CHAPTER IV
"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick."--PROVERBS XIII. 12.
Alas, the Roman gods are the gods of the patricians! They take so littleheed of the sorrows and the trials of poor freedmen and slaves!
"Who ordered the hat to be put on this girl's head?" suddenly interposedthe harsh voice of the praefect.
He had not moved away from the rostrum all the while that the throng ofobsequious sycophants and idle lovesick youths had crowded round DeaFlavia. Now he spoke over his shoulder at Hun Rhavas, who had nothought, whilst his comfortable little plot was succeeding so well, thatthe praefect was paying heed.
"She hath no guarantee, as my lord's grace himself hath knowledge," saidthe African with anxious humility.
"Nay! thou liest as to my knowledge of it," said Taurus Antinor. "Whereis the list of goods compiled by the censor?"
Three pairs of willing hands were ready with the parchment rolls whichthe praefect had commanded; one was lucky enough to place them in hishands.
"What is the girl's name?" he asked as his deep-set eyes, under theirperpetual frown, ran down the minute writing on the parchment roll.
"Nola, the daughter of Menecreta, my lord," said one of the scribes.
"I do not see the name of Nola, daughter of Menecreta, amongst thosewhom the State doth not guarantee for skill, health or condition,"rejoined the praefect quietly, and his rough voice, scarcely raisedabove its ordinary pitch, seemed to ring a death-knell in poorMenecreta's heart.
"Nola, the daughter of Menecreta," he continued, once more referring tothe parchment in his hand, "is here described as sixteen years of age,of sound health and robust constitution, despite the spareness of herbody. The censor who compiled this list states that she has a fairknowledge of the use of unguents and of herbs, that she can use a needleand plait a lady's hair. Thou didst know all this, Hun Rhavas, for theduplicate list is before thee even now."
"My lord's grace," murmured Hun Rhavas, his voice quivering now, hislimbs shaking with the fear in him, "I did not know--I----"
"Thou didst endeavour to defraud the State for purposes of thine own,"interposed the praefect calmly. "Here! thou!" he added, beckoning to oneof his lictors, "take this man to the Regia and hand him over to thechief warder."
"My lord's grace----" cried Hun Rhavas.
"Silence! To-morrow thou'lt appear before me in the basilica. Bring thywitnesses then if thou hast any to speak in thy defence. To-morrow thoucanst plead before me any circumstance which might mitigate thy faultand stay my lips from condemning thee to that severe chastisement whichcrimes against the State deserve. In the meanwhile hold thy peace. I'llnot hear another word."
But it was not in the negro's blood to submit to immediate punishmentnow and certain chastisement in the future without vigorousprotestations and the generous use of his powerful lungs. The praefect'ssentences in the tribunal where he administered justice were notcharacterised by leniency; the galleys, the stone-quarries, aye! eventhe cross were all within the bounds of possibility, whilst the scourgewas an absolute certainty.
Hun Rhavas set up a succession of howls which echoed from temple totemple, from one end of the Forum to the other.
The frown on the praefect's forehead became even more marked thanbefore. He had seen the young idlers--who, but a moment ago, werefawning round Dea Flavia's litter--turning eagerly back towards therostrum, where Hun Rhavas' cries and moans had suggested the likelihoodof one of those spectacles of wanton and purposeless cruelty in whichtheir perverted senses found such constant delight.
But this spectacle Taurus Antinor was not like to give them. All hewanted was the quick restoration of peace and order. The fraudulentauctioneer was naught in his sight but a breaker of the law. As such hewas deserving of such punishment as the law decreed and no more. But hishowls just now were the means of rousing in the hearts of the crowd thatmost despicable of all passions to which the Roman--the master ofcivilisation--was a prey--the love of seeing some creature, man orbeast, in pain, a passion which brought the Roman citizen down to thelevel of the brute: therefore Taurus Antinor wished above all to silenceHun Rhavas.
"One more sound from thy throat and I'll have thee scourged now andbranded ere thy trial," he said.
The threat was sufficient. The negro, feeling that in submission lay hischief hope of mercy on the morrow, allowed himself to be led awayquietly whilst the young patricians--cheated of an anticipatedpleasure--protested audibly.
"And thou, Cheiron," continued the praefect, addressing a fair-skinnedslave up on the rostrum who had been assistant hitherto in the auction,"do thou take the place vacated by Hun Rhavas."
He gave a few quick words of command to the lictors.
"Take the hat from off that girl's head," he said, "and put theinscribed tablet round her neck. Then she can be set up for sale as theState hath decreed."
As if moved by clockwork one of the lictors approached the girl andremoved the unbecoming hat from her head, releasing a living stream ofgold which, as it rippled over the girl's shoulders, roused a quick cryof admiration in the crowd.
In a moment Menecreta realised that her last hope must yield to theinevitable now. Even whilst her accomplice, Hun Rhavas, received thefull brunt of the praefect's wrath she had scarcely dared to breathe,scarcely felt that she lived in this agony of fear. Her child stillstood there on the platform, disfigured by the ugly headgear, obviouslymost unattractive to the crowd; nor did the awful possibility at firstpresent itself to her mind that all her schemes for obtaining possessionof her daughter could come to naught. It was so awful, so impossible ofconception that the child should here, to-day, pass out of the mother'slife for ever and without hope of redemption; that she should become theproperty of a total stranger who might for ever refuse to part from heragain--an agriculturist, mayhap, who lived far off in Ethuria orMacedon--and that she, the mother, could never, never, hope to see herdaughter again--that was a thought which was so horrible that its veryhorror seemed to render its realisation impossible.
But now the praefect, with that harsh, pitiless voice of his, wasactually ordering the girl to be sold in the usual way, with all hermerits exhibited to the likely purchaser: her golden hair--a perfectglory--to tempt the artistic eye, her skill recounted in fulsomeness,her cleverness with the needle, her knowledge of healing herbs.
The mother suddenly felt that every one in that cruel gaping crowd mustbe pining to possess such a treasure, that the combined wealth of everycitizen of Rome would be lavished in this endeavour to obtain the greatprize. The praefect himself, mayhap, would bid for her, or theimperator's agents!--alas! everything seemed possible to the anxious,the ridiculous, the sublime heart of the doting mother, and when thatliving mass of golden ripples glimmered in the noonday sun,Menecreta--forgetting her timidity, her fears, her weakness--pushed herway through the crowd with all the strength of her despair, and with acry of agonised entreaty, threw herself at the feet of the praefect ofRome.
"My lord's grace, have mercy! have pity! I entreat thee! In the name ofthe gods, of thy mother, of thy child if thou hast one, have pity on me!have pity! have pity!"
The lictors had sprung forward in a moment and tried to seize the womanwho had dared to push her way to the praefect's closely guardedpresence, and was crouching there, her arms encircling his thighs, herface pressed close against his knees. One of the men raised his flailand brought it down with cruel strength on her thinly covered shoulders,but she did not heed the blow, mayhap she never felt it.
"Who ordered thee to strike?" said Taurus Antinor sternly to the lictorwho already had the flail raised for the second time.
"The woman doth molest my lord's grace," protested the man.
"Have I said so?"
"No, my lord--but I thought to do my duty----"
"That thought will cost thee ten such lashes with the rods as thou didstdeal this woman. By Jupiter!" he added roughly, whilst for the firsttime a look of ferocity as that of an angry beast lit up theimpassiveness of
his deep-set eyes, "if this turmoil continues I'llhave every slave here flogged till he bleed. Is the business of theState to be hindered by the howlings of this miserable rabble? Get theegone, woman," he cried finally, looking down on prostrate Menecreta,"get thee gone ere my lictors do thee further harm."
But she, with the obstinacy of a great sorrow, clung to his knees andwould not move.
"My lord's grace, have pity--'tis my child; an thou takest her from methou'lt part those whom the gods themselves have united--'tis my child,my lord! hast no children of thine own?"
"What dost prate about?" he asked, still speaking roughly for he waswroth with her and hated to see the gaping crowd of young, empty-headedfools congregating round him and this persistent suppliant hanging roundhis shins. "Thy child? who's thy child? And what hath thy child to dowith me?"
"She is but a babe, my lord," said Menecreta with timid, tender voice;"her age only sixteen. A hand-maiden she was to Arminius Quirinius, whogave the miserable mother her freedom but kept the daughter so that hemight win good money by and by through the selling of the child. Mylord's grace, I have toiled for six years that in the end I might buy mydaughter's freedom. Fifty aurei did Arminius Quirinius demand as herprice and I worked my fingers to the bone so that in time I might savethat money. But Arminius Quirinius is dead and I have only twenty aurei.With the hat of disgrace on her head the child could have been knockeddown to me--but now! now! look at her, my lord, how beautiful she is!and I have only twenty aurei!"
Taurus Antinor had listened quite patiently to Menecreta's tale. Hissun-tanned face clearly showed how hard he was trying to gather up thetangled threads of her scrappy narrative. Nor did the lictors this timetry to interfere with the woman. The praefect apparently was in no easytemper to-day, and when ill-humour seized him rods and flails were keptbusy.
"And why didst not petition me before?" he asked, after a while, whenMenecreta paused in order to draw breath.
And his face looked so fierce, his voice sounded so rough, no wonder thepoor woman trembled as she whispered through her tears:
"I did not dare, my lord--I did not dare."
"Yet thou didst dare openly to outrage the law!"
"I wanted my child."
"And how many aurei didst promise to Hun Rhavas for helping thee todefraud the State?"
"Only five, my lord," she murmured.
"Then," he said sternly, "not only didst thou conspire to cheat theState for whose benefit the sale of the late censor's goods was orderedby imperial decree, but thou didst bribe another--a slave of thetreasury--to aid and abet thee in this fraud."
Menecreta's grasp round the praefect's knees did not relax and he madeno movement to free himself, but her head fell sideways against hershoulder whilst her lips murmured in tones of utter despair:
"I wanted my child."
"For thy delinquencies," resumed the praefect, seemingly not heeding thepathetic appeal, "thou shalt appear before my tribunal on the morrowlike unto Hun Rhavas thine accomplice, and thou shalt then be punishedno less than thou deservest. But this is no place for the delivery of myjudgment upon thee, and the sale must proceed as the law directs; thydaughter must stand upon the catasta, thou canst renew thy bid oftwenty aurei for her, and," he added with unmistakable significance, asthrowing his head back his imperious glance swept over the assembledcrowd, "as there will be no higher bid for Nola, daughter of Menecreta,she will become thy property as by law decreed."
The true meaning of this last sentence was quite unmistakable. The crowdwho had gathered round the rostrum to watch, gaping, the movingincident, looked on the praefect and understood no one was to bid forNola, the daughter of Menecreta. Taurus Antinor, surnamed Anglicanus,had spoken and it would not be to anyone's advantage to quarrel with hisarbitrary pronouncement for the sake of any slave girl, howeverdesirable she might be. It was not pleasant to encounter the wrath ofthe praefect of Rome nor safe to rouse his enmity.
So the crowd acquiesced silently, not only because it feared thepraefect, but also because Menecreta's sorrow, the call of thedespairing mother, the sad tragedy of this little domestic episode hadnot left untouched the hearts of these Roman citizens. In matters ofsentiment they were not cruel and they held family ties in great esteem;both these factors went far towards causing any would-be purchaser toobey Taurus Antinor's commands and to retire at once from the bidding.
As for Menecreta, it seemed to her as if the heavens had opened beforeher delighted gaze. From the depths of despair she had suddenly beendragged forth into the blinding daylight of hope. She could scarcelybelieve that her ears had heard rightly the words of the praefect.
Still clinging to his knees she raised her head to him; her eyes stilldimmed with tears looked strangely wondering up at his face whilst herlips murmured faintly:
"Art thou a god, that thou shouldst act like this?"
But obviously the small stock of patience possessed by the praefect wasnow exhausted, for he pushed the woman roughly away from him.
"A truce on thy ravings now, woman. The midday hour is almost on us. Ihave no further time to waste on thine affairs. Put the girl up on thecatasta," he added, speaking in his usual harsh, curt way, "and takethis woman's arms from round my shins."
And it was characteristic of him that this time he did not interferewith his lictors when they handled the woman with their accustomedroughness.
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