Neæra: A Tale of Ancient Rome

by Joel Chandler Harris

  CHAPTER XXII.

  No tidings of Masthlion having been received for three days, his brother-in-law, Cestus, had given himself up to the gloomiest forebodings. At theend of the second day he had used all the arts of his persuasion to induceNeaera and his sister to set off for Rome. At their distinct, unreasoningrefusal he had lost his temper, with the effect of causing his tongue, indesperation, to speak more violently than he would otherwise have thoughtprudent. The discourse had been suddenly brought to a close, by the abruptretirement of Neaera from the room, at which the worthy Suburan, in a rage,slunk out of the house, to go and drown his anxiety and harassments at hisfavourite wine-shop.

  A scene of much the same character had occurred on the following evening,and, in a still more violent fit, he had again quitted the now detesteddwelling of his sister, to seek the solace of copious draughts of liquor.

  Whilst he was thus engaged in a temporary return to his old indulgenthabits, we have seen what occurred at home.

  An hour subsequent to the events already recorded, he went back, notwithout a suspicion of unsteadiness in his gait. Although a faint,luminous haze had succeeded to the short period of darkness, the moon hadnot yet topped the crests of the hills which girdled the town and valley.His vision being also a little blurred with the fumes of the wine, he didnot perceive that the door, which was always closed at this hour, was wideopen. He raised his fist to deal it a blow as usual, but, meeting noresistance, he overbalanced himself and fell forward on his hands andknees. With an oath of astonishment he got up and went forward. At everystep his feet crunched the fragments of glass and pottery. More astonishedthan ever, and not without a suspicion of something wrong, he roared outfor a light, whilst he groped his way to the passage leading within. Noanswer or sound relieving the silence, he was constrained to go forward inthe dark until he reached the common dwelling-room. The door of this wasfound to be also open, and the gloom impenetrable. He remained on thethreshold, for a moment, dumbfounded; but not a sign of life met his ear.

  'What in the name of all that's damnable has come to the house?' hemuttered; 'is it a joke--thieves, or what? Where arethey--Tibia--Neaera--hillo!'

  His voice was no mean one and his roar shook the little house; but he gotno return for his pains. With increasing alarm and soberness he groped hisway into the room, and, at once, caught his shin against a substantialarticle of furniture, which was in a most unexpected position. He fellwith a cry of pain and rage, and some moments were absorbed in chafing hisleg. This done he proceeded more cautiously, and, after a long search,succeeded in laying his hand on flint and steel. He produced a light andsurveyed the room. Every article had been dragged about and ransacked. Helooked on the scene, with mouth agape, in blank amazement. Then he rushedforward into the shop. The shelves were bared of their contents, and thefloor littered with their fragments. Turning back he ascended to the upperfloor, and there, on her back, tied and gagged, he perceived the form ofTibia, with her eyes resting upon him in the strange agony of speechlesshelplessness.

  'What is it, Tibia--what is it? The girl--where is she?' he cried, springingforward.

  Drawing his knife he cut her bonds, and raised her into a sitting posture.

  Tibia burst into a paroxysm of grief. 'Oh brother, brother--dead, dead!'

  'Who--the girl--Neaera? Don't say that, woman!' he cried furiously.

  'No, no! Masthlion--my husband!'

  'Did I not say he would never return? But the girl--where is she, in thename of the furies?'

  'Gone--they have taken her away.'

  With a cry like the howl of a wild beast, Cestus threw up his arms.Everything was plain.

  His face grew purple; the veins swelled like cords, and his eyes glaredwith an insane fire. His tongue found vent in a torrent of mad ravings andhorrid imprecations, accompanied with the wildest gestures, till theheart-stricken woman herself forgot her own anguish for the moment, andshuddered in horror.

  When the fit had partially exhausted itself he turned to his sister, andhoarsely demanded a recital of what had passed. A few words sufficed, andshe threw her apron over her head, and rocked herself to and fro.

  The bluster of the tempest was over, and silence succeeded. For a momentCestus remained in meditation, with his eyes fixed on the floor. Thenbidding her not to quit the house, he rushed out headlong into the street,and rapidly ran toward the Marina. Here, with much difficulty, for fewpeople were astir, he satisfied himself that no party had landed orembarked, at all answering to those whose track he sought to discover.Thence he hurried to the posting-house in the town, where he was just asunsuccessful. Sustained and spurred on by terrible excitement, he ran outto the very outskirts of the town, till he reached a tavern, standing onthe side of the road which led from the southern coast. Here he was wellknown, the establishment being a favourite port of call in his rambles. Hecalled the landlord aside, who looked with surprise on his customer'sdisordered aspect. In answer to the Suburan's inquiries a youth wassummoned, who was employed in all kinds of outdoor jobs about thepremises, which included a small farm as well as the business of a tavern.The lad, to the intense delight of his questioner, proved to have beenloitering at the entrance of the house about nightfall, and had takenparticular note of the six horsemen who had composed the party led byPlautus. Giving the lad a coin, Cestus briefly informed the master of theoutrage and went back home.

  'It is as I said it would be!' he burst out as he entered the room whereTibia remained. 'A gang of Caesar's rascals from the island, and back theyhave gone, taking her with them. It is all over with her, and I am ruined.You would not listen to me, would you not?--they would have been cheated oftheir prey if you had. Now you know who was the wisest! Fools! fools!fools!'

  Pale with excitement he threw himself on the floor, and, save for hisheavy breathing, deep silence fell on all--the terrible silence ofdesolation and woe.

  It was a dismal, weird scene, lighted by the dull, smoky flame of a rudelamp. The contents of two chests littered the floor with homely linen andwearing apparel, together with numberless odds and ends stored by athrifty housewife. The simple articles of furniture were awry andoverturned. The broad, burly form of the man lying face downwards, halfupon the pile of bedding and half upon the floor; the woman crouchingbeside the naked pallet bed, with her head bowed down upon her knees. Twoor three locks of her thin gray hair had escaped from their fastening, andhung loosely down over her tightly clasped hands. She was most to bepitied. She had lost her husband and child, and sat, an aging woman,amidst the wreck of her home, which had hitherto bounded her life andthoughts.

  The ghostly, unutterable stillness long continued, and the only thingwhich seemed to have life was the smoky yellow flame of the lamp, as itwaved and flared in the currents of air which came through the open door.Presently Cestus turned over with a sigh and sat up. He directed his gazetoward the motionless form of his sister, and his eyes filled with anunaccustomed compassion.

  Long years ago, when, as a youth, he left his father's cottage, inconsequence of some misdeed, to go and seek his fortune in the great city,this sister had been the last one to give him tearful farewell words ofhope and encouragement. That scene was still bright in his memory. Thepretty maiden standing in the middle of the sunlit road, where she hadkissed him, waving her hand as he turned the bend which hid her from view.There she was now--old, faded, wrinkled, toil-worn, and broken-hearted. Andhe, since that day when her pure kiss and warm tears fell on his beardlessface----

  He turned away his head, and resting his chin on his hand and his elbow onhis knee, he remained staring at vacancy. He might have been a stonyembodiment of abstraction, with widely-distended, lustreless eyes whichstared as if frozen in grim despair. Such an expression Dante might havefigured among the sombre troops of the infernal regions.

  Nearly half an hour passed; then Tibia raised her wan face. The sound of afootstep in the passage below struck on her ears. It moved irresolutely,and finally, from the foot of t
he stairs, came a subdued, yet anxiousvoice calling upon the name of Neaera. Starting at the tones Tibia gave alow cry, and turned her eyes anxiously on her brother. But he was buriedin a lethargy, and seemingly oblivious of everything. She, therefore,bowed her face again, and rocked herself with the same weary motion. Thecall was repeated a little louder, but no reply being vouchsafed, a stepcame bounding up the stairs and entered the room. The glitter of apolished cuirass crossed the tranced eyes of Cestus and broke the spellwhich bound him. He looked up and beheld Martialis standing before him,regarding the scene with knitted brows and utter astonishment.

  With a yell of delight, impossible to describe, the Suburan leaped to hisfeet, and seized the Centurion's hand in a convulsive grip.

  'Welcome! welcome!' he cried wildly. 'Welcome as water in the desert. Hereis a pretty business within the last few hours--it is only yourself canright it!'

  Martialis looked on the crouching form of Tibia.

  'Where is Neaera--what has happened?' he said hurriedly.

  'A gang of cut-throats has been here, and has upset the house, and carriedaway the girl----'

  'And you sitting here like a stock!' thundered the young man in a frenzy.'Were there no neighbours to rouse to help, if you could not? Thieves thatsteal maidens from a house in a peaceful town--whence come such villainshere? Where is her father--following on her track, while you sit here idleand useless!'

  'Stop, Centurion,' said Cestus, seizing him by the arm as he was turningto dash out of the house, 'you are all wrong together. There is only onespot in the neighbourhood which can harbour kidnappers and the like. I wasabsent at the time, and if I had been here I could not have followed--thatis for you to do.'

  'Name, then!' cried Martialis, with contempt.

  'Capreae--Caesar!'

  The young man stared as if petrified. His outstretched arm fell heavily tohis side, and he dropped his head on his breast with a groan.

  'Did I not foresee it--did I not warn and beseech them to go by my advice?'cried Cestus, wringing his hands and giving way once more to a burst ofpassion. 'Did I not see and watch two fellows here in the shop some daysago? They were from the accursed island, and they came to mark down theirgame. I knew--I knew! But no one would listen. I begged and beseeched,almost on my knees, for them to quit the place--to go back with me to Rome,where they might be safe. But no--none would listen. Not they! And then thepotter must needs take off to the island himself--must needs run his headinto the tiger's very jaws; all for the sake of showing some newfangledkind of glass he had found out. As if no patron was to be found other thana bloody, strangling, ravishing tyrant! The fool would not listen to whatI said, though I went nearly crazy, but went on his mad way with a lightheart, if one could judge by his smiling face. And here's the end of it.He will never see his home again--he is murdered--the girl is missing, and Iam robbed, ruined, cheated! Haste, Centurion, for all depends on thee.Bring her back, by hook or crook, for hark you, man, she is more than youthink--she is of the Patrician order, and no more my sister's child thanyou are----'

  'Are you going mad?' said Martialis hoarsely.

  'Mad--no!' shouted Cestus; 'had they taken a madman's advice all would havebeen well now, and the wench on her way to her people in Rome. She is nopotter's child, for I hold the proofs. There was money paid, I tell you,to put the child out of the way; but instead of murder she was broughthere quietly and no one the wiser, save the woman there, who has passedfor her mother--no, not even the villain who was at the bottom of it all.'

  Martialis strode over to Tibia and laid his hand on her shoulder.

  'Mother,' he said, 'have you heard this?'

  'Yes,' said the poor woman, looking up with her woe-stricken face, 'Inever had a child of my own.'

  His eyes softened, and suddenly bending down, he pressed his lips againsther withered forehead. She burst into an agony of tears.

  'Bring her back--bring her back,' she moaned.

  'It is too strange; but gentle or simple she is still Neaera to me. Oh, theaccursed tyrant--I shall bury my dagger in his foul heart if she beharmed--even if they rend me in pieces after! But I may yet save her,though I strike her dead to do it--yes, I may yet be in time!'

  He laughed a short dry laugh, and his eyes shone with a terrible light ashe flung his long heavy cloak aside, the less to impede his motions.

  'Tell Caesar she belongs to the best blood in Rome,' said Cestus. 'He willnot dare to harm her--I will hasten to the city.'

  'He recks of nothing, idiot--her family, quick!'

  'Fabricius of the Janiculum is her grandsire--she has only him.'

  'Fabricius! He lost a child--is this true?'

  'As you stand there!'

  'And how came you to know all this?'

  'Simply because it was I who stole her as a child and brought her here--sheknows.'

  Cestus nodded to Tibia.

  'Dog, if this be true!' cried Martialis, springing on him and grasping histhroat with a hand of iron.

  'That you shall see,' choked and sputtered Cestus. 'It is likewise only Iwho can restore her. You are losing time--save her first and the rest willfollow.'

  'Villain, what demon possessed you to do such a heartless deed?'

  'Money!--and now I would bring her back to the living for revenge--gloriousrevenge!'

  'On whom?'

  'That is my concern, and mine only. Come, haste, Centurion!'

  Without further parley Martialis sprang to the door.

  'Hark'ee,' said Cestus, again catching his arm, 'there is one man who mustnever know what I have told you until the proper time arrives, or else itmight go hard with the girl. Beware, therefore!'

  He whispered in his ear and the Pretorian started with surprise. Then hedashed down the stairs and out of the house.