefore determined to interrogate the prisoners himself,
and ascertain whether anything would be elicited of so grave
a nature as to cause Eleazar's suspension from his present
office, and the consequent reassembling of the whole Sanhe-
drim ; a delay that in the present critical state of matters it
was desirable to avoid, the more so that the day was already
far advanced, and the morrow was the Sabbath. He there-
fore ordered the two prisoners to be placed in the centre of
the hall ; and, looking ^ternly towards the accused, began his
interrogations in the severe accents of one who is an avenger
rather than a judge.

The mild eye and placid demeanour of Calchas afforded
a strong contrast to the frowning brows and flashing glances
of the Nasi.

" Your name, old man," said the latter abruptly. " Your
name, lineage, and generation ? "

" Calchas the son of Simeon," was the reply, " the son of
Manahem, of the house of Manahem, and of the tribe of
Judah."

" Art thou not the brother of Eleazar Ben-Manahem, who
is sitting yonder in his place as a member of the Sanhedrim,
before whom thou hast to plead ? "

Ere he replied, Calchas stole a look at Eleazar, who
forced himself to return it. There was something in the
elder brother's face that caused the younger to turn his
eyes away, and bend them on the ground. The fierce old
president, impatient of that momentary delay, broke out
angrily —

" Nay, look up, man ! no subterfuges will avail thee here.
Remember the fate of those who dare to lie in the presence
of the Sanhedrim ! "

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MOIRA

Calchas fixed his eye on the president's in mild rebuke.

" I am in a higher presence than thine, Matthias son of
Boethus," said he ; " neither need the children of Manahem
be adjured to speak truth before God and man ! "

" Hast thou heard the accusation brought against thee
by John of Gischala ? " proceeded the Nasi. " Canst thou
answer it with an open brow and a clean heart?"

" I heard the charge," replied Calchas, " and I am ready
to answer it for myself, and for him who is in bonds by
my side. Have I permission to clear myself before the
Sanhedrim ? "

" Thou wilt have enough to do to slip thine own neck
out of the yoke," answered Matthias sternly. " Colleagues,"
he added, looking round, " ye have heard the accuser — will
ye now listen to the accused ? "

Then Phineas, speaking for the rest, answered : " We will
hear him, Nasi, without favour, we will judge him without
mercy."

Thus encouraged, Calchas shook the white hair from his
brow, and entered boldly on his defence.

" It is true," said he, " that I have been outside the walls.
It is true that I have been in the Roman camp, nay, that
I have been in the very presence of Titus himself. Shall I
tell the assembly of the strength of Rome, of the discipline
of her armies, of the late reinforcement of her legions?
Shall I tell them that I saw the very auxiliaries eating
wheaten bread and the flesh of kids and sheep, whilst my
countrymen are starving behind the walls? Shall I tell
them that we are outnumbered by our foes, and are our-
selves weakened by dissensions, and wasting our strength
and courage day by day ? Shall I tell them that I read on
the face of Titus confidence in himself and reliance on his
army, and, even with a conviction that he should prevail, a
wish to show pity and clemency to the vanquished? All
this they already know, all this must make it needless for
me to enter into any defence beyond a simple statement
of my motives. Nay, I have gathered intelligence from the
Roman camp," he added, now fixing his eyes on his brother,
to whom he had no other means of imparting the answer,
which the prince had confided to him through Licinius by
word of mouth, — " intelligence, the importance of which
should well bear me harmless, even had I committed a
greater offence than escaping from a beleaguered town to
hold converse with the enemy. Titus," he spoke now in a
loud clear voice, of which every syllable rang through the

378

THE PAVED HALL

building — " Titus bade me be assured that his determination
was unalterable, to grant no further delay, but, surrender or
no surrender, to enter Jerusalem the day after the Sabbath,
and if he encountered resistance, to lay waste the Holy City
with fire and sword ! "

Eleazar started to his feet, but recollected himself, and
resumed his seat instantaneously. The action might well be
interpreted as the mere outbreak of a soldier's energy, called,
as it were, by the sound of the trumpet to the wall. This,
then, was what he had gained, a respite, a reprieve of one
day, and that one day he had purchased at the dear price of
his brother's life. Yet even now the fierce warrior reflected
with a grim delight, how judiciously he had used the time
accorded him, and how, when the proud Roman did make
his threatened assault, he would meet with a reception worthy
of the warlike fame so long enjoyed by the Jewish nation.

The rest of the Sanhedrim seemed scared and stupefied.
Every man looked in his neighbour's face, and read there
only dismay and blank despair. The crisis had been long
threatening, and now it was at hand. Resistance was hope-
less, escape impossible, and captivity insupportable. The
prevailing feeling in the assembly was, nevertheless, one of
indignation against the bearer of such unwelcome tidings.
The Nasi was the first to recover himself, yet even he seemed
disturbed.

" By whose authority," said he — and every eye was turned
on Eleazar while he spoke — " by whose authority didst thou
dare to enter the camp of the enemy, and traffic with the
Gentile who encompasseth the Holy City with bow and
spear ? "

The chief of the Zealots knew well that he was the
observed of all his colleagues, many of whom would triumph
at his downfall, whilst even his own partisans would detach
themselves from it, each to the best of his abilities, when his
faction ceased to be in the ascendant. He knew, too, that on
his brother's answer hung not only his life — which indeed he
had risked too often to rate at a high value — but the stability
of the whole fabric he had been building for months — the
authority by which he hoped to save Jerusalem and Judaea,
for which he grudged not to peril his immortal soul ; and
knowing all this, he forced his features into a sedate and
solemn composure. He kept his eye away from the accused
indeed, but fixed sternly on the president, and sat in his
place the only man in the whole of that panic-stricken
assembly who appeared master of the situation, and confident

379

MOIRA

in himself. Calchas paused before he answered, waiting till
the stir was hushed, and the attention which had been diverted
to his brother settled once more on his own case. Then he
addressed the Nasi in bold sonorous accents, his form dilating,
his face brightening as he spoke —

" By the authority of Him who came to bring peace on
earth — by the authority that is as far greater than that of
Sanhedrim, or priest, or conqueror, as the heavens are higher
than the sordid speck of dust on which, but for that authority,
we should only swarm and grovel and live one little hour,
like the insects dancing in the sunbeams, to die at the close
of day — I am a man of peace! Could I bear to see my
country wasted by the armed hand, and torn by the trampling
hoof? I love my neighbour as myself. Could I bear to
know that his grasp was day by day on his brother's throat ?
I have learned from my Master that all are brethren, besieger
and besieged, Roman and barbarian, Jew and Gentile, bond
and free. Are they at variance, and shall I not set them at
one? Are their swords at each other's breasts, and shall I
not step between and bid them be at peace? By whose
authority, dost thou ask me, Matthias son of Boethus ? By
His authority who came to you, and ye knew Him not.
Who preached to you, and ye heeded Him not. Who would
have saved you in His own good time from the great desola-
tion, and ye reviled Him, and judged Him, and put Him to
death on yonder hill ! "

Even the Prince of the Sanhedrim was staggered at the
old man's boldness. Like other influential men of his nation,
he could not ignore the existence of a well-known sect, which
had already exchanged its title of Nazarenes for that of
Christians, the name in which it was hereafter to spread
itself over the whole earth ; but the very mention of these
self-devoted men was an abomination in his ears, and the last
house in which he could have expected to find a votary of
the cross, was that of Eleazar Ben-Manahem, chief of such a
party as the Zealots, and grounding his influence on his ex-
clusive nationality and strict adhesion to the very bigotry of
the Jewish law. He looked on Calchas for a space, as if
scarcely believing his eyes. Then there came over his
features, always stern and harsh, an expression of pitiless
severity, and he addressed his colleagues, rather than the
accused.

"This is even a graver matter than I had thought for,"
said he, in a low yet distinct voice, that made itself heard in
the farthest corner of the Court. " Princes of the house of

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THE PAVED HALL

Judah, elders and nobles, and priests and Levites of the
nation, I am but the instrument of your will, the weapon
wielded by your collective might. Is it not the duty of mine
office that I smite and spare not ? "

" Smite and spare not ! " repeated Phineas ; and the whole
assembly echoed the merciless verdict.

There was not one dissentient, not even Eleazar, sitting
gloomy and resolved in his place. Then Matthias turned
once more to Calchas, and said, still in the same suppressed
tones —

"Thou speakest in parables, and men may not address
the Sanhedrim save in the brief language of fact. Art thou
then one of those accursed Nazarenes who have called them-
selves Christians of late ? "

" I am indeed a Christian," answered Calchas, " and I
glory in the name. Would that thou, Matthias son of
Boethus, and these the elders of Judah, were partakers with
me in all that name affords."

Then he looked kindly and joyfully in Eleazar's face, for
he knew that he had saved his brother. The corselet of the
latter rattled beneath his long black robe with the shiver that
ran through his whole frame. The tension was taken off his
nerves at last, and the relief was great, but it was purchased
at too dear a price. Now that it was doomed, he felt the
value of his brother's life. He was totally unmanned, and
shifted uneasily in his seat, not knowing what to do or say.
They seemed to have changed places at last — Calchas to
have assumed the bold unyielding nature, and Eleazar the
loving tender heart. He recovered himself, however, before
long. The ruling passion triumphed once more, as he antici-
pated the discomfiture of his rival, and the speedy renewal
of his own ascendency amongst his countrymen.

The Prince of the Sanhedrim reflected for a few moments
ere he turned his severe frown on Esca, and said —

" What doth this Gentile here in the Court of the Sanhe-
drim ? Let him speak what he knoweth in this matter, ere
he answer his own crime. Thy testimony at least may be
valid," he added scornfully, "for thou surely art not a
Christian ? "

The Briton raised his head proudly to reply. If there
was less of holy meekness in his demeanour than in that of
Calchas, there was the same bold air of triumph, the same
obvious defiance of consequences, usually displayed by those
who sealed their testimony with their blood.

" I am a Christian," said he. " I confess it, and I too, like

MOIRA

my teacher there, glory in the name ! I will not deny the
banner under which I serve. I will fight under that banner,
even to the death."

The Nasi's very beard bristled with indignation; he
caught up the skirt of his mantle, and tore it asunder to the
hem. Then, raising the pieces thus rent above his head, he
cried out in a loud voice, " It is enough ! They have spoken
blasphemy before the Sanhedrim. There is nothing more
but to pronounce immediate sentence of death. Phineas
Ben-Ezra, bid thy colleagues adjourn to the Stone-paved
Hall!"

Then the assembly rose in silence, and, marching gravely
two by two, passed out into an adjoining chamber, which was
paved, and roofed, and faced with stone. Here alone was it
lawful to pass sentence of death on those whom the Sanhe-
drim had condemned; and here, while their judges stood
round them in a circle, the prisoners with their guard fronting
the Nasi took their position in the midst. The latter stooping
to the ground went through the form of collecting a handful
of dust and throwing it into the air.

" Thus," said he, " your lives are scattered to the winds,
and your blood recoils on your own heads. You, Calchas
the son of Simeon, the son of Manahem, of the house of
Manahem, and you, Gentile, called Esca on the scroll which
has been delivered into my hand, shall be kept in secure ward
till to-morrow be past, seeing that it is the Sabbath, and at
morning's dawn on the first day of the week ye shall be
stoned with stones in the Outer Court adjoining the Temple
until ye die ; and thus shall be done, and more also, to those
who are found guilty of blasphemy in the presence of the
Sanhedrim ! "

Then turning to Eleazar, who still retained his forced
composure throughout the hideous scene, he added —

"For thee, Eleazar Ben -Manahem, thy: name is still
untarnished in the nation, and thy place still knows thee
amongst thy brethren. The testimony of a -Nazarene is
invalid ; and no accusation hath yet been brought against
thee supported by any witness save these two condemned
and accursed men. That thou hast no portion, my brother,
with blasphemers scarcely needs thine own unsupported
word in the ears of the Sanhedrim ! "

Eleazar, with the same fixed white face, looked wildly
round him on the assembled elders, turning up the sleeves
of his gown the while, and moving his hands over each other
as though he were washing them.

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THE PAVED HALL

" Their blood be on their own head," said he. " I re-
nounce them from my family and my household — I abjure
them, I wash my hands of them — their blood be on their own
head!"

And while he spoke, the warning voice was heard again
outside the Temple, causing even the bold heart of the Nasi
to thrill with a wild and unaccustomed fear — the voice of the
wailing prophet crying, " Woe to Jerusalem ! Woe to the
Holy City ! Sin and sorrow and desolation ! Woe to the
Holy City ! Woe to Jerusalem ! "

383

CHAPTER X

A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS

THE man who has resolved that he will shake himself
free from those human affections and human weak-
nesses which, like the corporeal necessities of hunger and
thirst, seem to have been given us for our enjoyment rather
than our discomfort, will find he undertakes a task too hard
for mortal courage and for mortal strength. Without those
pleasant accessories, like water and sunshine, the simple and
universal luxuries of mankind, existence may indeed drag
on, but it can scarcely be called life. The Great Dispenser
of all knows best. His children are not meant to stand
alone, independent of each other and of Him. While they
help their fellows, and trust in His strength, they are strong
indeed ; but no sooner do they lean on the staff themselves
have fashioned, than they stumble and fall. It wounds the
hand that grasps it, and breaks too surely when it is most
needed at the last.

Eleazar believed, when he quitted the Paved Hall in
which the Sanhedrim pronounced their sentence, that the
bitterest drop was drained in the cup he had forced himself
to quaff. He had not anticipated the remorseful misery that
awaited him in his own home — the empty seats, where they
were not — the tacit reproach of every familiar object — worst
of all, the meeting with Mariamne, the daughter of his
affections, the only child of his house. All that dreary
Sabbath morning the Zealot sat in his desolate home, fearing
— yes, he who seemed to fear nothing ; to whom the battle-
cry of shouting thousands on the wall was but as heart-
stirring and inspiring music — fearing the glance of a girl's
dark eye, the tone of her gentle voice — and that girl his own
daughter. There was no daily sacrifice in the Temple now ;
that last cherished prerogative of the Jewish religion had
been suspended. His creed forbade him to busy himself in
any further measures of defence which would involve labour
on the Sacred Day. He might not work with lever and

384

A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS

crowbar at the breach. All that could be done in so short
a space of time had been done by his directions yesterday.
He must sit idle in his stately dwelling, brooding darkly over
his brother's fate, or traverse his marble floor in restless
strides, with clenched hands, and gnashing teeth, and a wild
despair raging at his heart. Yet he never yielded nor wavered
in his fanatical resolve. Had it all to be done once more, he
would do the same again.

One memory there was that he could not shake off — a
vague and dreary memory that sometimes seemed to soothe,
and sometimes to madden him. The image of Mariamne
would come up before his eyes, not as now in her fair and
perfect womanhood, but as a helpless loving little child,
running to him with outstretched arms, and round cheeks
wet with tears, asking him for the precious favourite that had
gone with the rest of the flock to one of those great sacrifices
with which the Jews kept their sacred festivals — the kid that
was his child's playfellow — that he would have ransomed,
had he but known it in time, with whole hecatombs of sheep
and oxen, ere it should have been destroyed. The child had
no mother even then; and he remembered, with a strange
clearness, how he had taken the weeping little girl on his
knee and soothed her with unaccustomed tenderness, while
she put her arms round his neck, and laid her soft cheek
against his own, accepting consolation, and sobbing herself
to sleep upon his breast.

After this there seemed to grow up a tacit confidence —
a strong though unspoken affection — between father and
daughter. They seldom exchanged many words in a day,
sometimes scarcely more than a look. No two human beings
could be much less alike, or have less in common. There
was but this one slender link between them, and yet how
strong it had been ! After a while it angered him to find
this memory softening, while it oppressed him, whether he
would or no. He resolved he would see Mariamne at once
and face the worst. She knew he had avoided her, and held
him in too great awe to risk giving offence by forcing herself
upon him. Ignorant of Esca's arrest, the instinctive appre-
hension of a woman for the man she loves had yet caused
her to suspect some threatened danger from his prolonged
absence. She watched her opportunity, therefore, to enter
her father's presence and gain tidings, if possible, of his
brother and the Briton.

The hours sped on, and the fierce Syrian noon was
already glaring down upon the white porches and dazzling

2 B 385

MOIRA

streets of the Holy City. The hush of the Sabbath was over
all ; but it seemed more like the brooding, unnatural hush
that precedes earthquake or tempest, than the quiet of a day
devoted to peaceful enjoyment and repose. Her father was
accustomed to drink a cup of wine at this hour, and Mariamne
brought it him, trembling the while to learn the certainty of
that which she could not yet bear to leave in doubt She
entered the room in which he sat with faltering steps, and
stood before him with a certain graceful timidity that seemed
to deprecate his resentment. His punishment had begun
already. She reminded him of her mother, standing there
pale and beautiful in her distress.

"Father," she said softly, as he took the cup from her
hand and set it down untasted, without speaking, " where is
our kinsman, Calchas ? and — and Esca, the Briton ? Father !
tell me the worst at once. I am your own daughter, and I
can bear it"

The worst, had she allowed herself to embody her vague
fears, would have applied to the younger of the absent ones.
It would have assumed that he was gravely wounded, even
dangerously. Not killed — surely not killed ! He turned his
eyes upon her sternly, nay, angrily ; but even then he could
not tell her till he had lifted the cup and drained it every
drop. His lip was steady now, and his face was harder,
gloomier, than before, while he spoke —

" Daughter of Ben-Manahem ! " said he, " henceforth thou
hast no portion with him who was thy kinsman but yesterday,
neither with him the Gentile within my gate, who has eaten
of my bread and drunk from my cup, and stood with me
shoulder to shoulder against the Roman on the wall."

She clasped her hands in agony, and her very lips turned
white ; but she said true — she was his own daughter, and
she neither tottered nor gave way. In measured tones she
repeated her former words.

" Tell me the worst, father. I can bear it."

He found it easier now that he had begun, and he could
lash himself into a spurious anger as he went on, detailing
the events of the previous day ; the charges brought forward
by John of Gischala, the trial before the Sanhedrim, his own
narrow escape, and the confession of the two culprits, owning,
nay, glorying in their mortal crime. He fenced himself in
with the sophistry of an enthusiast and a fanatic. He
deluded himself into the belief that he had been injured and
aggrieved by the apostasy of the condemned. He poured
forth all the eloquence that might have vindicated him before

386

A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS

Matthias and his colleagues, had John's accusation been ever
brought to proof. The girl stood petrified and overpowered
with his violence: at last he denounced herself, for having
listened so eagerly to the gentle doctrines of her own father's
brother, for having consorted on terms of friendship with the
stranger whom he had' been the first to encourage and
welcome beneath his roof. Once she made her appeal on
Esca's behalf, but he silenced her ere she had half com-
pleted it.

" Father," she urged, " though a Gentile, he conformed to
the usages of our people ; though a stranger, I have heard
yourself declare that not a warrior in our ranks struck harder
for the Holy City than your guest, the brave and loyal
Esca!"'

He interrupted her with a curse.

" Daughter of Ben-Manahem ! in the day in which thou
shalt dare again to speak that forbidden name, may thine
eye wax dim, and thy limbs fail, and thy heart grow cold
within thy breast — that thou be cut off even then, in thy sin
— that thou fall like a rotten branch from the tree of thy
generation — that thou go down into the dust and vanish like
water spilt on the sand — that thy name perish everlastingly
from among the maidens of Judah and the daughters of thy
father's house ! "

Though his fury terrified it did not master her. Some
women would have fled in dismay from his presence ; some
would have flung themselves on their knees and sought to
move him to compassion with prayers and tears. Mariamne
looked him fixedly in the face with a quiet sorrow in her
own that touched him to the quick, and maddened him the
more.

" Father," she said softly, " I have nothing left to fear in
this world. Slay me, but do not curse me."

The vision of her childhood, the memory of her mother,
the resigned sadness of her bearing, and the consciousness of
his own injustice, conspired to infuriate him.

" Slay thee ! " he repeated between his set teeth. " By the
bones of Manahem — by the head of the high-priest — by the
veil of the Temple itself, if ever I hear thee utter that accursed
name again, I will slay thee with mine own hand ! "

It was no empty threat to a daughter of her nation. Such
instances of fanaticism were neither unknown to the sterner
sects of the Jews, nor regarded with entirely unfavourable
eyes by that self-devoted and enthusiastic people. The tale
of Jephthah's daughter was cherished rather as an example of

387

MOIRA

holy and high-minded obedience, than a warning from rash
and inconsiderate vows. The father was more honoured as
a hero than the daughter was pitied for a victim. And in
later times, one Simon of Scythopolis, who had taken up arms
against his own countrymen, and repented of his treachery,
regained a high place in their estimation by putting himself
to death, having previously slain every member of his family
with his own hand.1 It would have only added one more
incident, causing but little comment, to the horrors of the
siege, had the life of Mariamne been taken by her own father
on his very threshold. She looked at him more in surprise
than fear, with a hurt reproachful glance that pierced him to
the heart. " Father ! " she exclaimed, " you cannot mean it.
Unsay those cruel words. Am I not your daughter ? Father !
father ! you used to love me, when I was a little girl ! "

Then his savage mood gave way, and he took her to him
and spoke to her in gentle soothing accents, as of old.

" Thou art a daughter of Manahem," said he, " a maiden
of Judah. It is not fit for thee to consort with the enemies
of thy nation and of thy father's house. These men have
avowed the pernicious doctrines of the Nazarenes, who call
themselves Christians. Therefore they are become an
abomination in our sight, and are to be cut off from amongst
our people. Mariamne, if I can bear unmoved to see my
brother perish, surely it is no hard task for thee to give up
this stranger guest. It is not that my heart is iron to the
core, though thou seest me ofttimes so stern, even with thee ;
but the men of to-day, who have taken upon themselves the
defence of Jerusalem from the heathen, must be weaned from
human affections and human weaknesses, even as the child is
weaned from its mother's milk. I tell thee, girl, I would not
count the lives of all my kindred against one hour of the
safety of Judah ; and Mariamne, though I love thee dearly,
ay, better far than thou canst know — for whom have I now
but thee, my daughter? — yet, if I believed that thou, too,
couldst turn traitor to thy country and thy faith — I speak it

1 Now when he had said this he looked round about him, upon his family,
with eyes of commiseration and of rage (that family consisted of a wife and
children, and his aged parents), so in the first place he caught his father by his
grey hairs, and ran his sword through him, and after him he did the same to his
mother, who willingly received it ; and after them he did the like to his wife and
children, every one almost offering themselves to his sword, as desirous to
prevent being slain by their enemies ; so when he had gone over all his family he
stood upon their bodies, to be seen by all, and stretching out his right hand, that
his action might be observed by all, he sheathed his entire sword into his own
bowels. This young man was to be pitied, on account of the strength of his body,
and the courage of his soul. — Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book ii. sec. 18.

388

A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS

not in anger — flesh and blood of mine own though thou be,
I would bury my sword in thy heart ! "

Had Eleazar's looks corresponded with his words, such
a threat, in her present frame of mind, might have caused
Mariamne to avow herself a Christian, and brave the worst
at once ; but there was a weight [of care on her father's
haggard brow, a mournful tenderness in his eyes, that stirred
the very depths of her being in compassion — that merged all
other feelings in one of intense pity for the misery of that
fierce, resolute, and desolate old man. For the moment she
scarcely realised Esca's danger in her sympathy for the
obvious sufferings of one usually so self-reliant and unmoved.
She came closer to his side, and placed her hand in his
without speaking. He looked fondly down at her.

" Abide with me for a space," said he ; " Mariamne, thou
and I are left alone in the world."

Then he covered his face with his hands, and remained
without speaking, wrapped, as it seemed, in gloomy reflections
that she dare not disturb. So the two sat on through the
weary hours of that long hot Sabbath day. Whenever she
made the slightest movement, he looked up and signed for
her to remain where she was. Though it was torture, she
dared not disobey; and while the time slipped on and the
shadows lengthened, and the breeze began to stir, she knew
that every minute, as it passed, brought her lover nearer and
nearer to a cruel death. Thus much she had learned too
surely ; but with the certainty were aroused all the energies
of her indomitable race, and she resolved that he should be
saved. Many a scheme passed through her working brain,
as she sat in her father's presence, fearing now, above all
things, to awake his suspicion of her intentions by word or
motion, and so make it impossible for her to escape. Of all
her plans there was but one that seemed feasible ; and even
that one presented difficulties almost insurmountable for a
woman.

She knew that he was safe at least till the morrow. No
execution could take place on the Sabbath ; and although
the holy day would conclude at sundown, it was not the
custom of her nation to put their criminals to death till after
the dawn, so that she had the whole night before her in
which to act. But, on the other hand, her father would not
leave his home during the Sabbath, and she would be com-
pelled to remain under his observation till the evening. At
night, then, she had resolved to make her escape, and taking
advantage of the private passage, only known to her father's

389

MOIRA

family, by which Calchas had reached the Roman camp, to
seek Titus himself, and offer to conduct his soldiers by that
path into the city, stipulating as the price of her treachery an
immediate assault, and the rescue of her kinsman, Calchas,
with his fellow-sufferer. Girl as she was, it never occurred to
her that Titus might refuse to believe in her good faith
towards himself, and was likely to look upon the whole
scheme as a design to lead his army into an ambush. The
only difficulty that presented itself was her own escape from
the city. She never doubted but that, once in the Roman
camp, her tears and entreaties would carry everything before
them, and, whatever became of herself, her lover would be
saved.

It was not, however, without a strong conflict of feelings
that she came to this desperate resolve. The blood that
flowed in her veins was loyal enough to tingle with shame
ever and anon, as she meditated such treachery against her
nation. Must she, a daughter of Judah, admit the enemy
into the Holy City? Could the child of Eleazar Ben-
Manahem, the boldest warrior of her hosts, the staunchest
defender of her walls, be the traitor to defile Jerusalem with
a foreign yoke ? She looked at her father sitting there, in
gloomy meditation, and her heart failed her as she thought
of his agony of shame, if he lived to learn the truth, of the
probability that he would never survive to know it, but perish
virtually by her hand, in an unprepared and desperate resist-
ance. Then she thought of Esca, tied to the stake, the
howling rabble, the cruel mocking faces, the bare arms and
the uplifted stones. There was no further doubt after that —
no more wavering — nothing but the dogged immovable
determination that proved whose daughter she was.

When the sun had set, Eleazar seemed to shake off the fit
of despondency that had oppressed him during the day. The
Sabbath was now past, and it was lawful for him to occupy
mind and body in any necessary work. He bade Mariamne
light a lamp, and fetch him certain pieces of armour that had
done him good service, and now stood in need of repair. It
was a task in the skilful fulfilment of which every Jewish
warrior prided himself. Men of the highest rank would
unwillingly commit the renewal of these trusty defences to
any fingers but their own ; and Eleazar entered upon it with
more of cheerfulness than he had shown for some time. As
he secured one rivet after another, with the patience and
precision required, every stroke of the hammer seemed to
smite upon his daughter's brain. There she was compelled

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A ZEALOT OF THE ZEALOTS

to remain a close prisoner, and the time was gliding away so
fast ! At length, when the night was already far advanced,
even Eleazar's strong frame began to feel the effects of
hunger, agitation, labour, and want of rest. He nodded two
or three times over his employment, worked on with redoubled
vigour, nodded again, let his head sink gradually on his
breast, while the hammer slipped from his relaxing fingers,
and he fell asleep.

39i

CHAPTER XI

THE DOOMED CITY

MARIAMNE watched her father for a few impatient
minutes, that seemed to lengthen themselves into
hours, till she had made sure by his deep respiration that her
movements would not wake him. Then she extinguished the
lamp and stole softly from the room, scarcely breathing till
she found herself safe out of the house. The door through
which she emerged was a private egress, opening on the wide
terrace that overhung the gardens. Its stone balustrades and
broad flight of steps were now white and glistening in the
moonlight, which shone brighter and fairer in those mellow
skies than doth many a noonday in the misty north. While
she paused to draw breath, and concentrate every faculty on
the task she had undertaken, she could not but admire the
scene spread out at her very feet. There lay the gardens in
which she had followed many a childish sport, and dreamed
out many a maiden's dream, sitting in the shade of those
black cypresses, and turning her young face to catch the
breeze that stirred their whispering branches, direct from the
hills of Moab, blending in the far distance with the summer
sky. And lately, too, amid all the horrors and dangers of
the siege, had she not trod these level lawns with Esca, and
wondered how she could be so happy while all about her was
strife, and desolation, and woe? The thought goaded her
into action, and she passed rapidly on ; nevertheless, in that
one glance around, the fair and gorgeous picture stamped
itself for ever on her brain.

Beneath her — here black as ebony, there glistening like
sheets of burnished steel — lay the clear-cut terraces and level
lawns of her father's stately home, dotted by tall tapering
cypresses pointing to the heavens, and guarded by the red
stems of many a noble cedar, flinging their twisted branches
aloft in the midnight sky. Beyond, the spires and domes and
pinnacles of the Holy City glittered and shone in the mellow
light, or loomed in the alternate shade, fantastic, gloomy, and

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THE DOOMED CITY

indistinct. Massive blocks of building, relieved by rows of
marble pillars supporting their heavy porticoes, denoted the
dwellings of her princes and nobles; while encircling the
whole could be traced the dark level line of her last defensive
wall, broken by turrets placed at stated intervals, and already
heightened at the fatal breach opposite the Tower of Antonia,
from the summit of which glowed one angry spot of fire,
a beacon kindled for some hostile purpose by the enemy.
High above all, like a gigantic champion guarding his
charge, in burnished armour and robes of snowy white, rose
the Temple, with its marble dome and roof of beaten gold.
It was the champion's last watch — it was the last sleep of the
fair and holy city. Never again would she lie in the moon-
light, beautiful, and gracious, and undefaced. Doomed, like
the Temple in which she trusted, to be utterly demolished
and destroyed, the plough was already yoked that should
score its furrows deep into her comeliness ; the mighty
stones, so hewn and carved and fashioned into her pride of
strength, were even now vibrating to that shock which was
about to hurl them down into such utter ruin, that not one
should be left to rear itself upon the fragments of another !

The moonbeams shone calm and pleasant on the doomed
city, as they shone on the stunted groves of the Mount of
Olives, on the distant crest of the hills of Moab, and, far
away below these, on the desolate plains that skirt the waters
of the Dead Sea. They shone down calm and pleasant, as
though all were in peace and safety, and plenty and repose ;
yet even now the arm of the avenger was up to strike, the
eagle's wing was pruned, his beak whetted ; and Mariamne,
standing on the terrace by her father's door, could count the
Roman watch-fires already established in the heart of the
Lower City, twinkling at regular distances along the summit
of Mount Calvary.

The view of the enemy's camp, the thought of Esca's
danger, spurred her to exertion. She hurried along the
terrace, and down into the garden, following the path which
she knew was to lead her to the marble basin with its hidden
entrance to the secret passage. Her only thought now was
one of apprehension that her unassisted strength might be
unable to lift the slab. Full but of this care, she advanced
swiftly and confidently towards the disused fountain, to stop
within ten paces of it, and almost scream aloud in the high
state of tension to which her nerves had been strung — so
startled was she and scared at what she saw. Sitting with
its back to her, a long lean figure stooped and cowered over

393

MOIRA

the empty basin, waving its arms, and rocking its body to
and fro with strange unearthly gestures, and broken, muttered
sentences, varied by gasps and moans. Her nation are not
superstitious, and Mariamne had too many causes for fear in
this world to spare much dread for the denizens of another ;
nevertheless she stood for a space almost paralysed with the
suddenness of the alarm, and the unexpected nature of the
apparition, quaking in every limb, and unable either to
advance or fly.

There are times when the boldest of human minds
become peculiarly susceptible to supernatural terrors — when
the hardest and least impressionable persons are little stronger
than their nervous and susceptible brethren. A little anxiety,
a little privation, the omission of a meal or two, nay, even the
converse of such abstinence in too great indulgence of the
appetites, bring down the boasted reason of mankind to a
sad state of weakness and credulity. The young, too, are
more subject to such fantastic terrors than the old. Children
suffer much from fears of the supernatural, conceiving in their
vivid imaginations forms and phantoms and situations, which
they can never have previously experienced, and of which it
is therefore difficult to account for the origin. But r.ll classes,
and all ages, if they speak truth, must acknowledge, that at
one time or another, they have felt the blood curdle, the skin
creep, the breath come quick, and the heart rise with that
desperate courage which springs from intense fear, at the
fancied presence or the dreaded proximity of some ghostly
object which eludes them after all, leaving a vague uncertainty
behind it, that neither satisfies their curiosity nor ensures them
against a second visitation of a similar nature.

Mariamne was in a fit state to become the victim of any
such supernatural delusion. Her frame was weakened by
the want of food ; for like the rest of the besieged, she had
borne her share of the privations that created such sufferings
in the city for many long weeks before it was finally reduced.
She had gone through much fatigue of late — the continuous
unbroken fatigue that wears the spirits even faster than the
bodily powers ; and above all she had been harassed for the
last few hours by the torture of inaction in a state of pro-
tracted suspense. It was no wonder that she should suffer a
few moments of intense and inexplicable fear.

The figure, still with its back to her, and rocking to and
fro, was gathering handfuls of dust from the disused basin of
the fountain, and scattering them with its long lean arms
upon its head and shoulders, chanting at the same time, in

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THE DOOMED CITY

wild, mournful tones, the words " Wash and be clean," over
and over again. It obviously imagined itself alone, and
pursued its monotonous task with that dreary earnestness
and endless repetition so peculiar to the actions of the
insane.

After a while, Mariamne, perceiving that she was not
observed, summoned courage to consider what was best to
be done. The secret of the hidden passage was one to be
preserved inviolate under any circumstances ; and to-night
everything she most prized depended on its not being dis-
covered by the besieged. While the figure remained in its
present position, she could do nothing towards the further-
ance of her scheme. And yet the moments were very
precious, and Esca's life depended on her speed.

There was no doubt, the unfortunate who had thus
wandered into her father's gardens was a maniac ; and those
who suffered under this severe affliction were held in especial
horror among her people. Unlike the Eastern nations of
to-day, who believe them to be not only under its special
protection, but even directly inspired by Providence, the Jews
held that these sufferers were subject to the great principle of
evil ; that malignant spirits actually entered into the body of
the insane, afflicting, mocking, and torturing their victim,
goading it in its paroxysms to the exertion of that super-
natural strength with which they endowed its body, and
leaving the latter prostrate, exhausted, and helpless when they
had satiated their malice upon its agonies. To be possessed
of a devil was indeed the climax of all mental and corporeal
misery. The casting out of devils by a mere word or sign,
was perhaps the most convincing proof of miraculous power
that could be offered to a people with whom the visitation
was as general as it was mysterious and incomprehensible.

Mariamne hovered about the fountain, notwithstanding
her great fear, as a bird hovers about the bush under which
a snake lies coiled, but which shelters nevertheless her nest
and her callow young. Standing there, in long dark robes,
beneath a flood of moonlight, her face and hands white as
ivory by the contrast, her eyes dilating, her head bent for-
ward, her whole attitude that of painful attention and
suspense, she might have been an enchantress composing the
spell that should turn the writhing figure before her into
stone, cold and senseless as the marble over which it bent.
She might have been a fiend, in the form of an angel, direct-
ing its convulsions, and gloating over its agonies ; or she
might have been a pure and trusting saint, exorcising the

395

MOIRA

evil spirit, and bidding it come out of a vexed fellow-creature
in that name which fiends and men and angels must alike
obey.

Presently the night-breeze coming softly over the Roman
camp, brought with it the mellow notes of a trumpet, pro-
claiming that the watch was changed, and the centurions,
each in his quarter, pacing their vigilant rounds. Ere it
reached Mariamne's ears, the maniac had caught the sound,
and sprang to his feet, with his head thrown back and his
muscles braced for a spring like some beast of chase alarmed
by the first challenge of the hound. Gazing wildly about
him, he saw the girl's figure standing clear and distinct in
the open moonlight, and raising a howl of fearful mirth, he
leaped his own height from the ground, and made towards
her with the headlong rush of a madman. Then fear com-
pletely overmastered her, and she turned and fled for her
life. It was no longer a curdling horror that weighed down
the limbs like lead, and relaxed the nerves like a palsy,
but the strong and natural instinct of personal safety, that
doubled quickness of perception for escape and speed of
foot in flight.

Between herself and her father's house lay a broad and
easy range of steps, leading upward to the terrace. Instinct-
ively she dared not trust the ascent, but turned downwards
over the level lawn into the gardens, with the maniac in close
pursuit. It was a fearful race. She heard his quick-drawn
breath, as he panted at her very heels. She could almost
fancy that she felt it hot upon her neck. Once the dancing
shadow of her pursuer, in the moonlight, actually reached
her own ! Then she bounded forward again in her agony,
and eluded the grasp that had but just missed its prey. Thus
she reached a low wall, dividing her father's from a neigh-
bour's ground ; feeling only that she must go straight on,
she bounded over it, she scarce knew how, and made for an
open doorway she saw ahead, trusting that it might lead into
the street. She heard his yell of triumph as he rose with a
vigorous leap into the air, the dull stroke of his feet as he
landed on the turf so close behind her, and the horror of that
moment was almost beyond endurance. Besides, she felt her
strength failing, and knew too well that she could not sustain
this rate of speed for many paces farther; but escape was
nearer than she hoped, and reaching the door a few yards
before the madman, she gained slightly on him as she shot
through it, and sped on, with weakening limbs and choking
breath, down the street.

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THE DOOMED CITY

She heard his yell once again, as he caught sight of her,
but two human figures in front restored her courage, and
she rushed on to implore their protection from her enemy ;
yet fear had not so completely mastered her self-possession,
as to drive her into an obvious physical danger, even to escape
encounter with a lunatic. Nearing them, and indeed almost
within arm's-length, she perceived that one was blasted with
the awful curse of leprosy. The moon shone bright and
clear upon the white glistening surface of his scarred and
mortifying flesh. On his brow, on his neck, in the patches
of his wasting beard and hair, on his naked arms and chest,
nay, in the very garment girt around his loins, the plague-
spots deepened, and widened, and festered, and ate them all
away. It would be death to come in contact, even with his
garments — nay, worse than death, for it would entail a
separation from the touch of human hand, and the help of
human skill.

Yet grovelling there on the bare stones of the street, the
leper was struggling for a bone with a strong active youth,
who had nearly overpowered him, and whom famine had
driven to subject himself to the certainty of a horrible and
loathsome fate, rather than endure any longer its maddening
pangs. There was scarcely a meal of offal on the prize, and
yet he tore it from the leper whom he had overpowered, and
gnawed it with a greedy brutish muttering, as a dog mumbles
a bone.

Gathering her dress around her to avoid a chance of the
fatal contact, Mariamne scoured past the ghastly pair, even
in her own imminent terror and distress feeling her heart
bleed for this flagrant example of the sufferings endured
by her countrymen. The maniac, however, permitted his
attention to be diverted for a few moments, by the two
struggling figures, from his pursuit ; and Mariamne, turning
quickly aside into a narrow doorway, cowered down in its
darkest corner, and listened with feelings of relief and thank-
fulness to the steps of her pursuer, as, passing this unsuspected
refuge, he sped in his fruitless chase along the street.

397

CHAPTER XII

DESOLATION

PANTING like a hunted hind, yet true to the generous
blood that flowed in her veins, Mariamne recovered
her courage even before her strength. No sooner was the
immediate danger passed, than she cast aside all thoughts
of personal safety, and only considered how she might still
rescue the man she loved. Familiar with the street in which
she had taken refuge, as with every other nook and corner
of her native city — for the Jews permitted their women far
more liberty than did their Eastern neighbours — she bethought
her of taking a devious round in case she should be followed,
and then returning by the way she had come, to her father's
gardens. It was above all things important that Eleazar
should not be made aware of his daughter's absence; and
she calculated, not without reason, that the fatigues he had
lately gone through, would ensure a few hours at least of
sound unbroken sleep. The domestics, too, of his household,
worn out with watching and hunger, were not likely to be
aroused before morning; she had, therefore, sufficient time
before her to put her plan into execution.

She reflected that it was impossible to approach her
father's garden unnoticed at this hour, save by the way she
had taken in her flight. To go through his house from the
street was not to be thought of, as the entrance was probably
secured, and she could not gain admittance without giving
an explanation of her absence, and exciting the observation
she most wished to avoid. Then she fell to thinking on the
paths she had followed in her headlong flight, tracing them
backward in her mind with that clear feminine perception,
which so nearly approaches instinct, and is so superior to
the more logical sagacity of man. She knew she could
thread them step by step, to the marble basin of the fountain ;
and once again at that spot she felt as if her task would be
half accomplished, instead of scarce begun. Doubtless the
exertion of mind served to calm her recent terrors, and to

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DESOLATION

distract attention from the dangers of her present situation —
alone in a strange house, with the streets full of such horrors
as those she had lately witnessed, and thronged by armed
parties of lawless and desperate men.

She had gathered her robes about her, and drawn her
veil over her head preparatory to emerging from her hiding-
place, when she was driven back by the sound of footsteps,
and the clank of weapons, coming up the street. To be seen
was to accept the certainty of insult, and to run the risk
of ill-usage, and perhaps death. She shrank farther back,
therefore, into the lower part of the house ; and becoming
more accustomed to the gloom, looked anxiously about, to
ascertain what further chance she had within for concealment
or escape.

It was a low irregular building, of which the ground-floor
seemed to have been used but as a space for passage to and
from the upper apartments, and, perhaps, before the famine
consumed them, as a shelter for beasts of burden, and for
cattle. Not a particle of their refuse, however, had been left
on the dry earthen floor ; and though a wooden manger was
yet standing, not a vestige remained of halter or tethering
ropes, which had been long since eaten in the scarcity of
food.1 A boarded staircase, fenced by carved wooden
balustrades, led from this court to the upper chambers, which
were carefully closed ; but a glimmer of light proceeding
from the chinks of an ill-fitting door at its head, denoted
that the house was not deserted. It was probably inhabited
by some of the middle class of citizens ; a rank of life that
had suffered more than the higher, or even the lower during
the siege — lacking the means of the one, and shrinking from
the desperate resources of the other.

Mariamne, listening intently to every sound, was aware
of a light step passing to and fro, within the room, and
perceived besides a savoury smell as of roasted flesh, which
pervaded the whole house. She knew by the quiet footfall
and the rustle of drapery, that it was a woman whose motions
she overheard, and for an instant the desire crossed her
mind to beg for a mouthful of strengthening food, ere she
departed on her way — a request she had reason to believe

1 Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them to chew
everything, while they gathered such things as the most sordid animals would
not touch, and endured to eat them ; nor did they at length abstain from girdles
and shoes ; and the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off
and gnawed : the very wisps of old hay became food to some ; and some gathered
up fibres, and sold a very small weight of them for four Attic (drachmae). — Josephus,
Wars of the Jews, book vi. sec. 3.

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MOIRA

would be refused with anger. She blushed as she thought
how a morsel of bread was now grudged, even at her own
father's gate ; and she remembered the time when scores
of poor neighbours thronged it every morning for their daily
meal ; when sheep and oxen were slain and roasted at a
moment's notice, on the arrival of some chance guest with
his train of followers.

"It is a judgment!" thought the girl, regarding the
afflictions of her people in the light of her new faith. "It
may be, we must be purified by suffering, and so escape the
final doom. Woe is me for my kindred and for my father's
house ! What am I, that I should not take my share in the
sorrows of the rest ? "

Then in a pure and holy spirit of self-sacrifice, she turned
wearily away, resolving rather to seek the enemy weak and
fasting, than shift from her own shoulders one particle of
the burden borne by her wretched fellow-citizens ; and ere
long the time came when she was thankful she had not
partaken, even in thought, of the food that was then being
prepared.

Seeking the street once more, she found, to her dismay,
that the armed party had halted immediately before the
door. She was forced again to shrink back into the gloom
of the lower court, and wait in fear and trembling for the
result. These, too, had been arrested before the house by
the smell of food. Wandering up and down the devoted
city, such hungry and desperate men scrupled not to take
with the strong hand anything of which they had need. By
gold and silver, and soft raiment, they set now but little store
— of wine they could procure enough to inflame and madden
them, but food was the one passionate desire of their senses.
Besides his own party, John of Gischala had now attached
to his faction numbers of the Sicarii — a band of paid assassins
who had sprung up in the late troubles to make a trade of
murder — and had also seduced into his ranks such of the
Zealots as were weary of Eleazar's rigid though fervent
patriotism, finding the anarchy within the walls produced
by the siege more to their taste than the disciplined efforts
of their chief to resist the enemy. The party that now
prevented Mariamne's egress consisted of a few fierce pitiless
spirits from these three factions, united in a common bond
of recklessness and crime. It was no troop for a maiden
to meet by night in the house of a lone woman, or on the
stones of a deserted street, and the girl, trembling at the
conversation she was forced to overhear, needed all her

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DESOLATION

courage to seize the first opportunity for escape. The clang
of their arms made her heart leap, as they halted together
at the door ; but it was less suggestive of evil and violence
than their words.

" I have it ! " exclaimed one, striking his mailed hand
against the post, with a blow that vibrated through the
building. " Not a bloodhound of Molossis hath a truer nose
than mine, or hunts his game more steadily to its lair. I
could bury my muzzle, I warrant ye, in the very entrails
of my prey, had I but the chance. There is food here,
comrades, I tell ye, cooking on purpose for us. Tis strange
if we go fasting to the wall to-night ! "

" Well said, old dog ! " laughed another voice. " Small
scruple hast thou, Sosas, what the prey may be, so long as
it hath but the blood in it. Come on ; up to the highest
seat with thee ! No doubt we are expected, though the
doors be closed and we meet with a cold welcome ! "

" Welcome ! " repeated Sosas ; " who talks of welcome ?
I bid ye all welcome, comrades. Take what you please,
and call for more. Every man what he likes best, be it
sheep or lamb, or delicate young kid, or tender sweet-
mouthed heifer. My guests ye are, and I bid you again
walk up and welcome ! "

"'Twere strange to find a morsel of food here, too,"
interposed one of the band. "Say, Gyron, is not this the
house thou and I have already stripped these three times ?
By the beard of old Matthias, there was but half a barley-
cake left when we made our last visit ! "

"True," replied Gyron, with a brutal laugh, "and the
woman held on to it like a wild-cat. I was forced to lend
her a wipe over the wrist with my dagger, ere she let go,
and then the she- wolf sucked her own blood from the wound,
and shrieked out that we would not even leave her that.
We might let her alone this time, I think, and go elsewhere ! "

" Go to ! " interrupted Sosas. " Thou speakest like one
for whom the banquet is spread at every street corner. Art
turning tender, and delicate even as a weaned child, with
that grizzled beard on thy chin ? Go to ! I say. The supper
is getting cold. Follow me!"

With these words the last speaker entered the house, and
proceeded to ascend the staircase, followed by his comrades,
who pushed and shouldered each other through the door
with ribald jest and laughter, that made their listeners' blood
run cold. Mariamne, in her retreat, was thus compelled to
retire step by step before them to the top of the stairs,
2 c 401

MOIRA

dreading every moment that their eyes, gradually accustomed
to the gloom, which was rendered more obscure by the
moonlight without, should perceive her figure, and their
relentless grasp seize upon her too surely for a prey. It
was well for her that the stairs were very dark, and that
her black dress offered no contrast in colour to the wall
against which she shrank. The door of the upper chamber
opened outwards, and she hid herself close behind it, hoping
to escape when her pursuers had entered one by one. To
her dismay, however, she found that, with more of military
caution than might have been expected, they had left a
scout below to guard against surprise. Mariamne heard
the unwilling sentinel growling and muttering his discontent,
as he paced to and fro on the floor beneath.

Through the hinges of the open door, the upper apart-
ment was plainly visible, even by the dim light of a solitary
lamp that stood on the board, and threw its rays over the
ghastly banquet there set forth. Sick, faint, and trembling
with the great horror she beheld, Mariamne could not yet
turn her eyes away. A gaunt grim woman was crouching
at the table, holding something with both hands to her
mouth, and glaring sidelong at her visitors, like a wild beast
disturbed over its prey. Her grisly tresses were knotted
and tangled on her brow ; dirt, misery, and hunger were in
every detail of her dress and person. The long lean arms
and hands, with their knotted joints and fleshless fingers,
like those of a skeleton, the sunken face, the sallow tight-
drawn skin, through which the cheek-bones seemed about
to start, the prominent jaw, and shrivelled neck, denoted
too clearly the tortures she must have undergone in a
protracted state of famine, bordering day by day upon
starvation.

And what was that ghastly morsel hanging from those
parched thin lips ?

Mariamne could have shrieked aloud with mingled wrath
and pity and dismay. Often had she seen a baby's tiny
fingers pressed and mumbled in a mother's mouth, with
doting downcast looks and gentle soothing murmurs and
muttered phrases, fond and foolish, meaningless to others,
yet every precious syllable a golden link of love between
the woman and her child. But now, the red light of madness
glared in the mother's eye ; she was crouching fierce and
startled, like the wild wolf in its lair, and her teeth were
gnashing in her accursed hunger over the white and dainty
limbs of her last-born child. Its little hand was in her

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DESOLATION

mouth when the ruffians entered, whose violence and excesses
had brought this abomination of desolation upon her house.
She looked up with scarce a trace of humanity left in her
blighted face.

"You have food here, mother!" shouted Sosas, rushing
in at the head of his comrades. "Savoury food, roasted
flesh, dainty morsels. What ! hast got no welcome for thy
friends? We have come to sup with thee unbidden, mother,
for we know of old * the house of Hyssop is never ill-provided.
Ay, Gyron there, watching down below, misled us sadly.
His talk was but of scanty barley-cakes and grudging
welcome, while lo ! here is a supper fit to set before the
high-priest, and the mother gives a good example, though
she wastes no breath on words of welcome. Come on,
comrades, I tell you ; never wait to wash hands, but out
with your knives, and fall to ! "

While he spoke, the ruffian stretched his brawny arm
across the table, and darted his long knife into the smoking
dish. Mariamne behind the door, saw him start, and shiver,
and turn pale. The others looked on, horror-struck, with
staring eyes fixed upon the board. One, the fiercest and
strongest of the gang, wiped his brow, and sat down, sick
and gasping, on the floor. Then the woman laughed out,
and her laughter was terrible to hear.

" I did it ! " she cried, in loud, triumphant tones. " He
was my own child, my fair, fat boy. If I had a hundred
sons I would slay them all. All, I tell you, and set them
before you, that you might eat and rejoice, and depart full
and merry from the lonely woman's house. I slew him at
sundown, my masters, when the Sabbath was past, and I
roasted him with my own hands, for we were alone in the
house, I and my boy. What ! will ye not partake ? Are
you so delicate, ye men of war, that ye cannot eat the food
which keeps life in a poor, weak woman like me? It is
good food, it is wholesome food, I tell ye, and I bid you
hearty welcome. Eat your fill, my masters; spare not, I
beseech you. But we will keep a portion for the child.
The child ! " she repeated, like one who speaks in a dream :
"he must be hungry ere now; it is past his bedtime, my
masters, and I have not given him his supper yet!"

Then she looked on the dish once more, with a vacant,
bewildered stare, rocking herself the while, and muttering

1 This frightful supper is said to have been eaten in the dwelling of one
Mary of Bethezub, which signifies the House of Hyssop.— Josephus, Wars of the
Jews, book vi. sec. 3.

403

MOIRA

in strange, unintelligible whispers, glancing from time to
time stealthily at her guests, and then upon the horrid
fragment she held, which, as though fain to hide it, she
turned over and over in her gown. At length she broke
out in another wild shriek of laughter, and laid her head
down upon the table, hiding her face in her. hands.

Pale and horror-struck, with quiet steps, and heads
averted from the board, the gang departed one by one.
Gyron, who was already wearied of his watch, met them on
the stairs, to receive a whispered word or two from Sosas,
with a muttered exclamation of dismay, and a frightful curse.
The rest, who had seen what their comrade only heard,
were speechless still, and Mariamne, listening to their
clanking, measured tread as it traversed the lower court and
passed out into the street, heard it die away in the distance,
unbroken by a single exclamation even of disgust or surprise.
The boldest of them dared not have stood another moment
face to face with the hideous thing from which he fled.

Mariamne, too, waited not an instant after she had
made sure that they were gone. Not even her womanly
pity for suffering could overcome her feelings of horror
at what she had so lately beheld. She seemed stifled while
she remained under the roof where such a scene had been
enacted ; and while she panted to quit it, was more than
ever determined to seek the Roman camp, and call in the
assistance of the enemy. It was obvious even to her, girl
as she was, that there was now no hope for Jerusalem within
the walls. While her father's faction, and that of John,
were neutralising each other's efforts for the common good
— while to the pressure of famine, and the necessary evils
of a siege, were added the horrors of rapine and violence,
and daily bloodshed, and all the worst features of civil war
— it seemed that submission to the fiercest enemy would be
a welcome refuge, that the rule of the sternest conqueror
would be mild and merciful by comparison.

She remembered, too, much that Calchas had explained
in the sacred writings they had studied together, with the
assistance of that Syrian scroll which proclaimed the good
tidings of the new religion, elucidating and corroborating the
old. She had not forgotten the mystical menaces of the
prophets, the fiery denunciations of some, the distinct state-
ments of others — above all, the loving, merciful warning of
the Master himself. Surely the doom had gone forth at
length. Here, if anywhere, was the carcass. Yonder, where
she was going, was the gathering of the eagles. Was not

404

DESOLATION

she in her mission of to-night an instrument in the hands
of Providence? A means for the fulfilment of prophecy?
If she had felt patriotic scruples before, they vanished now.
If she had shrunk from betraying her country, dishonouring
her father, and disgracing her blood, all such considerations
were as nothing now, compared to the hope of becoming a
divine messenger, that, like the dove with its olive-branch,
should bring back eventual peace and safety in its return.
She had seen to-night madness and leprosy stalking abroad
in the streets. Within a Jewish home she had seen a more
awful sight even than these. It was in her power, at least,
to put an end to such horrors, and she doubted whether the
task might not have been specially appointed her from
heaven ; but she never asked herself the question if she
would have been equally satisfied of her celestial mission,
had Esca not been lying under the wall of the Temple,
bound and condemned to die with the light of to-morrow's
sun.

405

CHAPTER XIII

THE LEGION OF THE LOST

ERVING herself with every considera-
tion that could steel a woman's heart,
Mariamne sought her father's gardens
by the way she had already come.
They were deserted now, and the house,
at which she could not forbear taking
a look that would probably be her
last, was still quiet and undisturbed.
She would fain have seen her father
once more, even in his sleep — would
fain have kissed his unconscious brow,
and so taken a fancied pardon for the
treason she had resolved to commit —

but it was too great a risk to run, and with a prayer for
divine protection and assistance, she bent down to lift the
slab of marble that concealed the secret way. Having been
moved so lately in the egress of Calchas, it yielded easily to
her strength, and she descended, not without considerable
misgivings, a damp, winding stair, that seemed to lead into
the bowels of the earth.

As the stone fell back to its former place, she was en-
veloped in utter darkness ; and while she groped her way
along the slimy arch that roofed-in the long, mysterious
tunnel, she could not forbear shuddering with dread of what
she might encounter, ere she beheld the light of day once
more. It was horrible to think of the reptiles that might be
crawling about her feet ; of the unknown shapes with which,
at any moment, she might come in contact ; of the chances
that might block her in on both sides, and so consign her,
warm and living, to the grave : worst of all, of the possibility
that some demoniac, like him from whom she had so recently
escaped, might have taken up his abode here, in the strange
infatuation of the possessed, and that she must assuredly
become his prey, without the possibility of escape.

406

V.1 V

5*7? walked boldly op To \j\rn

THE LEGION OF THE LOST

Such apprehensions made the way tedious indeed ; and it
was with no slight feeling of relief, and no mere formal
thanksgiving, that Mariamne caught a glimpse of light steal-
ing through the black, oppressive darkness, that seemed to
take her breath away, and was aware that she had reached
the other extremity of the passage at last. A few armfuls
of brushwood, skilfully disposed, concealed its egress. These
had been replaced by Calchas, in his late visit to the Roman
camp, and Mariamne, peering through, could see without
being seen, while she considered what step she should take
next.

She was somewhat uneasy, nevertheless, to observe that
a Roman sentinel was posted within twenty paces ; she could
hear the clank of his armour every time he stirred ; she could
even trace the burnished plumage of the eagle on the crest
of his helmet. It was impossible to emerge from her hiding-
place without passing him ; and short as his beat might be,
he seemed indisposed to avail himself of it by walking to and
fro. In the bright moonlight there was no chance of slipping
by unseen, and she looked in vain for a coming cloud on the
midnight sky. He would not even turn his head away from
the city, on which his gaze was fastened ; and she watched
him with a sort of dreary fascination, pondering what was
best to be done.

Even in her extremity she could not but remark the grace
of his attitude, and the beautiful outline of his limbs, as he
leaned wearily on his spear. His arms and accoutrements,
too, betrayed more splendour than seemed suitable to a mere
private soldier, while his mantle was of rich scarlet, looped up
and fastened at the shoulder with a clasp of gold. Such details
she took in mechanically and unconsciously, even as she
perceived that, at intervals, he raised his hand to his eyes,
like one who wipes away unbidden tears. Soon she
summoned her presence of mind, and watched him eagerly,
for he stretched his arms towards Jerusalem with a pitiful,
yearning gesture, and, bowing wearily, leant his crested head
upon both arms, resting them against the spear.

It was her opportunity, and she seized it ; but at the first
movement she made the sentinel's attention was aroused, and
she knew she was discovered, for he challenged immediately.
Even then, Mariamne could not but observe that his voice
was unsteady, and the spear he levelled trembled like an aspen
in his grasp. She thought it wisest to make no attempt at
deception, but walking boldly up to him, implored his safe-
conduct, and besought him to take her to the tent of the

407

MOIRA

commander at once. The sentinel seemed uncertain how to
act, and showed, indeed, but little of that military prompti-
tude and decision for which the Roman army was so dis-
tinguished. After a pause, he answered — and the soft tones,
musical even in their trouble, that rang in Mariamne's ears,
were unquestionably those of a woman — a woman, too, whose
instincts of jealousy had recognised her even before she
spoke.

" You are the girl I saw in the amphitheatre," she said,
laying a white hand, which trembled violently, on the arm
of the Jewess. " You were watching him that day, when he
was down in the sand beneath the net. I know you, I say !
I marked you turned pale when the tribune's arm was up to
strike. You loved him then. You love him now ! Do not
deny it, girl ! lest I drive this spear through your body, or
send you to the guard to be treated like a spy taken captive
in the act. You look pale, too, and wretched," she added,
suddenly relenting. "Why are you here? Why have you
left him behind the walls alone ? I would not have deserted
you in your need, Esca, my lost Esca ! "

Mariamne shivered when she heard the beloved name
pronounced in such fond accents by another's lips. Woman-
like, she had not been without suspicions from the first, that her
lover had gained the affections of some noble Roman lady —
suspicions which were confirmed by his own admission to
herself, accompanied by many a sweet assurance of fidelity
and devotion ; but yet it galled her even now, at this moment
of supreme peril, to feel the old wound thus probed by the
very hand that dealt it; and, moreover, through all her
anxiety and astonishment, rose a bitter and painful conviction
of the surprising beauty possessed by this shameless woman,
clad thus inexplicably in the garb of a Roman soldier.
Nevertheless, the Jewish maiden was true as steel. Like that
mother of her nation who so readily gave up all claim to her
own flesh and blood, to preserve it from dismemberment
under the award of the wisest and greatest of kings, she
would have saved her cherished Briton at any sacrifice, even
that of her own constant and unfathomable love. She knelt
down before the sentinel, and clasped the scarlet mantle in
both hands.

" I will not ask you what or who you are," she said ; " I
am in your power, and at your mercy. I rejoice that it is so.
But you will help me, will you not ? You will use all your
beauty and all your influence to save him whom — whom we
both love ? "

408

THE LEGION OF THE LOST

She hesitated while she spoke the last sentence. It was
as if she gave him up voluntarily, when she thus acknow-
ledged another's share. But his very life was at stake ; and
what was her sore heart, her paltry jealousy, to stand in the
way at such a moment as this ? The other looked scornfully
down on the kneeling girl.

" You, too, seem to have suffered," said the sentinel. " It
is true then, all I have heard of the desolation and misery
within the walls ? But boast not of your sorrows ; think not
you alone are to be pitied. There are weary heads and
aching hearts here in the leaguer, as yonder in the town.
Tell me the truth, girl ! What of Esca ? You know him.
You come from him even now. Where is he, and how fares
it with him ? "

" Bound in the Outer Court of the Temple ! " gasped
Mariamne, "and condemned to die with the first light of
to-morrow's sun ! "

His fate seemed more terrible and more certain, now that
she had forced herself to put it into words. The Roman
soldier's face turned deadly pale. The golden-crested helmet,
laid aside for air, released a shower of rich brown curls, that
fell over the ivory neck, and the smooth shoulders, and the
white bosom panting beneath its breastplate. There could
be no attempt at concealment now. Mariamne was obliged
to confess that, even in her male attire, the woman whom
she so feared, yet whom she must trust implicitly, was as
beautiful as she seemed to be reckless and unsexed.

They were a lawless and a desperate band, that body of
gladiators which Hippias had brought with him to the siege
of Jerusalem. None of them but were deeply stained with
blood ; most of them were branded with crime ; all were
hopeless of good, fearless and defiant of evil. In many a
venturous assault, in many a hand-to-hand encounter, fought
out with enemies as fierce and almost as skilful as themselves,
they had earned their ominous title ; and the very legionaries,
though they sneered at their discipline, and denied their
efficiency in long-protracted warfare, could not but admit
that to head a column of attack, to run a battering-ram under
the very ramparts of a citadel, to dash in with a mad cheer
over the shattered ruins of a breach, or to carry out any
other hot and desperate service, there were no soldiers in the
army like the Legion of the Lost. They had dwindled away,
indeed, sadly from slaughter and disease ; yet there were still
some five or six hundred left, and this remnant consisted of
the strongest and staunchest in the band. They still con-

409

MOIRA

stituted a separate legion, nor would it have been judicious
to incorporate them with any other force, which, indeed,
might have been as unwilling to receive them as they could
be to enrol themselves in its ranks ; and they performed the
same duties, and made it their pride to guard the same posts
they had formerly watched when thrice their present strength.
Under these circumstances a fresh draft would have been
highly acceptable to the Legion of the Lost ; and in their
daily increasing want of men, even a single recruit was not
to be despised. Occasionally one of the Syrian auxiliaries,
or a member of any of the irregular forces attached to the
Roman army, who had greatly distinguished himself by his
daring, was admitted into their band, and these additions
became less rare as the original number decreased day by
day.

An appeal to the good-nature of old Hirpinus, backed by
a heavy bribe to one of his centurions, ensured Valeria's
enrolment into this wild, disorderly, and dangerous force ;
nor in their present lax state of discipline, with the prospect
of an immediate assault, had she much to dread from the
curiosity of her new comrades. Even in a Roman camp,
money would purchase wine, and wine would purchase
everything else. Valeria had donned in earnest the arms she
had often before borne for sport. " Hippias taught me to use
them," she thought, with bitter, morbid exultation ; " he shall
see to-morrow how I have profited by his lessons ! " Then
she resolved to feed her fancy by gazing at the walls of
Jerusalem ; and she had little difficulty in persuading a comrade
to whom she brought a jar of strong Syrian wine, that he had
better suffer her to relieve him for the last hour or two of his
watch.

The Amazons of old, with a courage we might look for in
vain amongst the other sex, were accustomed to amputate
their right breast that it might not hinder the bowstring
when they drew the arrow to its head. Did they never feel,
after the shapely bosom was thus mutilated and defaced, a
throb of anguish, or a weight of dull dead pain where the
flesh was now scarred, and hardened, and cicatrised — nay,
something worse than pain beneath the wound, when they
beheld a mother nursing a sucking-child ? Valeria, too, had
resolved, so to speak, that she would cut the very heart from
out of her breast — that she would never feel as a woman feels
again. She knew she was miserable, degraded, desperate —
she believed she could bear it nobly now, because she was
turned to stone. Yet, as she leaned on her spear in the

410

THE LEGION OF THE LOST

moonlight, and gazed on the city which contained the prize
she had so coveted and lost, she was compelled to acknow-
ledge that the fibres of that heart she had thought to tear out
and cast away, retained their feelings still. For all that was
come and gone, she loved him, oh ! so dearly, yet ; and the
eyes of the lost, maddened, desperate woman filled with
tears of as deep and unselfish affection as could have been
shed by Mariamne herself in her pure and stainless youth.

Valeria, as Hippias had learned by painful experience,
was resolute for good and evil. It was this decision of
character, joined to the impulsive disposition which springs
from an undisciplined life, that had given him his prey. But
it was this that thwarted all the efforts he made to obtain
the ascendency over her which generally follows such a link
as theirs; and it was this, too, that ere long caused her to
tear the link asunder without a moment's apprehension or
remorse. With all his energy and habits of command, the
gladiator found he could not control the proud Roman lady,
who in a moment of caprice had bowed her head to the very
dust for the sake of following him. He could neither
intimidate her into obedience, nor crush her into despair,
though he tried many a haughty threat, and many an
unmanly taunt at her shame. But all in vain ; and as he
would not yield an inch in their disputes, there was but little
peace in the tent of the brave leader who ruled so sternly
over the Legion of the Lost. The pair, indeed, went through
the usual phases that accompany such bonds as those they
chose to wear ; but the changes were more rapid than common,
as might well be expected, when their folly had not even the
excuse of true affection on both sides. Valeria indeed tired
first ; for as far as the gladiator was capable of loving
anything but his profession, he loved her, and this perhaps
only embittered the guilty cup that was already sufficiently
unpalatable to both. Weariness, as usual, followed fast on
the heels of satiety, to be succeeded by irritation, discontent,
and dislike; then came rude words, angry gestures, and
overt aggression from the man, met by the woman with
trifling provocations, mute defiance, and sullen scorn. To
love another, too, so hopelessly and so dearly, made Valeria's
lot even more difficult to bear, rendering her fretful, intolerant,
and inaccessible to all efforts at reconciliation. Thus the
breach widened hour by hour; and on the day when Hippias
returned to his tent from the council of war before which
Calchas had been brought, Valeria quitted it, vowing never
to return. She had but one object left for which to live.

411

MOIRA

Maddened by shame, infuriated by the insults of the gladiator,
her great love yet surged up in her heart with an irresistible
tide ; and she resolved that she would see Esca once more,
ay, though the whole Jewish army stood with levelled spears
between them. After that, she cared not if she died on the
spot at his feet !

To get within the works was indeed no easy matter ; and
so close a watch was kept by the Romans on all movements
between the lines of the hostile forces, now in such dangerous
proximity, that it was impossible to escape from the camp of
Titus and join the enemy behind the wall, though the Jews,
notwithstanding the vigilance of their countrymen, were troop-
ing to the besiegers' camp by scores, to implore the protection
of the conqueror, and throw themselves on his well-known
clemency and moderation.

Valeria, then, had taken the desperate resolution of enter-
ing the city with the assault on the morrow. For this purpose
she had adopted the dress and array of the Lost Legion.
She would at least, she thought in her despair, be as forward
as any of those reckless combatants. She would, at least,
see Esca once more. If he met her under shield, not
knowing her, and hurled her to the ground, the arm that
smote her would be that of her glorious and beloved Briton.
There was a wild, sweet sadness in the thought that she
might perhaps die at last by his hand. Full of such
morbid fancies — her imagination over-excited, her courage
kindled, her nerves strung to their highest pitch — it brought
with it a fearful reaction to learn that even her last consola-
tion might be denied her — that the chance of meeting her
lover once more was no longer in her own hands. What !
had she undergone all these tortures, submitted to all this
degradation, for nothing? And was Esca to die after all,
and never learn that she had loved him to the last? She
could not have believed it, but for the calm, hopeless misery
that she read in Mariamne's eyes.

For a while Valeria covered her face and remained silent ;
then she looked down scornfully on the Jewess, who was still
on her knees, holding the hem of the Roman lady's garment,
and spoke in a cold, contemptuous tone —

" Bound and condemned to death, and you are here ?
You must indeed love him very dearly to leave him at such
a time ! "

Mariamne's despair was insensible to the taunt.

" I am here," said she, " to save him. It is the only chance.
Oh, lady, help me ! help me if only for his dear sake ! "

412

THE LEGION OF THE LOST

"What would you have me do?" retorted the other
impatiently. " Can I pull down your fortified wall with my
naked hands? Can you and I storm the rampart at point
of spear, and bear him away from the midst of the enemy to
share him afterwards between us, as the legionaries share
a prey?" — and she laughed a strange, choking laugh while
she spoke.

" Nay," pleaded the kneeling Jewess, " look not down on
me so angrily. I pray — I implore you only to aid me !
Ay ! though you slay me afterwards with your hand if I
displease you by word or deed. Listen, noble lady ; I can
lead the Roman army within the walls ; I can bring the soldiers
of Titus into Jerusalem, maniple by maniple, and cohort by
cohort, where they shall surprise my countrymen and obtain
easy possession of the town ; and all I ask in return — the
price of my shame, the reward of my black treachery — is,
that they will rescue the two prisoners bound in the Outer
Court of the Temple, and spare their lives for her sake who
has sold honour, and country, and kindred here to-night ! "

Valeria reflected for a few seconds. The plan promised
well ; her woman's intuition read the secret of the other
woman's heart. A thousand schemes rose rapidly in her
brain ; schemes of love, of triumph, of revenge. Was it
feasible ? She ran over the position of the wall, the direction
from which Mariamne had come, her own knowledge gained
from the charts she had studied in the tent of Hippias —
charts that, obtained partly by treachery and partly by
observation, mapped out every street and terrace in
Jerusalem — and she thought it was. Of her suppliant's
good faith she entertained no doubt

"There is then a secret passage?" she said, preserving
still a stern and haughty manner to mask the anxiety she
really felt. " How long is it, and how many men will it take
in abreast ? "

" It cannot be far," answered the Jewess, " since it extends
but from that heap of brushwood to the terrace of my father's
house. It might hold three men abreast. I entreat you take
me to Titus, that I may prevail on him to order the attack
ere it be too late. I myself will conduct his soldiers into
the city."

Valeria's generosity was not proof against her selfishness.
Like many other women, her instincts of possession were
strong; and no sooner had she grasped the possibility of
saving Esca, than the old fierce longing to have him for her
very own returned with redoubled force.

413

MOIRA

" That I may rescue the Briton for the Jewess ! " she
retorted, with a sneer. " Do you know to whom you speak ?
Listen, girl : I, too, have loved this Esca : loved him with a
love to which yours is but as the glimmer on my helmet
compared to the red glare of that watch-fire below the hill —
loved him as the tigress loves her cubs — nay, sometimes as
the tigress loves her prey! Do you think I will save him
for another ? "

Mariamne's face was paler than ever now, but her voice
was clear, though very low and sad, while she replied —

" You love him too ! I know it, lady, and therefore I ask
you to save him. Not for me ; oh ! not for me ! When he
is once set free, I will never see him more : this is your price,
is it not? Willingly, heartily I pay it; only save him — only
save him ! You will, lady ; will you not ? And so you will
take me direct to Titus ? See ! the middle watch of the
night is already nearly past."

But Valeria's plotting brain began now to shape its plans ;
she saw the obstacles in her way were she to conduct the
girl at once into the presence of Titus. Her own disguise
would be discovered, and the Roman commander was not
likely to permit such a flagrant breach of discipline and
propriety to pass unnoticed. If not punished, she would
probably be at least publicly shamed, and placed under
restraint. Moreover, the prince might hesitate to credit
Mariamne's story, and suspect the whole scheme was but a
plot to lead the attacking party into an ambush. Besides,
she would never yield to the Jewess the credit and the
privilege of saving her lover. No : she had a better plan
than this. She knew that Titus had resolved the city should
fall on the morrow. She knew the assault would take place
at dawn ; she would persuade Mariamne to return into the
town ; she would mark the secret entrance well. When the
gladiators advanced to the attack, she would lead a chosen
band by this path into the very heart of the city ; she would
save Esca at the supreme moment; and surely his better
feelings would acknowledge her sovereignty then, when she
came to him as a deliverer and a conqueror, like some
fabulous heroine of his own barbarian nation. She would
revenge on Hippias all the past weary months of discord ;
she would laugh Placidus to scorn with his subtle plans and
his venturous courage, and the skill he boasted in the art of
war. Nay, even Licinius himself would be brought to acknow-
ledge her in her triumph, and be forced to confess that,
stained, degraded as she was, his kinswoman had at last

414

THE LEGION OF THE LOST

proved herself a true scion of their noble line, worthy of the
name of Roman ! There was a sting, though, in a certain
memory that Mariamne's words brought back ; their very
tone recalled his, when he too had offered to sacrifice his love
that he might save its object — and she thought how different
were their hearts to hers. But the pain only goaded her into
action, and she raised the still kneeling girl with a kindly
gesture, and a reassuring smile.

" You can trust me to save him," said she ; " but it would
be unwise to declare your plan to Titus. He would not
believe it, but would simply make you a prisoner, and prevent
me from fulfilling my object till too late. Show me the
secret path, girl ; and by all a woman holds most sacred, by
all I have most prized, yet lost, I swear to you that the eagles
shall shake their wings in the Temple by to-morrow's sunrise ;
that I will cut Esca's bonds with the very sword that hangs
here in my belt ! Return the way you came ; be careful to
avoid observation ; and if you see Valeria again alive, depend
upon her friendship and protection for his sake whom you
and I shall have saved from death before another day be
past ! "

So strangely constituted are women, that something
almost like a caress passed between these two, as the one
gave and the other received the solemn pledge; although
Mariamne yielded but unwillingly to Valeria's arguments,
and sought the secret way on her return with slow reluctant
steps. But she had no alternative; and the Roman lady's
certainty of success imparted some of her own confidence
to the weary and desponding Jewess. " At least," thought
Mariamne, "if I cannot save him, I can die with him, and
then nothing can separate us any more ! " Sad as it was, she
yet felt comforted by the hopeless reflection, while it urged
her to hasten to her lover at once.

There was no time to be lost. As she looked back to
the Roman sentinel, once more motionless on his post, and
waved her hand with a gesture that seemed to implore assist-
ance, while it expressed confidence, ere she stooped to remove
the brushwood for her return, a peal of Roman trumpets
broke on the silence, sounding out the call which was termed
" cock-crow," an hour before the dawn.

415

CHAPTER XIV

FAITH

r I ^HERE is nothing in the history of ancient or modern
J_ times that can at all help us to realise the feelings with
which the Jews regarded their Temple. To them the sacred
building was not only the very type and embodiment of their
religion, but it represented also the magnificence of their
wealth, the pride of their strength, the glory, the antiquity,
and the patriotism of the whole people — noble in architecture,
imposing in dimensions, and glittering with ornament, it was
at once a church, a citadel, and a palace. If a Jew would
express the attributes of strength, symmetry, or splendour,
he compared the object of his admiration with the Temple.
His prophecies continually alluded to the national building
as being identical with the nation itself; and to speak of
injury or contamination to the Temple was tantamount to a
threat of defeat by foreign arms, and invasion by a foreign
host — as its demolition was always considered synonymous
with the total destruction of Judaea; for no Jew could con-
template the possibility of a national existence apart from
this stronghold of his faith. His tendency thus to identify
himself with his place of worship was also much fostered by
the general practice of his people, who annually flocked to
Jerusalem in great multitudes to keep the feast of the
Passover ; so that there were few of the posterity of
Abraham throughout the whole of Syria who had not at
some time in their lives been themselves eye-witnesses of
the glories in which they took such pride. At the period
when the Roman army invested the Holy City, an un-
usually large number of these worshippers had congregated
within its walls, enhancing to a great degree the scarcity of
provisions, and all other miseries inseparable from a state
of siege.

The Jews defended their Temple to the last While
the terrible circle was contracting day by day, while suburb
after suburb was taken, and tower after tower destroyed,

416

FAITH

they were driven, and, as it were, condensed gradually
and surely, towards the upper city and the Holy Place
itself. They seemed to cling round the latter and to trust
in it for protection, as though its very stones were ani-
mated by the sublime worship they had been reared to
celebrate.

It was a little before the dawn, and the Outer Court of
the Temple, called the Court of the Gentiles, was enveloped
in the gloom of this, the darkest hour in the whole twenty-
four. Nothing could be distinguished of its surrounding
cloisters, save here and there the stem of a pillar or the
segment of an arch, only visible because brought into relief
by the black recesses behind. A star or two were faintly
twinkling in the open sky overhead ; but the morning was
preceded by a light vapoury haze, and the breeze that wafted
it came moist and chill from the distant sea, wailing and
moaning round the unseen pillars and pinnacles of the
mighty building above. Except the sacred precincts them-
selves, this was perhaps the only place of security left to the
defenders of Jerusalem ; and here, within a spear's-length of
each other, they had bound the two Christians, doomed by
the Sanhedrim to die. Provided with a morsel of bread,
scarce as it was, and a jar of water, supplied by that spurious
mercy which keeps the condemned alive in order to put him
to death, they had seen the Sabbath, with its glowing hours
of fierce pitiless heat, pass slowly and wearily away; they
had dragged through the long watches of the succeeding
night, and now they were on the brink of that day, which
was to be their last on earth.

Esca stirred uneasily where he sat; and the movement
seemed to rouse his companion from a fit of deep abstraction,
which, judging by the cheerful tones of his voice, could have
been of no depressing nature.

" It hath been a tedious watch," said Calchas, " and I am
glad it is over. See, Esca, the sky grows darker and darker,
even like our fate on earth. In a little while day will come,
and with it our great and crowning triumph. How glorious
will be the light shining on thee and me, in another world,
an hour after dawn ! "

The Briton looked admiringly at his comrade, almost
envying him the heartfelt happiness and content betrayed
by his very accents. He had not himself yet arrived at that
pinnacle of faith, on which his friend stood so confidently ;
and, indeed, Providence seems to have ordained, that in most
cases such piety should be gradually and insensibly attained,
2 D 4*7

MOIRA

that the ascent should be won slowly step by step, and that
even as a man breasting a mountain scales height after height,
and sees his horizon widening mile by mile as he strains
towards its crest, so the Christian must toil ever upwards,
thankful to gain a ridge at a time, though he finds that it
but leads him to a higher standard and a farther aim ; and
that, though his view is extending all around, and increasing
knowledge takes in much of which he never dreamed before,
the prospect expands but as the eye ascends, while every
summit gained is an encouragement to attempt another,
nobler, and higher, and nearer yet to heaven.

" It will be daylight in an hour," said Esca, in a far less
cheerful voice, " and the cowards will be here to pound us to
death against this pavement with their cruel stones. I would
fain have my bonds cut, and a weapon within reach at the
last moment, Calchas, and so die at bay amongst them, sword
in hand ! "

" Be thankful that a man's death is not at his own choice,"
replied Calchas gently. " How would poor human nature be
perplexed, to take the happy method and the proper moment !
Be thankful, above all things, for the boon of death itself.
It was infinite mercy that bade the inevitable deliverer wait
on sin. What curse could equal an immortality of evil?
Would you live for ever in such a world as ours if you could ?
nay, you in your youth, and strength, and beauty, would you
wish to remain till your form was bent, and your beard grey,
and your eyes dim ? Think, too, of the many deaths you
might have died, — stricken with leprosy, crouching like a dog
in some hidden corner of the city, or wasted by famine, gnaw-
ing a morsel of offal from which the sustenance had long
since been extracted by some wretch already perished. Or
burnt and suffocated amongst the flaming ramparts, like
the maniple of Romans whom you yourself saw consumed
over against the Tower of Antonia but a few short days
ago!"

" That, at least, was a soldier's death," replied Esca, to
whose resolute nature the idea of yielding up his life without
a struggle seemed so hard. " Or I might have fallen by
sword-stroke, or spear-thrust, on the wall, like a man. But
to be stoned to death, as the shepherds stone a jackal in his
hole ! It is a horrible and an ignoble fate ! "

" Would you put away from you the great glory that is
offered you ? " asked Calchas gravely. " Would you die but
as a heathen, or one of our own miserable Robbers and
Zealots, of whom the worst do not hesitate to give their blood

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FAITH

for Jerusalem ? Are you not better, and braver, and nobler
than any of these ? Listen, young man, to him who speaks
to you now words for which he must answer at the great
tribunal ere another hour be past. Proud should you be of
His favour whom you will be permitted to glorify to-day.
Ashamed, indeed, as feeling your own unworthiness, yet
exulting that you, a young and inexperienced disciple, should
have been ranked amongst the leaders and the champions of
the true faith. Look upon me, Esca, bound and waiting here
like yourself for death. For two-score years have I striven
to follow my Master, with feeble steps, indeed, and many a
sad misgiving and many a humbling fall. For two-score
years have I prayed night and morning ; first, that I might
have strength to persevere in the way that I had been taught,
so that I might continue amongst His servants, even though
I were the very lowest of the low. Secondly, that if ever the
time should come when I was esteemed worthy to suffer for
His sake, I might not be too much exalted with that glory
which I have so thirsted to attain. I tell thee, boy, that in
an hour's time from now, thou and I shall be received by
those good and great men of whom I have so often spoken
to thee, coming forward in shining garments, with outstretched
arms, to welcome our approach, and lead us into the eternal
light of which I dare not speak even now, in the place which
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man
conceived. And all this guerdon is for thee, coming
into the vineyard at the eleventh hour, yet sharing with
those who have borne the labour and heat of the day. Oh,
Esca, I have loved thee like a son, yet from my heart, I
cannot wish thee anywhere but bound here by my side this
night."

The other could not but kindle with his companion's
enthusiasm. "Oh, when they come," said he, "they shall
find me ready. And I too, Calchas, believe me, would not
flinch from thee now if I could. Nay, if it be His will that I
must be stoned to death here in the Outer Court of the
Temple, I have learned from thee, old friend, gratefully and
humbly to accept my lot. Yet I am but human, Calchas.
Thou sayest truly, I lack the long and holy training of thy
two-score years. I have a tie that binds me fast to earth.
It is no sin to love Mariamne, and I would fain see her once
again."

A tear rose to the old man's eye. Chastened, purified, as
was his spirit, and ready to take its flight for home, he could
yet feel for human love. Nay, the very ties of kindred were

419

MOIRA

strong within him, here in his place of suffering, as they had
been at his brother's hearth. It was no small subject of con-
gratulation to him, that his confession of faith before the
Sanhedrim, while it vindicated his Master's honour, should at
the same time have preserved Eleazar's character in the eyes
of the nation, while his exultation at the prospect of sharing
with his disciple the glory of martyrdom, was damped by the
reflection that Mariamne must grieve bitterly, as the human
heart will, ere her nobler and holier self could become
reconciled to her loss. For a moment he spoke not, though
his lips moved in silent prayer for both, and Esca pursued
the subject that occupied most of his thoughts even at such
an hour as this.

" I would fain see her," he repeated dreamily. " I loved
her so well ; my beautiful Mariamne. And yet it is a selfish
and unworthy wish. She would suffer so much to look on
me lying bound and helpless here. She will know, too, when
it is over, that my last thought was of her, and it may be
she will weep because she was not here to catch my last look
before I died. Tell me, Calchas, I shall surely meet her in
that other world ? It can be no sin to love her as I have
loved ! "

" No sin," repeated Calchas gravely ; " none. The God
who bears such love for them has called nine-tenths of His
creatures to His knowledge through their affections. When
these are suffered to become the primary object of the heart,
it may be that He will see fit to crush them in the dust, and
will smite, with the bitterest of all afflictions, yet only that He
may heal. How many men have followed the path to
heaven that was first pointed out by a woman's hand ? That
a woman hath perhaps gone on to tread, beckoning him after
her as she vanished, with a holy hopeful smile. No, Esca, it
is not sin to love as thou hast done ; and because thou hast
not scrupled to give up even this, the great and precious
treasure of thy heart, for thy Master's honour, thou shalt not
lose thy reward."

" And I shall see her again," he insisted, clinging yet
somewhat to earthly feelings and earthly regrets, for was he
not but a young and untrained disciple ? " It seems to me,
that it would be unjust to part her from me for ever. It
seems to me that heaven itself would not be heaven away
from her ! "

" I fear thou art not fit to die," replied Calchas, in a low
and sorrowful voice. " Pray, my son, pray fervently, unceas-
ingly, that the human heart may be taken away from thee,

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FAITH

and the new heart given which will fit thee for the place
whither thou goest to-day. It is not for thee and for me to
say, ' Give me here, Father, a morsel of bread, or give me
there a cup of wine.' We need but implore in our prayers,
of Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Mercy, to grant that which it
knows is best for our welfare ; and He who has taught us
how to pray, has bidden us, even before we ask for food,
acknowledge a humble unquestioning resignation to the will
of our Father which is in heaven. Leave all to Him, my son,
satisfied that He will grant thee what is best for thy welfare.
Distress not thyself with weak misgivings, nor subtle reason-
ings, nor vain inquiries. Trust, only trust and pray, here in
the court of death, as yonder on the rampart, or at home by
the beloved hearth, so shalt thou obtain the victory ; for,
indeed, the battle draweth nigh. The watches of the night
are past, and it is already time to buckle on our armour for
the fight."

While he spoke the old man pointed to the east, where
the first faint tinge of dawn was stealing up into the sky.
Looking into his companion's face, only now becoming visible
in the dull twilight, he was struck with the change that a few
hours of suffering and imprisonment had wrought upon those
fair young features. Esca seemed ten years older in that one
day and night ; nor could Calchas repress a throb of exulta-
tion, as he thought how his own time-worn frame and feeble
nature had been supported by the strong faith within. The
feeling, however, was but momentary, for the Christian
identified himself at once with the suffering and the sorrowful ;
nor would he have hesitated in the hearty self-sacrificing
spirit that his faith had taught him, that no other faith either
provides or enjoins, to take on his own shoulders the burden
that seemed so hard for his less-advanced brother to bear.
It was no self-confidence that gave the willing martyr such
invincible courage; but it was the thorough abnegation of
self, the entire dependence on Him, who alone never fails
man at his need, the fervent faith, which could see so clearly
through the mists of time and humanity, as to accept the
infinite and the eternal for the visible, and the tangible, and
the real.

They seemed to have changed places now ; that doomed
pair waiting in their bonds for death. The near approach of
morning seemed to call forth the exulting spirit of the warrior
in the older man, to endow the younger with the humble
resignation of the saint.

" Pray for me that I may be thought worthy," whispered

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MOIRA

the latter, pointing upwards to the grey light widening every
moment above their heads.

" Be of good cheer," replied the other, his whole face kind-
ling with a triumphant smile. " Behold, the day is breaking,
and thou and I have done with night, henceforth, for ever-
more!"

422

CHAPTER XV

FANATICISM

WHILE faith has its martyrs, fanaticism also can boast
its soldiers and its champions. Calchas in his bonds
was not more in earnest than Eleazar in his breastplate ; but
the zeal that brought peace to the one, goaded the other into
a restless energy of defiance, which amounted in itself to
torture.

The chief of the Zealots was preparing for the great
struggle that his knowledge of warfare, no less than the words
of his brother before the Sanhedrim (words which yet rang in
his ears with a vague monotony of repetition), led him to
expect with morning. Soon after midnight, he had woke
from the slumber in which Mariamne left him wrapped, and
without making inquiry for his daughter, or indeed taking
any thought of her, he had armed himself at once and prepared
to visit the renewed defences with the first glimpse of day.
To do so he was obliged to pass through the Court of the
Gentiles, where his brother and his friend lay bound ; for in
the strength of the Temple itself consisted the last hopes of
the besieged, and its security was of the more importance
now that the whole of the lower town was in possession of
the enemy. Eleazar had decided that if necessary he would
abandon the rest of the city to the Romans, and throwing
himself with a chosen band into this citadel and fortress of
his faith, would hold it to the last, and rather pollute the
sacred places with his blood, than surrender them into the
hand of the Gentiles. Sometimes, in his more exalted
moments, he persuaded himself that even at the extremity of
their need, Heaven would interpose for the rescue of the
chosen people. As a member of the Sanhedrim and one of
the chief nobility of the nation, he had not failed to acquire
the rudiments of that magic lore, which was called the science
of divination. Formerly, while in compliance with custom he
mastered the elements of the art, his strong intellect laughed
to scorn the power it pretended to confer, and the mysteries

4-5

MOIRA

it professed to expound. Now, harassed by continual
anxiety, sapped by grief and privation, warped by the
unvaried predominance of one idea, the sane mind sought
refuge in the shadowy possibilities of the supernatural, from
the miseries and horrors of its daily reality.

He recalled the prodigies, of which, though he had not
himself been an eye-witness, he had heard from credible and
trustworthy sources. They could not have been sent, he
thought, only to alarm and astonish an ignorant multitude.
Signs and wonders must have been addressed to him, and men
like him, leaders and rulers of the people. He never doubted
now that a sword of fire had been seen flaming over the city
in the midnight sky ; that a heifer, driven there for sacrifice,
had brought forth a lamb in the midst of the Temple ; or that
the great sacred gate of brass in the same building had
opened of its own accord in the middle watch of the night ;
nay, that chariots and horsemen of fire had been seen career-
ing in the heavens, and fierce battles raging from the horizon
to the zenith, with alternate tide of conquest and defeat, with
all the slaughter and confusion and vicissitudes of mortal war.1

These considerations endowed him with the exalted con-
fidence which borders on insanity. As the dreamer finds
himself possessed of supernatural strength and daring,
attempting and achieving feats which yet he knows the while
are impossibilities, so Eleazar, walking armed through the
waning night towards the Temple, almost believed that with
his own right hand he could save his country — almost hoped
that with daylight he should find an angel or a fiend at his
side empowered to assist him, and resolved that he would
accept the aid of either, with equal gratitude and delight.

Nevertheless, as he entered the cloisters that surrounded
the Court of the Gentiles, his proud crest sank, his step grew
slower and less assured. Nature prevailed for an instant, and
he would fain have gone over to that gloomy corner, and
bidden his brother a last kind farewell. The possibility
even crossed his brain of drawing his sword and setting the
prisoners free by a couple of strokes, bidding them escape in
the darkness, and shift for themselves ; but the fanaticism
which had been so long gaining on his better judgment,
checked the healthy impulse as it arose. "It may be," thought

1 For a description of these portentous appearances, both previous to and
during the siege of Jerusalem, see Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vi. sec. 5> &s
related by the historian with perfect good faith, and no slight reproaches to the
incredulity of his obdurate countrymen — that generation of whom the greatest
authority has said, " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."

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FANATICISM

the Zealot, " that this last great sacrifice is required from
me — from me, Eleazar Ben-Manahem, chosen to save my
people from destruction this day. Shall I grudge the victim,
bound as he is now with cords to the altar ? No, not though
my father's blood will redden it when he dies. Shall I spare
the brave young Gentile, who hath been to me as a kinsman,
though but a stranger within my gate, if his life too be required
for an oblation ? No ! not though my child's heart will break
when she learns that he is gone forth into the night, never to
return. Jephthah grudged not his daughter to redeem his
vow ; shall I murmur to yield the lives of all my kindred,
freely as mine own, for the salvation of Jerusalem ? " And
thus thinking, he steeled himself against every softer feeling,
and resolved he would not even bid the prisoners farewell.
He could not trust himself. It might unman him. It might
destroy his fortitude ; nay, it might even offend the vengeance
he hoped to propitiate. Besides, if he were known to have
held communication with two professed Christians, where
would be the popularity and influence on which he calculated
to bear him in triumph through the great decisive struggle of
the day ? It was better to stifle such foolish yearnings. It
was wiser to harden his heart and pass by on the other side.

Nevertheless he paused for a moment and stretched his
arms with a yearning gesture towards that corner in which
his brother lay bound, and, while he did so, a light step
glided by in the gloom ; a light figure passed so near that it
almost touched him, and a woman's lips were pressed to the
hem of his garment with a long clinging kiss, that bade him
a last farewell.

Mariamne, returning to the city by the secret way from
her interview with Valeria in the Roman camp, had been careful
not to enter her father's house, lest her absence might have
been discovered, and her liberty of action for the future
impaired. She would have liked to see that father once more ;
but all other considerations were swallowed up in the thought
of Esca's danger, and the yearning to die with him if her
efforts had been too late to save. She sped accordingly
through the dark streets to the Temple, despising, or rather
ignoring, those dangers which had so terrified her in her pro-
gress during the earlier part of the night. While she stole
under the shadow of the cloisters towards her lover, her ear
recognised the sound of a familiar step, and her eye, accustomed
to the gloom, and sharpened by a child's affection, made out
the figure of her father, armed and on his way to the wall.
She could not but remember that the morning light which

425

MOIRA

was to bring certain death to Esca, might not, improbably
shine upon Eleazar's corpse as well. He would defend the
place she knew to the last drop of his blood ; and the Roman
would never enter the Temple but over the Zealot's body.
She could never hope to see him again, the father whom,
notwithstanding his fierceness and his faults, she could not
choose but love. And all she could do was to shed a tear
upon his garment, and wish him this silent and unacknow-
ledged farewell. Thus it was that Eleazar bore with him into
the battle the last caress he was ever destined to receive from
his child.

426

CHAPTER XVI

DAWN

THE day soon broke in earnest, cold and pale on the
towers and pinnacles of the Temple. The lofty dome
that had been looming in the sky, grand and grey and in-
distinct, like the mass of clouds that rolls away before the
pure clear eye of morning, glowed with a flush of pink ; and
changed again to its own glittering white of polished marble,
as its crest caught the full beams of the rising sun. Ere long
the golden roof was sparkling here and there in points of fire,
to blaze out at last in one dazzling sheet of flame ; but still
the Court of the Gentiles below was wrapped in gloom, and
the two bound figures in its darkest corner, turned their pale
faces upward to greet the advent of another day — their last
on earth.

But their attention was soon recalled to the court itself ;
for through the dark recesses of the vaulted cloisters, was
winding an ominous procession of those who had been their
judges, and who now approached to seal the fiat of their
doom. Clad in long dark robes, and headed by their " Nasi,"
they paced slowly out, marching two by two with solemn
step and stern unpitying mien : it was obvious that the
Sanhedrim adhered strictly to that article of their code, which
enjoined them to perform justice without mercy. Gravely
advancing with the same slow step, gradual and inevitable
as time, they ranged themselves in a semicircle round the
prisoners — then halted every man at the same moment ;
while all exclaimed as with one voice, to notify their com-
pletion and their unanimity —

" Here in the presence of the Lord ! "

Again a deathlike silence, intolerable, and apparently
interminable to the condemned. Even Calchas felt his
heart burn with a keen sense of injustice and a strange
instinct of resistance ; while Esca, rising to his full height,
and in spite of his bonds, folding his brawny arms across his
chest, frowned back at the pitiless assembly a defiance that

427

MOIRA

seemed to challenge them to do their worst. Matthias the
son of Boethus then stepped forward from amongst his
fellows ; and addressed, according to custom, the youngest
member of the Sanhedrim.

" Phineas Ben-Ezra. Hath the doom gone forth ? "

" It hath gone forth through the nation," answered Phineas,
in deep sonorous tones. " To north and south, to east and
west ; to all the people of Judaea h'ath the inevitable decree
been made manifest. The accuser hath spoken and prevailed.
The accused have been judged and condemned. It is well.
Let the sentence be executed without delay ! "

" Phineas Ben-Ezra," interposed Matthias, " can the con-
demned put forth no plea for pardon or reprieve ? "

It was according to ancient custom that the Nasi should
even at the last moment urge this merciful appeal — an appeal
that never obtained a moment's respite for the most innocent
of sufferers. Ere Calchas or Esca could have said a word
on their own behalf, Phineas took upon himself the established
reply —

" The voice of the Sanhedrim hath spoken ! There is no
plea ; there is no pardon ; there is no reprieve."

Then Matthias raised both hands above his head, and
spoke in low grave accents —

" For the accused, justice ; for the offender, death. The
Sanhedrim hath heard ; the Sanhedrim hath judged ; the
Sanhedrim hath condemned. It is written, ' If a man -be
found guilty of blasphemy, let him be stoned with stones
until he die ! ' Again I say unto you, Calchas Ben-Manahem,
and you, Esca the Gentile, your blood be upon your own
heads."

Lowering his hands, the signal was at once answered by
the inward rush of some score or two of vigorous young men,
who had been in readiness outside the court. These were
stripped to the waist, and had their loins girt. Some bore
huge stones in their bare arms ; others, loosening the pave-
ment with crow and pick-axe, stooped down and tore it up
with a fierce and cruel energy, as though they had already
been kept waiting too long. They were followers of John of
Gischala, and their chief, though he took no part in the
proceeding, stood at their head. His first glance was one of
savage triumph, which faded into no less savage disappoint-
ment, as he saw Eleazar's place vacant in the assembly of
judges — that warrior's duties against the enemy excusing his
attendance on the occasion. John had counted on this
critical moment for the utter discomfiture of his rival ; but

428

DAWN

the latter, whose fortitude, strung as it had been to the
highest pitch, could scarcely have carried him through such
a trial as was prepared for him, had escaped it by leading a
chosen band of followers to the post of danger, where the
inner wall was weakest, and the breach so lately made had
been hastily and insufficiently repaired.

John saw in this well-timed absence another triumph for
his invincible enemy. He turned away with a curse upon his
lips, and ordered the young men to proceed at once in the
execution of their ghastly duty. It seemed to him that he
must not lose a moment in following his rival to the wall,
yet he could not resist the brutal pleasure of witnessing that
rival's brother lying defaced and mangled in the horrible
death to which he had been condemned. Already the stones
were poised, the fierce brows knit, the bare arms raised, when
even the savage executioners held their hands, and the grim
Sanhedrim glanced from one to another, half in uncertainty,
half in pity, at what they beheld. The figure of a woman
darting from the gloomy cloister, rushed across the court to
fall in Esca's arms with a strange wild cry, not quite a shout
of triumph, not quite a shriek of despair; and the Briton
looking down upon Mariamne, folded her head to his
breast, with a murmur of manly tenderness that even such
a moment could not repress, while he shielded her with his
body from the threatened missiles, in mingled gentleness
and defiance, as a wild animal turned to bay protects its
young.

She passed her hands across his brow with a fond im-
pulsive caress. With a woman's instinct, too, of care and
compassion, she gently stroked his wrist where it had been
chafed and galled by his bonds ; then she smiled up in his
face, a loving happy smile, and whispered, " My own, my
dear one ; they shall never part us. If I cannot save thee, I
can die with thee ; oh ! so happy. Happier than I have ever
been before in my life."

It was a strange feeling for him to shrink from the
beloved presence, to avoid the desired caress, to entreat his
Mariamne to leave him ; but though his first impulse had
been to clasp her in his arms, his blood ran cold to think of
the danger she was braving, the fate to which those tender
limbs, that fair young delicate body, would too surely be
exposed.

" No, no," he said, " not so. You are too young, too
beautiful to die. Mariamne, if you ever loved me — nay, as
you love me, I charge you to leave me now."

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MOIRA

She looked at Calchas, whom she had not yet seemed to
recognise, and there was a smile — yes ! a smile on her face,
while she stood forth between the prisoners, and fronted that
whole assembly with dauntless forehead and brave flashing
eyes ; her fair slight figure the one centre of all observation,
the one prominent object in the court.

" Listen," she said, in clear sweet tones, that rang like
music to the very farthest cloisters. " Listen all, and bear
witness ! Princes of the House of Judah, elders and nobles,
and priests and Levites of the nation ! ye cannot shrink from
your duty, ye cannot put off your sacred character. I appeal
to your own constitution and your own awful vow. Ye have
sworn to obey the dictates of wisdom without favour; ye
have sworn to fulfil the behests of justice without mercy. I
charge ye to condemn me, Mariamne, the daughter of Eleazar
Ben-Manahem, to be stoned with stones until I die ; for that
I too am one of those Nazarenes whom men call Christians.
Yea, I triumph in their belief, as I glory in their name. Ye
need no evidence, for I condemn myself out of my own
mouth. Priests of my father's faith, here in its very Temple
I deny your holiness, I abjure your worship, I renounce your
creed ! This building that overshadows me shall testify to
my denunciations. It may be that this very day it shall fall
in upon you and cover you with its ruins. If these have
spoken blasphemy, so have I ; if these are offenders worthy
of death, so am I. I bear witness against you ! I defy you !
I bid you do your worst on those who are proud and happy
to die for conscience' sake ! "

Her cheek glowed, her eye flashed, her very figure dilated
as she shook her white hand aloft, and thus braved the
assembled Sanhedrim with her defiance. It was strange how
like Eleazar she was at that moment, while the rich old blood
of Manahem mounted in her veins ; and the courage of her
fathers, that of yore had smitten the armed Philistine in the
wilderness, and turned the fierce children of Moab in the very
tide of conquest, now blazed forth at the moment of danger in
the fairest and gentlest descendant of their line. Even her
very tones thrilled to the heart of Calchas, not so much for
her own sake, as for that of the brother whom he so loved,
and whose voice he seemed to hear in hers. Esca gazed on
her with a fond astonishment ; and John of Gischala quailed
where he stood, as he thought of his noble enemy, and the
hereditary courage he had done more wisely not to have
driven to despair.

But the tension of her nerves was too much for her

430

DAWN

woman's strength. Bravely she hurled her challenge in their
very teeth; and then, shaking in every limb, she leaned
against the Briton's towering form, and hid her face once
more on his breast.

Even the Nasi was moved. Stern, rigid, and exacting,
yet apart from his office he too had human affections and
human weaknesses. He had mourned for more than one
brave son, he had loved more than one dark-eyed daughter.
He would have spared her if he could, and he bit his lip hard
under the long white beard, in a vain effort to steady the
quiver he could not control. He looked appealingly amongst
his colleagues, and met many an eye that obviously
sympathised with his tendency to mercy ; but John of
Gischala interposed, and cried out loudly for justice to be
done without delay.

" Ye have heard her ! " he exclaimed, with an assumption
of holy and zealous indignation ; " out of her own mouth
she is condemned. What need ye more proof or further
deliberation ? The doom has gone forth. I appeal to the
Sanhedrim that justice be done, in the name of our faith, our
nation, our Temple, and our Holy City, which such righteous
acts as these may preserve even now from the desolation that
is threatening at the very gate ! "

With such an assembly, such an appeal admitted of no
refusal. The Seventy looked from one to another and shook
their heads, sorrowfully indeed, but with knitted brows and
grave stern faces that denoted no intention to spare. Already
Phineas Ben-Ezra had given the accustomed signal ; already
the young men appointed as executioners had closed round
the doomed three, with huge blunt missiles poised, and
prepared to launch them forth, when another interruption
arrived to delay for a while the cruel sacrifice that a Jewish
Sanhedrim dignified with the title of justice.

A voice that had been often heard before, though never so
wild and piercing as at this moment, rang through the Court
of the Gentiles, and seemed to wail among the very pinnacles
of the Temple towering in the morning air above. It was -a
voice that struck to the hearts of all who heard it — such
a voice as terrifies men in their dreams ; chilling the blood,
and making the flesh creep with a vague yet unendurable
horror, so that when the pale sleeper wakes, he is drenched
with the cold sweat of mortal fear. A voice that seemed at once
to threaten and to warn, to pity and to condemn ; a voice of
which the moan and the burden were ever unbroken and the
same — " Woe to Jerusalem ! Woe to the Holy City ! Sin,

431

MOIRA

and sorrow, and desolation ! Woe to the Holy City ! Woe
to Jerusalem ! "

Naked, save for a fold of camel's hair around his loins, his
coarse black locks matted and tangled, and mingled with the
uncombed beard that reached below his waist — his dark eyes
gleaming with lurid fire, and his long lean arms tossing aloft
with the wild gestures of insanity — a tall figure stalked into
the middle of the court, and taking up its position before
the Nasi of the Sanhedrim, began scattering around it on the
floor the burning embers from a brazier it bore on its head ;
accompanying its actions with the same mournful and pro-
phetic cry. The young men paused with their arms up in
act to hurl ; the Nasi stood motionless and astonished ; the
Sanhedrim seemed paralysed with fear ; and the Prophet of
Warning, if prophet indeed he were, proceeded with his chant
of vengeance and denunciation against his countrymen.

" Woe to Jerusalem ! " said he once more. " Woe to the
Holy City ! A voice from the East, a voice from the West, a
voice from the four winds ; a voice against Jerusalem and the
holy house ; a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides ;
and a voice against the whole people ! "

Then he turned aside and walked round the prisoners in
a circle, still casting burning ashes on the floor. Matthias,
like his colleagues, was puzzled how to act. If this were
a demoniac, he entertained for him a natural horror and
aversion, enhanced by the belief he held, in common with his
countrymen, that one possessed had the strength of a score of
men in his single arm ; but what if this should be a true
prophet, inspired directly from heaven ? The difficulty would
then become far greater. To endeavour to suppress him
might provoke divine vengeance on the spot; whereas, to
suffer his denunciations to go abroad amongst the people as
having prevailed with the Great Council of the nation, would
be to abandon the inhabitants at once to despair, and to yield
up all hope of offering a successful defence to the coming
attack. From this dilemma the Nasi was released by the last
person on whom he could have counted for assistance at such
a time. Pointing to the prisoners with his wasted arm, the
prophet demanded their instant release, threatening divine
vengeance on the Sanhedrim if they refused ; and then address-
ing the three with the same wild gestures and incoherent
language, he bade them come forth from their bonds, and
join him in his work of prophecy through the length and
breadth of the city.

"I have power to bind," he exclaimed, "and power to

432

loose ! I command you to rend your bonds asunder ! I
command you to come forth, and join me, the Prophet of
Warning, in the cry that I am commissioned to cry aloud,
without ceasing — ' Woe to Jerusalem ! Woe to the Holy
City ! Woe to Jeruslaem ! ' "

Then Calchas, stretching out his bound hands, rebuked
him, calmly, mildly, solemnly, with the patience of a good
and holy man — with the instinctive superiority of one who is
standing on the verge of his open grave.

"Wilt thou hinder God's work?" he said. "Wilt thou
dare to suppress the testimony we are here to give in His
presence to-day ? See ! even this young girl, weak indeed in
body yet strong in faith, stands bold and unflinching at her
post ! And thou, O man ! what art thou, that thou shouldst
think to come between her and her glorious reward? Be
still ! be still ! Be no more vexed by the unquiet spirit, but
go in peace, or rather stay here in the Court of the Gentiles,
and bear witness to the truth, for which we are so thankful
and so proud to die ! "

The prophet's eye wandered dreamily from the speaker's
face to those of the surrounding listeners. His features
worked as though he strove against some force within that he
was powerless to resist ; then his whole frame collapsed, as it
were, into a helpless apathy, and placing his brazier on the
ground, he sat down beside it, rocking his body to and fro,
while he moaned out, as it seemed unconsciously, in a low
and wailing voice, the burden of his accustomed chant.

To many in the assembly that scene was often present in
their after lives. When they opened their eyes to the light
of morning they saw its glow once more on the bewildered
faces of the Sanhedrim ; on the displeasure, mingled with
wonder and admiration, that ruffled the austere brow of
Matthias ; on the downward scowl that betrayed how shame
and fear were torturing John of Gischala ; on the clear-cut
figures of the young men he had marshalled, girded and
ready for their cruel office ; on Esca's towering frame, haughty
and undaunted still ; on Mariamne's drooping form, and
pale patient face ; above all, on the smile that illumined the
countenance of Calchas, standing there in his bonds, so
venerable, and meek, and happy, now turning to encourage
his companions in affliction, now raising his eyes thankfully
to heaven, his whole form irradiated the while by a flood of
light, that seemed richer and more lustrous than the glow of
the morning sun.

But while the prophet, thus tranquillised and silenced by
2E 433

MOIRA

the rebuke he had provoked, sat muttering and brooding
amongst his dying embers on the floor ; while the Sanhedrim,
with their Nasi, stood aghast ; while John of Gischala gnawed
his lip in impatient vindictive hatred ; and the young men
gathered closer round their victims, as the wolves gather in
upon their prey, — Mariamne raised her head from Esca's
breast, and, pushing the hair back from her ears and temples,
stood for an instant erect and motionless, with every faculty
absorbed in the one sense of listening. Then she turned her
flashing eyes, lit up with great hope and triumph, yet not
untinged by wistful mournful tenderness, upon the Briton's
face, and sobbed in broken accents, between tears and
laughter —

" Saved ! Saved ! beloved. And by my hand, though
lost to me ! "

Sharpened by intense affection, her ear alone had caught
the distant note of the Roman trumpets sounding for the
assault.

434

CHAPTER XVII

THE FIRST STONE

UT the young men would hold their
hands no longer. Impatient of delay,
and encouraged by a sign from their
leader, they rushed in upon the pris-
oners. Esca shielded Mariamne with
his body. Calchas, pale and motion-
less, calmly awaited his fate. Gioras,
the son of Simeon, a prominent
warrior amongst the Sicarii, hurling
on him a block of granite with
merciless energy, struck the old man
bleeding to the earth; but while the
missile left his hands — while he yet
stood erect and with extended arms, a Roman arrow
quivered in the aggressor's heart. He fell upon his face
stone dead at the very feet of his victim. That random
shaft was but the first herald of the storm. In another
moment a huge mass of rock, projected from a powerful
catapult against the building, falling short of its mark, struck
the prophet as he sat moaning on the ground, and crushed
him a lifeless, shapeless mass beneath its weight. Then rose
a cry of despair from the outer wall — a confused noise of
strife and shouting, the peal of the trumpets, the cheer of
the conquerors, the wild roar of defiance and despair from
the besieged. Ere long fugitives were pouring through the
court, seeking the shelter of the Temple itself. There was
no time to complete the execution — no time to think of the
prisoners. John of Gischala, summoning his adherents, and
bidding the young men hasten for their armour, betook
himself to his stronghold within the Sacred Place. The
Sanhedrim fled in consternation, although Matthias and the
braver of his colleagues died afterwards in the streets, as
became them, under shield. In a few minutes the Court of
the Gentiles was again clear, save for the prisoners, one of

435

MOIRA

whom was bound, and one mangled and bleeding on the
pavement, tended by Mariamne, who bent over her kinsman
in speechless sorrow and consternation. The fragment of
rock, too, which had been propelled against the Temple, lay
in the centre, over the crushed and flattened body of the
prophet, whose hand and arm alone protruded from beneath
the mass. The place did not thus remain in solitude for
long. Fighting their retreat step by step, and, although
driven backward, contesting every yard with their faces to
the enemy, the flower of the Jewish army soon passed
through, in the best order they could maintain, as they
retired upon the Temple. Among the last of these was
Eleazar ; hopeless now, for he knew all was lost, but brave
and unconquered still. He cast one look of affection at his
brother's prostrate form, one of astonishment and reproof
on his kneeling child ; but ere he could approach or even
speak to her, he was swept on with the resistless tide
of the defeated, ebbing before the advance of the Roman
host.

And now Esca's eye kindled, and his blood mounted, to
a well-known battle-cry. He had heard it in the deadly
circus ; he had heard it on the crumbling breach ; he had
heard it wherever blows rained hard and blood flowed free,
and men fought doggedly and hopelessly, without a chance
or a wish for escape. His heart leaped to the cheer of the
gladiators, rising fierce, reckless, and defiant above all the
combined din of war, and he knew that his old comrades and
late antagonists had carried the defences with their wonted
bravery, as they led the Roman army to the assault

The Legion of the Lost had indeed borne themselves
nobly on this occasion. Their leader had not spared them ;
for Hippias well knew that to-day, with the handful left him
by slaughter and disease, he must play his last stake for
riches and distinction ; nor had his followers failed to answer
gallantly to his call. Though opposed by Eleazar himself
and the best he could muster, they had carried the breach
at the first onset — they had driven the Jews before them
with a wild headlong charge that no courage could resist,
and they had entered the outskirts of the Temple almost at
the same moment with its discomfited defenders. It was
their trumpets sounding the advance that reached Mariamne's
ear as she stood in the Court of the Gentiles, awaiting the
vengeance she had defied. And amongst this courageous
band two combatants had especially signalised themselves
by feats of reckless and unusual daring. The one was old

436

THE FIRST STONE

Hirpinus, who felt thoroughly in his element in such a scene,
and whose natural valour was enhanced by the consciousness
of the superiority he had now attained as a soldier over his
former profession of a gladiator. The other was a comrade
whom none could identify ; who was conspicuous no less
from his flowing locks, his beautiful form, and his golden
armour, than from the audacity with which he courted
danger, and the immunity he seemed to enjoy, in common
with those who display a real contempt for death.

As he followed the golden headpiece and the long brown
hair, that made way so irresistibly through the press, more
than one stout swordsman exulted in the belief that some
tutelary deity of his country had descended in human shape
to aid the Roman arms; and Titus himself inquired, and
waited in vain for an answer, "Who was that dashing
warrior, with white arms and shining corselet, leading the
gladiators so gallantly to the attack ? "

But old Hirpinus knew, and smiled within his helmet as
he fought. " The captain is well rid of her," thought he,
congratulating himself the while on his own freedom from
such inconveniences. " For all her comely face and winning
laugh, I had rather have a tigress loose in my tent than this
fair, fickle, fighting fury, who takes to shield and spear as
other women do to the shuttle and the distaff! "

Valeria, in truth, deserved little credit for her bravery.
While apprehension of danger never for a moment over-
mastered her, the excitement of its presence seemed to offer
a temporary relief to her wounded and remorseful heart. In
the fierce rush of battle she had no leisure to dwell on
thoughts that had lately tortured her to madness ; and the
very physical exertion such a scene demanded, brought with
it, although she was unconscious of its severity, a sure ano-
dyne for mental suffering. Like all persons, too, who are
unaccustomed to bodily perils, the impunity with which she
affronted each imparted an overweening confidence in her
good fortune, and an undue contempt for the next, till it
seemed to herself that she bore a charmed life ; and that,
though man after man might fall at her side as she fought
on, she was destined to fulfil her task unscathed, and reach
the presence of Esca in time to save him from destruc-
tion, even though she should die the next minute at his
feet.

The two first assailants who entered the Court of the
Gentiles were Valeria, in her golden armour, and Hirpinus,
brandishing the short deadly weapon he knew how to use

437

MOIRA

so well. They were close together ; but the former paused
to look around, and the gladiator, rushing to the front, made
for his old comrade, whom he recognised on the instant.
His haste, however, nearly proved fatal. The heavily-nailed
sandals that he wore afforded but a treacherous foothold on
the smooth stone pavement, his feet slipped from under him,
and he came with a heavy back-fall to the ground. Habet ! l
exclaimed Hippias, from the sheer force of custom, following
close upon his tracks ; but he strained eagerly forward to
defend his prostrate comrade while he spoke, and found him-
self instantly engaged with a score of Jewish warriors, who
came swarming back like bees to settle on the fallen gladiator.
Hirpinus, however, covered his body skilfully under his shield,
and defended himself bravely with his sword — dealing more
than one fatal thrust at such of his assailants as were rash
enough to believe him vanquished because down. As more
of the gladiators came pouring in, they were opposed by
troops of the Jews, who, with Eleazar at their head, made a
desperate sally from the Temple to which they had retired,
and a fierce hand-to-hand struggle, that lasted several minutes,
took place round Hirpinus in the centre of the court. When
he at length regained his feet, his powerful aid soon made
itself felt in the fray, and the Jews, though righting stub-
bornly still, were obliged once more to retreat before the
increasing columns of the besiegers.

Valeria, in the meantime, rushing through the court to
where she spied a well-known form struggling in its bonds,
came across the path of Eleazar, at whom she delivered a
savage thrust as she met him, lest he should impede her
course. The fierce Jew, who had enough on his hands at
such a moment, and was pressing eagerly forward into the
thickest of the struggle, was content to parry the stroke
with his javelin, and launch that weapon in return at his
assailant, while he passed on. The cruel missile did its
errand only too well. The broad thirsty point clove through
a crevice in her golden corselet, and sank deep in her white
tender side, to drink the life-blood of the woman-warrior as
she sped onward in fulfilment of her fatal task. Breaking
the javelin's shaft in her hands, and flinging the fragments
from her with a scornful smile, Valeria found strength to
cross the court, nor did her swift step falter, nor did her
proud bearing betray wounds or weakness, till she reached
Esca's side. A loving smile of recognition, two strokes of

1 The exclamation with which the spectators notified a conclusive thmst or
blow in the circus.

438

or;

THE FIRST STONE

her sharp blade, and he was free ! but as the severed bonds
fell from his arms, and he stretched them forth in the delight
of restored liberty, his deliverer, throwing away sword and
shield, seized his hand in both her own, and, pressing it
convulsively to her bosom, sank down helpless on the
pavement at his feet.

439

CHAPTER XVIII

THE COST OF CONQUEST

MARIAMNE turned from the still insensible form of
Calchasto the beautiful face, that even now, though
pale from exhaustion and warped with agony, it pained her
to see so fair. Gently and tenderly she lifted the golden
helmet from Valeria's brows; gently and tenderly she
smoothed the rich brown hair, and wiped away the dews of
coming death. Compassion, gratitude, and an ardent desire
to soothe and tend the sufferer left no room for bitterness
or unworthy feeling in Mariamne's breast. Valeria had
redeemed her promise with her life — had ransomed the man
whom they both loved so dearly, at that fatal price, for her !
and the Jewess could only think of all she owed the Roman
lady in return ; could only strive to tend and comfort her,
and minister to her wants, and support her in the awful
moment she did not fail to see was fast approaching. The
dying woman's face was turned on her with a sweet sad
smile; but when Mariamne's touch softly approached the
head of her father's javelin, still protruding from the wound,
Valeria stayed her hand.

" Not yet," she whispered with a noble effort that steadied
voice and lips, and kept down mortal agony ; " not yet ; for
I know too well I am stricken to the death. While the steel
is there it serves to stanch the life-blood. When I draw it
out, then scatter a handful of dust over my forehead, and lay
the death-penny on my tongue. I would fain last a few
moments longer, Esca, were it but to look on thy dear face !
Raise me, both of you. I have somewhat to say, and my
time is short."

The Briton propped her in his strong arms, and she
leaned her head against his shoulder with a gesture of
contentment and relief. The winning eyes had lost none
of their witchery yet, though soon to be closed in death.
Perhaps they never shone with so soft and sweet a lustre as
now, while they looked upon the object of a wild, foolish, and

440

THE COST OF CONQUEST

impossible love. While one white hand was laid upon the
javelin's head, and held it in its place, the other wandered
over Esca's features in a fond caress, to be wetted with his
tears. Her voice was failing, her strength was ebbing fast,
but the brave spirit of the Mutian line held out, tameless and
unshaken still.

" I have conquered," gasped the Roman lady, in broken
accents and with quick-coming breath. " I have conquered,
though at the cost of life. What then ? Victory can never
be bought too dear. Esca, I swore to rescue thee. I swore
thou shouldst be mine. Now have I kept my oath. I have
bought thee with my blood, and I give thee — give thee, my
own, to this brave girl, who risked her life to save thee too,
and who loves thee well ; but not so well, not half so well,
as I have done. Esca, my noble one, come closer, closer yet."
She drew his face down nearer and nearer to her own while
she guided his hand to the javelin's head, still fast in her side.
" I can bear this agony no longer," she gasped, " but it is not
hard to die in thine arms, and by thy dear hand ! "

Thus speaking, she closed his grasp within her own,
round the steel, and drew it gently from the wound. The
blood welled up in dark-red jets to pour forth, as it cleared
its channel, in one continuous stream that soon drained life
away. With a quiver of her dainty limbs, with a smile
deepening in her fair face, with her fond eyes fixed on the
man she loved, and her lips pressed against his hand, the
spirit of that beautiful, imperious, and wilful woman passed
away into eternity.

Blinded by their tears, neither Esca nor Mariamne were,
for the moment, conscious of aught but the sad fate of her
who had twice saved the one from death, and to whom the
other had so lately appealed as the only source of aid in her
great need. Dearly as he loved the living woman by his
side, the Briton could not refrain from a burst of bitter
sorrow while he looked on the noble form of Valeria lying
dead at his feet ; and Mariamne forgot her own griefs, her
own injuries, in holy pity for her who had sacrificed virtue,
happiness, wealth, life itself in his behalf, whom she, too,
loved more dearly than it behoves human weakness to love
anything this side the grave.

But the living now claimed that attention which it availed
no longer to bestow upon the dead. Calchas, though sadly
bruised and mangled, began to show signs of restored life.
The stone that stretched him on the pavement had, indeed,
dealt a fatal injury ; but though it stunned him for a time,

441

( MOIRA

had failed to inflict instantaneous death. The colour was
now returning to his cheek, his breath came in long deep
sighs, and he raised his hand to his head with a gesture of
renewed consciousness, denoted by a sense of pain. Esca,
careless and almost unaware of the conflict raging around,
bent sorrowfully over his old friend, and devoted all his
faculties to the task of aiding Mariamne in her efforts to
alleviate his sufferings.

In the meantime, the tide of battle surged to and fro,
with increasing volume and unmitigated fury. The Legion
of the Lost, flushed with success, and secure of support from
the whole Roman army in their rear, pressed the Jews, with
the exulting and unremitting energy of the hunter closing
in on his prey. These, like the wild beasts driven to the
toils, turned to bay with the dreadful courage of despair.
Led by Eleazar, who was ever present where most needed,
they made repeated sallies from the body of the Temple,
endeavouring to regain the ground they had lost, at least
as far as the entrance to the Court of the Gentiles. This
became, therefore, an arena in which many a mortal combat
was fought out hand to hand, and was several times taken
and retaken with alternate success.

Hippias, according to his wont, was conspicuous in the
fray. It was his ambition to lead his gladiators into the
Holy Place itself, before Titus should come up, and with
such an object he seemed to outdo to-day the daring feats
of valour for which he had previously been celebrated.
Hirpinus, who had no sooner regained his feet than he went
to work again as though, like the fabled Titan, he derived
renewed energy from the kisses of mother Earth, expostulated
more than once with his leader on the dangers he affronted,
and the numerical odds he did not hesitate to engage, but
received to each warning the same reply. Pointing with
dripping sword at the golden roof of the Temple flashing
conspicuously over their heads, " Yonder," said the fencing-
master, "is the ransom of a kingdom. I will win it with
my own hand for the legion, and share it amongst you
equally, man by man." Such a prospect inspired the
gladiators with even more than their usual daring ; and
though many a stout swordsman went down with his face
to the enemy, and many a bold eye looked its last on the
coveted spoil, ere it grew dark for ever, the survivors did but
close in the fiercer, to fight on, step by step, and stroke by
stroke, till the court was strewed with corpses, and its
pavement slippery with blood.

442

THE COST OF CONQUEST

During a pause in the reeling strife, and while marshalling
his men, who had again driven the Jews into the Temple,
for a fresh and decisive attack, Hippias found himself in that
corner of the court where Esca and Mariamne were still
bending over the prostrate form of Calchas. Without a
symptom of astonishment or jealousy, but with his careless
half-contemptuous laugh, the fencing-master recognised his
former pupil, and the girl whom he had once before seen in
the porch of the tribune's mansion at Rome. Taking off his
heavy helmet, he wiped his brows, and leaned for a space
on his shield.

" Go to the rear," said he, " and take the lass with thee,
man, since she seems to hang like a clog round thy neck,
wherever there is fighting to be done. Give yourselves up
to the Tenth Legion, and tell Licinius, who commands it,
you are my prisoners. Tis your only chance of safety, my
pretty damsel, and none of your sex ever yet had cause to
rue her trust in Hippias. You may tell him also, Esca, that
if he make not the more haste, I shall have taken the Temple,
and all belonging to it, without his help. Off with thee, lad !
this is no place for a woman. Get her out of it as quick as
thou canst."

But the Briton pointed downward to Calchas, who had
again become unconscious, and whose head was resting on
Mariamne's knees. His gesture drew the attention of Hippias
to the ground, cumbered as it was with slain. He had begun
with a brutal laugh to bid his pupil " leave the carrion for the
vultures," but the sentence died out on his lips, which turned
deadly white, while his eyes stared vacantly, and the shield
on which he had been leaning fell with a clang to the stones.

There at his very feet over the golden breastplate was the
dead face of Valeria ; and the heart of the brave, reckless,
and unprincipled soldier smote him with a cruel pang, for
something told him that his own wilful pride and selfishness
had begun that work, which was completed, to his eternal
self-reproach, down there.

He never thought he loved her so dearly. He recalled,
as if it were but yesterday, the first time he ever saw her,
beautiful and sumptuous and haughty, looking down from
her cushioned chair by the equestrian row, with the well-
known scornful glance that possessed for him so keen a
charm. He remembered how it kindled into approval as it
met his own, and how his heart thrilled under his buckler,
though he stood face to face with a mortal foe. He
remembered how fondly he clung to that mutual glance of

443

MOIRA

recognition, the only link between them, renewed more
frankly and more kindly at every succeeding show, till,
raising his eyes to meet it once too often in the critical
moment of encounter, he went down badly wounded under
the blow he had thus failed to guard. Nevertheless, how
richly was he rewarded when fighting stubbornly on his
knee, and from that disadvantageous attitude vanquishing
his antagonist at last, he distinguished amidst the cheers
of thousands her marked and musical Euge ! syllabled so
clearly though so softly, for his special ear, by the lips of the
proud lady, whom from that moment he dared to love !
Afterwards, when admitted periodically to her house, how
delightful were the alternations of hope and fear with which
he saw himself treated ; now as an honoured guest, now as
a mere inferior, at another time with mingled kindness and
restraint, that, impassible as he thought himself, woke such
wild wishes in his heart ! How sweet it was to be sure of
seeing her at certain stated hours, the recollection of one
meeting bridging over the intervening period so pleasantly,
till it was time to look forward to another ! She was to him
like the beautiful rose blooming in his garden, of which a
man is content at first only to admire the form ere he learns
to long for its fragrance, and at last desires to pluck it
ruthlessly from the stem that he may wear it on his breast.
How soon it withers there and dies, and then how bitterly,
how sadly, he wishes he had left it blushing where it grew !
There are plenty more flowers in the garden, but none of
them are quite equal to the rose.

It was strange how little Hippias dwelt on the imme-
diate past — how it was the Valeria of Rome, not the Valeria
of Judaea, for whom his heart was aching now. He scarcely
reverted even to the delirious happiness of the first few days
when she accompanied him to the East ; he did not dwell
on his own mad joy, nor the foolish triumph that lasted so
short a time. He forgot, as though they had never been,
her caprice, her wilfulness, her growing weariness of his
society, and the scorn she scarcely took the trouble to con-
ceal. It was all past and gone now, that constraint and
repugnance in the tent, that impatience of each other's
presence, those angry recriminations, those heartless biting
taunts and the final rupture that could never be pardoned
nor atoned for now. She was again Valeria of the olden
time, of the haughty bearing, and the winning eyes, and
the fresh glad voice that sprang from a heart which had
never known a struggle nor a fall — the Valeria whose every

444

THE COST OF CONQUEST

mood and gesture were gifted with a dangerous witchery,
a subtle essence that seems to pervade the very presence of
such women — a priceless charm, indeed, and yet a fatal,,
luring the possessor to the destruction of others and her own.

Oh, that she could but speak to him once more ! Only
once, though it were in words of keen reproach or bitter
scorn ! It seemed like a dream that he should never hear
her voice again ; and yet his senses vouched that it was
waking cold reality, for was she not lying there before him,
surrounded by the slain of his devoted legion? The fore-
most, the fairest, and the earliest lost, amongst them all !

He took no further note of Calchas nor of Esca. He
turned not to mark the renewed charge of his comrades,
nor the increased turmoil of the fight, but he stooped down
over the body of the dead woman, and laid his lips rever-
ently to her pale cold brow. Then he lifted one of her long
brown tresses, dabbled as they were in blood, to sever it
gently and carefully with his sword, and unbuckling his
corselet, hid it beneath the steel upon his heart. After this,
he turned and took leave of Esca. The Briton scarcely
knew him, his voice and mien were so altered. But watching
his figure as he disappeared, waving his sword, amidst the
press of battle, he knew instinctively that he had bidden
Hippias the gladiator a long and last farewell.

445

CHAPTER XIX

THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES

SHOUTING their well-known war-cry, and placing himself
at the head of that handful of heroes who constituted
the remnant of the Lost Legion, Hippias rallied them for
one last desperate effort against the defenders of the Temple.
These had formed a hasty barricade on the exigency of the
moment from certain beams and timbers they had pulled
down in the Sacred Place. It afforded a slight protection
against the javelins, arrows, and other missiles of the
Romans, while it checked and repulsed the impetuous rush
of the latter, who now wavered, hesitated, and began to look
about them, making inquiry for the battering-rams and other
engines of war that were to have supported their onset from
the rear. In vain Hippias led them, once and again, to
carry this unforeseen obstacle. It was high and firm, it
bristled with spears and was lined with archers ; above all,
it was defended by the indomitable valour of Eleazar, and
the gladiators were each time repulsed with loss. Their
leader, too, had been severely wounded. He had never
lifted his shield from the ground where it lay by Valeria's
side ; and, in climbing the barricade, he had received a
thrust in the body from an unknown hand. While he
stanched the blood with the folds of his tunic, and felt
within his breastplate for the tress of Valeria's hair, he
looked anxiously back for his promised reinforcements,
now sorely needed, convinced that his shattered band would
be unable to obtain possession of the Temple without the
assistance of the legions. Faint from loss of blood, strength
and courage failing him at the same moment, an overpower-
ing sense of hopeless sorrow succeeding the triumphant
excitement of the last hour, his thoughts were yet for his
swordsmen ; and collecting them with voice and gesture,
he bade them form with their shields the figure that was
called "the tortoise," as a screen against the shower of
missiles that overpowered them from the barricade. Cool,

446

THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES

confident, and well-drilled, the gladiators soon settled into
this impervious order of defence ; and the word of command
had hardly died on his lips ere the leader himself was the
only soldier left out of that movable fortress of steel.1

Turning from the enemy to inspect its security, his side
was left a moment exposed to their darts. The next, a
Jewish arrow quivered in his heart. True to his instincts,
he waved his sword over his head, as he went down, with a
triumphant cheer ; for his failing ear recognised the blast of
the Roman trumpets — his darkening eye caught the glitter
of their spears and the gleam of their brazen helmets, as the
legions advanced in steady and imposing order to complete
the work he and his handful of heroes had begun.

Even in the act of falling, Esca, looking up from his
charge, saw the fencing-master wheel half-round that his
dead face might be turned towards the foe ; perhaps, too,
the Briton's eye was the only one to observe a thin dark
stream of blood steal slowly along the pavement, till it
mingled with the red pool in which Valeria lay.

Effectual assistance had come at last. From the Tower
of Antonia to the outworks of the Temple a broad and easy
causeway had been thrown up in the last hour by the Roman
soldiers. Where every man was engineer as well as com-
batant, there was no lack of labour for such a task. A large
portion of the adjoining wall, as of the tower itself, had been
nastily thrown down to furnish materials ; and while the
gladiators were storming the Court of the Gentiles, their
comrades had constructed a wide, easy, and gradual ascent,
by which, in regular succession, whole columns could be
poured in to the support of the first assailants. These were
led by Julius Placidus with his wonted skill and coolness.
In his recent collision with Esca he had sustained such
severe injuries as incapacitated him from mounting a horse ;
but with the Asiatic auxiliaries were several elephants of
war, and on one of these huge beasts he now rode exalted,
directing from his movable tower the operations of his own
troops, and galling the enemy when occasion offered' with
the shafts of a few archers who accompanied him on the
patient and sagacious animal.

The elephant, in obedience to its driver, a dark supple

1 In bringing forward their heavy battering-rams, or otherwise advancing to
the attack of a fortified place, the Roman soldiers were instructed to raise their
shields obliquely above their heads, and, linking them together, thus form an
impervious roof of steel, under which they could manoeuvre with sufficient free-
dom. This formation was called the testitdo, or tortoise, from its supposed
resemblance to the defensive covering with which nature provides that animal.

447

MOIRA

Syrian, perched behind its ears, ascended the slope with
ludicrous and solemn caution. Though alarmed by the
smell of blood, it nevertheless came steadily on, a formidable
and imposing object, striking terror into the hearts of the
Jews, who were not accustomed to confront such enemies in
warfare. The tribune's arms were more dazzling, his dress
even more costly than usual. It seemed that with his
Eastern charger he affected also something of Eastern
luxury and splendour ; but he encouraged his men, as he
was in the habit of doing, with jeer and scoff, and such
coarse jests as soldiers best understand and appreciate in the
moment of danger.

No sooner had he entered the court, through its battered
and half - demolished gateway, than his quick eye caught
sight of the still glowing embers scattered by the Prophet
of Warning on the pavement. These suggested a means
for the destruction of the barricade, and he mocked the
repulsed gladiators, with many a bitter taunt, for not having
yet applied them to that purpose. Calling on Hirpinus,
who now commanded the remnant of the Lost Legion,
to collect his followers, he bade them advance under the
testudo to pile these embers against the foundations of the
wooden barrier.

" The defenders cannot find a drop of water," said he,
laughing; "they have no means of stifling a fire kindled
from without. In five minutes all that dry wood will be
in a blaze, and in less than ten there will be a smoking gap
in the gateway large enough for me to ride through, elephant
and all!"

Assisted by fresh reinforcements, the gladiators promptly
obeyed his orders. Heaps of live embers were collected and
applied to the wooden obstacle so hastily erected. Dried
to tinder in the scorching sun, and loosely put together for
a temporary purpose, it could not fail to be sufficiently
inflammable ; and the hearts of the besieged sank within
them as the flame began to leap and the woodwork to
crackle, while their last defences seemed about to consume
gradually away.

The tribune had time to lean over from his elephant and
question Hirpinus of his commander. With a grave sad
brow and a heavy heart, the stout old swordsman answered
by pointing to the ground where Hippias lay, his face calm
and fixed, his right hand closed firmly round his sword.

" Habet ! " exclaimed the tribune with a brutal laugh ;
adding to himself, as Hirpinus turned away sorrowful and

448

THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES

disgusted, " My last rival down ; my last obstacle removed.
One more throw for the Sixes, and the great game is
fairly won ! "

Placidus was indeed now within a stride of all he most
coveted, all he most wished to grasp on earth. A dozen
feet below him, pale and rigid on the ground, lay the rival
he had feared might win the first place in the triumph of
to-day; the rival whom he knew to possess the favour of
Titus ; the rival who had supplanted him in the good graces
of the woman he loved. He had neither forgotten nor for-
given Valeria ; but he bore none the less ill-will against him
with whom she had voluntarily fled. When he joined the
Roman army before Jerusalem, and found her beautiful,
miserable, degraded, in the tent of the gladiator, he had
but dissembled and deferred his revenge till the occasion
should arrive when he might still more deeply humiliate the
one and inflict a fatal blow on the other. Now the man
was under his elephant's feet ; and the woman left alone
yonder, friendless and deserted in the camp, could not, he
thought, fail eventually to become his prey. He little knew
that those who had made each other's misery in life were
at last united in the cold embrace of death. He had
arrived, too, in the nick of time, to seize and place on his
own brows the wreath that had been twined for him by the
Lost Legion and their leader. A little earlier and Hippias,
supplied by himself with fresh troops, would have won the
credit of first entering the Temple ; a little later, and his
triumph must have been shared by Licinius, already with
the Tenth Legion close upon his rear. But now, at the
glorious opportunity, there was nothing between him and
victory save a score of Jewish spearmen and a few feet of
blazing wood.

Leaning over to the unwilling driver, he urged him to
goad the elephant through the flames, that its weight might
at once bear down what remained of the barricade and make
a way for his followers into the Temple. Ambition prompted
him not to lose a moment. The Syrian unwound the shawl
from his waist, and spread it over the animal's eyes, while he
persuaded it, thus blindfolded, to advance. Though much
alarmed, the elephant pushed on, and there was small hope
that the shattered smouldering barrier would resist the
pressure of its enormous weight. The last chance of the
besieged seemed to fail them, when Eleazar leaped out
through the smoke, and, running swiftly to meet it, dashed
under the beast's uplifted trunk, and stabbed it fiercely with
2 F 449

MOIRA

quick repeated thrusts in the belly. At each fresh stroke the
elephant uttered a loud and hideous groan, a shriek of pain
and fear, mingled with a trumpet-note of fury, and then sink-
ing on its knees, fell slowly and heavily to the ground, crush-
ing the devoted Zealot beneath its huge carcass, and scattering
the band of archers, as a man scatters a handful of grain, over
the court

Eleazar never spoke again. The Lion of Judah died as
he had lived — fierce, stubborn, unconquered, and devoted to
the cause of Jerusalem. Mariamne recognised him as he
sallied forth, but no mutual glance had passed between the
father and the child. Pale, erect, motionless, she watched
him disappear under the elephant, but the scream of horror
that rang from her white lips when she realised his fate was
lost in the wild cry of pain, and anger, and dismay, that filled
the air, while the huge quivering mass tottered and went
down. Placidus was hurled to the pavement like a stone
from a sling. Lying there, helpless, though conscious, he
recognised at once the living Esca and the dead Valeria ; but
baffled wrath and cherished hatred left no room in his heart
for sorrow or remorse. His eye glared angrily on the Briton,
and he ground his teeth with rage to feel that he could not
even lift his powerless hand from the ground ; but the Jewish
warriors were closing in with fierce arms up to strike, and it
was but a momentary glimpse that Esca obtained of the
tribune's dark, despairing, handsome face. It was years,
though, ere he forgot the vision. The costly robes, the
goodly armour, the shapely writhing form, and the wild
hopeless eyes that gleamed with hatred and defiance both of
the world he left and that to which he went.

And now the court was filling fast with a dun lurid smoke
that wreathed its vapours round the pinnacles of the Temple,
and caused the still increasing troops of combatants to loom
like phantom shapes struggling and fighting in a dream. Ere
long, bright tongues of flame were leaping through the cloud,
licking the walls and pillars of the building, gliding and glanc-
ing over the golden surface of its roof, and shooting upwards
here and there into shifting pyramids of fire. Soon was
heard the hollow rushing roar with which the consuming
element declares its victory, and showers of sparks, sweeping
like storms across the Court of the Gentiles, proclaimed that
the Temple was burning in every quarter.

One of the gladiators, in the wild wantonness of strife, had
caught a blazing fragment of the barricade, as its remains
were carried by a rush of his comrades, after the fall of

450

THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES

Eleazar, and flung it into an open window of the Temple over
his head. Lighting on the carved woodwork, with which the
casement was decorated, it soon kindled into a strong and
steady flame, that was fed by the quantity of timber, all
thoroughly dry and highly ornamented, which the building
contained ; thus it had communicated from gallery to gallery,
and from storey to storey, till the whole was wrapped in one
glowing sheet of fire. From every quarter of the city, from
Agrippa's wall to the Mount of Olives, from the camp of the
Assyrians to the Valley of Hinnom, awestruck faces of friend
and foe, white with fear, or anger, or astonishment, marked
that rolling column, expanding, swaying, shifting, and ever
rising higher into the summer sky, ever flinging out its red
forked banner of destruction broader, and brighter, and fiercer,
with each changing breeze.

Then the Jews knew that their great tribulation was ful-
filled— that the curse which had been to them hitherto but a
dead letter and a sealed book, was poured forth literally in
streams of fire upon their heads — that their sanctuary was
desolate, their prosperity gone for ever, their very existence
as a nation destroyed, and " the place that had known them
should know them no more " ! The very Romans themselves,
the cohorts advancing in serried columns to support their
comrades, the legions massed in solid squares for the com-
pletion of its capture, in all the open places of the town, gazed
on the burning Temple with concern and awe. Titus, even,
in the flush of conquest, and the exulting joy of gratified
ambition, turned his head away with a pitying sigh, for
he would have spared the enemy had they but trusted him,
would fain have saved that monument of their nationality
and their religion, as well for their glory as his own.

And now with the flames leaping, and the smoke curling
around, the huge timbers crashing down on every side to
throw up showers of sparkling embers as they fell — the very
marble glowing and riven with heat — the precious metal
pouring from the roof in streams of molten fire — Esca and
Mariamne, half suffocated in the Court of the Gentiles, could
not yet bring themselves to seek their own safety, and leave
the helpless form of Calchas to certain destruction. Loud
shouts, cries of agony and despair, warned them that even the
burning Temple, at furnace heat, was still the theatre of a
murderous and useless conflict The defenders had set the
example of merciless bloodshed, and the Romans, exasperated
to cruelty, now took no prisoners and gave no quarter. John
of Gischala and his followers, driven to bay by the legions,

MOIRA

still kept up a resistance the more furious that it was the
offspring of despair. Hunted from wall to wall, from roof to
roof, from storey to storey, they yet fought on while life and
strength remained. Even those whose weapons failed them,
or who were hemmed in by overwhelming numbers, leaped
down like madmen, and perished horribly in the flames.

But although steel was clashing, and blood flowing, and
men righting by myriads around it, the Court of the Gentiles
lay silent and deserted under its canopy of smoke, with its
pavement covered by the dead. The only living creatures
left were the three who had stood there in the morning, bound
and doomed to die. Of these, one had his foot already on
the border-land between time and eternity.

" I will never desert him," said Esca to his pale com-
panion ; " but thou, Mariamne, hast now a chance of escape.
It may be the Romans will respect thee if thou canst reach
some high commander, or yield thee to some cohort of the
reserve, whose blood is not a-fire with slaughter. What said
Hippias of the Tenth Legion and Licinius? If thou couldst
but lay hold on his garment, thou wert safe for my sake ! "

" And leave thee here to die ! " answered Mariamne.
" Oh, Esca ! what would life be then ? Besides, have we not
trusted through this terrible night, and shall we not trust
still ? I know who is on my side. I have not forgotten all
he taught me who lies bruised and senseless here. See,
Esca ! He opens his eyes. He knows us ! It may be we
shall save him now ! "

Calchas did indeed seem to have recovered consciousness ;
and the life so soon to fade glowed once more on his wasted
cheek, like an expiring lamp that glimmers into momentary
brightness ere its flame is extinguished for ever.

CHAPTER XX
THE VICTORY

r I ^HE Tenth Legion, commanded by Licinius and guarding
JL the person of their beloved prince, were advancing
steadily upon the Temple. Deeming themselves the flower
of the Roman army, accustomed to fight under the eye of
Titus himself, there was no unseemly haste in the movements
of these highly disciplined troops. None even of that fiery
dash, which is sometimes so irresistible, sometimes so danger-
ous a quality in the soldier. The Tenth Legion would no
more have neglected the even regularity of their line, the
mechanical precision of their step, in a charge than in a
retreat. They were, as they boasted, "equal to either for-
tune."1 Not flushed by success, because they considered
victory the mere wages to which they were entitled — not
discouraged by repulse, because they were satisfied that the
Tenth Legion could do all that was possible for soldiers ; and
the very fact of their retiring, was to them in itself a sufficient
proof that sound strategy required such a movement.

Thus, when the Legion of the Lost dashed forward with
wild cheers and an impetuous rush to the attack, the Tenth
supported them with even ranks and regular pace and a
scornful smile on their keen, bronzed, quiet faces. They
would have taken the Temple, they thought, if they had the
order, with half the noise and in half the time, so they closed
remorselessly in, as man after man 'fell under the Jewish
missiles, and preserved through their whole advance the same
stern, haughty, and immovable demeanour, which was the
favourite affectation of their courage. Titus had addressed
them, when he put himself at their head, to recommend
neither steadiness, valour, nor implicit compliance with orders,
for in all such requirements he could depend on them, as if
they were really what he loved to call them, "his own
children"! but he exhorted them to spare the lives of the
vanquished, and to respect as far as possible the property as

1 " Utrinque parati."

453

MOIRA

well as the persons of the citizens. Above all, he had hoped
to save the Temple ; and this hope he expressed again and
again to Licinius, who rode beside him, even until gazing
sorrowfully on the mass of lowering smoke and yellow flame,
his own eyes told him that his clemency was too late.

Even then, leaving to his general the duty of completing
its capture and investing its defences, he put spurs to his
horse and rode at speed round the building, calling on his
soldiers to assist him in quenching the flames, shouting,
signing, gesticulating ; but all in vain.1 Though the Tenth
Legion were steady as a rock, the rest of the army had not
resisted the infection of success ; and stimulated by the
example of the gladiators, were more disposed to encourage
than to impede the conflagration — nor, even had they wished,
would their most strenuous efforts have been now able to
extinguish it.

Though fighting still went on amongst the cloisters and
in the galleries of the Temple ; though John of Gischala was
still alive, and the Robbers held out, here and there, in fast
diminishing clusters ; though the Zealots had sworn to follow
their leader's example, dying to a man in defence of the
Holy Place; and though the Sicarii were not yet completely
exterminated — Jerusalem might nevertheless be considered
at length in possession of the Roman army. Licinius, leading
the Tenth Legion through the Court of the Gentiles, more
effectually to occupy the Temple, and prevent if possible its
total destruction, was accosted at its entrance by Hirpinus,
who saluted him with a sword dripping from hilt to point in
blood. The old gladiator's armour was hacked and dinted,
his dress scorched, his face blackened with smoke ; but
though weary, wounded, and exhausted, his voice had lost
none of its rough jovial frankness, his brow none of the
kindly good-humoured courage it had worn through all the
hardships of the siege.

" Hail, praetor ! " said he, " I shall live to see thee sitting

1 Then did Crcsar, both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a
loud voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to
quench the fire ; but they did fiot hear what he said, though he spake so loud,
having their ears already dinned by a greater noise another way ; nor did they
attend to the signal he made with his hand neither, as still some of them were
distracted with passion, and others with fighting, neither any threatenings nor any
persuasions could restrain their violence, but each one's own passion was his
commander at this time ; and as they were crowding into the Temple together
many of them were trampled on by one another, while a great number fell
among the ruins of the cloisters, which were still hot and smoking, and were
destroyed in the same miserable way with those whom they had conquered. —
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vi. sec. 4.

454

THE VICTORY

yet once again, high on the golden car, in the streets of
Rome. The Temple is thine at last, and all it contains, if we
can only save it from these accursed flames. The fighting is
over now ; and I came back to look for a prisoner who can
tell me where water may be found. The yellow roof yonder
is flaring away like a torch in an oil-cask, and they must be
fond of gold who can catch it by handfuls, guttering down
like this in streams of fire. Our people, too, have cut their
prisoners' throats as fast as they took them, and I cannot
find a living Jew to show me well or cistern. Illustrious ! I
have won spoil enough to-day to buy a province — I would
give it all for as much clear water as would go into my
helmet. The bravest old man in Syria is dying in yonder
corner for want of a mouthful ! "

Returning through the court, in obedience to the prince's
orders, to collect men and procure water, if possible, for the
extinction of the conflagration, Hirpinus had recognised his
young friend Esca with no little surprise and delight. Seeing
Calchas, too — for whom, ever since his bold address to the
gladiators in the training-school, he had entertained a sincere
admiration — lying half suffocated, and at his last gasp, on the
stones, the old swordsman's heart smote him with a keen
sense of pity, and something between anger and shame at his
own helplessness to assist the sufferer. He said nothing but
truth, indeed, when he declared that he would give all his
share of spoil for a helmetful of water ; but he might have
offered the price of a kingdom rather than a province, with as
little chance of purchasing what he desired. Blood there
was, flowing in streams, but of water not a drop ! It was
more in despair than hope that he told his sad tale to Licinius,
on whom it seemed natural for every soldier in the army
to depend when in trouble, either for himself or for others.
Giving his orders, clear, concise, and imperative to his tribunes,
the Roman general accompanied Hirpinus to the corner of
the court where Calchas lay. Fallen beams and masses of
charred timber were smouldering around, dead bodies, writhed
in the wild contortions of mortal agony, in heaps on every
side — he was sick and faint, crushed, mangled, dying from
a painful wound, yet the Christian's face looked calm and
happy ; and he lay upon the hard stones, waiting for the
coming change, like one who seeks refreshing slumber on a
bed of down.

As the kind eyes turned gently to Licinius, in glance of
friendly recognition, they were lit with the smile that is never
worn but by the departing traveller whose barque has already

455

MOIRA

cast off its moorings from the shore — the smile in which he
seems to bid a hopeful, joyful farewell to those he leaves for a
little while, with which he seems to welcome the chill breeze
and the dark waters because of the haven where he would be.
Mariamne and Esca, bending over with tender care, and
watching each passing shade on that placid countenance,
knew well that the end was very near.

His strength was almost gone ; but Calchas pointed to
his kinswoman and the Briton, while looking at Licinius he
said, " They will be your care now. I have bestowed on
you "countless treasures freely yonder in the camp of the
Assyrians.1 This you shall promise me in return."

Licinius laid his shield on the ground and took the dying
man's hand in both his own.

"They are my children," said he, "from this day forth.
Oh ! my guide, I will never forget thy teaching nor thy
behest."

Calchas looked inquiringly in the face of Hirpinus. The
gladiator's rugged features bore a wistful expression of sorrow,
mingled with admiration, sympathy, and a dawning light of
hope.

" Bring him into the fold with you," he murmured to the
other three, and then his voice came loud and strong in full
triumphant tones. " It may be that this man of blood, also,
shall be one of the jewels in my crown. Glory to Him who
has accepted my humble tribute, who rewards a few brief
hours of imperfect service ; a blow from a careless hand with
an eternity of happiness, an immortal crown of gold ! I shall
see you, friends, again. We shall meet ere we have scarcely
parted. You will not forget me in that short interval. And
you will rejoice with me in humble thankful joy that I have
been permitted to instruct you of heaven, and to show you
myself the way."

Exhausted with the effort, he sank back ere he had scarce
finished speaking, and his listeners, looking on the calm dead
face, from which the radiant smile had not yet faded, needed
to keep watch no longer, for they knew that the martyr's
spirit was even now holding converse with the angels in
heaven.

1 The ground occupied by the Roman lines during the siege.

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Whjrte-Melville, George John
The works

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