CHAPTER XXXV
"We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was ourduty to do."--ST. LUKE XVII. 10.
Half an hour later Dea Flavia Augusta was in the tablinium. She hadreceived Caius Nepos, the praetorian praefect, Marcus Ancyrus, theelder, my lords Hortensius Martius, Philippus Decius and the others, andthey, who had heard so many conflicting rumours throughout the morningand were beginning to quake with fear, for none of the rumours werereassuring, were grouped trembling and expectant around her.
"My lords," she began as soon as she had received their obsequiousgreetings, "I know not if you have heard the news. The Caesar hathsucceeded in quitting Rome; he is on his way to rejoin his legions andnothing can stand in the way of his progress. In a few days from now hewill make his State re-entry into the city, and the city will resoundfrom end to end with rejoicings in his honour."
"We had all heard the news, Augusta," said Caius Nepos who was vainlytrying to steady his voice and to appear calm and dignified, "and alsothat a proclamation of pardon hath preceded the entry of the Caesar intoRome and hath been affixed to the rostrum of the great Augustus by theconsul-major himself this morning."
"And what do you make of all this, my lords?" she asked.
"That some gods of evil have been at work," muttered young Escanesbetween set teeth, "and spirited the tyrannical madman out of the wayfor the further scourging of his people."
"The spirit, my lords," she interposed quietly, "that led my kinsman tosafety last night was one which actuated the noblest patrician in Rometo do his duty loyally by the Caesar."
"Then curse him for a traitor," muttered Caius Nepos, whose cheeks hadbecome white with terror.
"He was no traitor to you, my lords," she retorted hotly, "for he wasnot one of you. He was true to the oath which he had rendered to theCaesar; aye, even to the Caesar whom we, my lords, all of us here presenthad been ready to betray."
Then as she saw nothing but sullen faces around her and not a word brokethe silence that ensued, she continued more calmly:
"Yesterday you came to me, my lords, with proposals of treachery towhich I, alas, did listen because in my heart I had already chosen oneman who I felt was worthy to rule over this great Empire. I had made mychoice and myself offered him the imperium, the throne of Augustus andthe sceptre of the Caesars.... But he refused it all, my lords, and wentforth in the night to place himself body and heart at the Caesar'sservice."
"And his name, O Augusta?" queried Ancyrus, the elder.
"He hath name Taurus Antinor and was once praefect of Rome."
"He is dead!" broke in Hortensius Martius hotly.
"He lived long enough, my lord," she retorted, "to show us all ourduty."
There was silence after that, for many a heart was beatingspasmodically with fear or with hope. My lord Hortensius Martius sat ona low stool, with his elbow on his knee, his chin buried in his hand.His eyes, glowing with dull and sullen hatred, searched the face of DeaFlavia, trying to read what went on behind the pure, straight brow andthose liquid blue eyes, deep as the fathomless sea.
"What is to be done?" said Ancyrus, the elder, with a pitiable look ofperplexity directed at the Augusta.
"To make our submission to the Caesar," she said simply, "those of us atleast who are not afraid of his wrath. For the others there is stilltime to seek a safe retreat far away from Rome."
"But this is monstrous!" cried Hortensius Martius, suddenly jumping tohis feet and beginning to pace up and down the room in an outburst ofimpotent wrath. "This is miserable, cowardly, abject! What? Would yeallow that stranger, that son of slaves, to thwart your plans by histreachery? Are we naughty children that can thus be sent, well-whippedand whining to bed? Up, my lords, this is not the end! Caesar is not yetin Rome! The people are still dissatisfied. Hark to the noise in theForum below! Does it sound as if the populace was accepting the newswith rejoicing? Up now, my lords! It is not too late! Acclaim your newCaesar; it is not too late, I say. When the legions return with thatmountebank at their head let them find Dea Flavia Augusta and her lordthe acknowledged masters of Rome."
He looked flushed, excited and proud, feeling that even at this eleventhhour he could carry these men along with him if Dea Flavia put theweight of her power on his side. Now he paused in his peroration,standing above his fellow-conspirators as if already he were theirruler, and looking from one face to the other with eager restless eyesthat expressed all his enthusiasm and all his hopes.
But the two older men had evidently no stomach for the situation as itnow was. It had been easy matter enough to murder the Caesartreacherously and while his legions were three days' march away. But noweverything was very different, the issues very doubtful; no doubt that asafe retreat away from the city would be by far the wiser course.
Caius Nepos, with vivid recollections of his last interview with theCaesar, shook his head with slow determination. Ancyrus, the elder, wassilent and only the three younger men had followed Hortensius Martius inhis heated argument.
"What sayest thou, Augusta?" asked Philippus Decius at last, lookingdoubtfully upon the young girl.
"That ye must make your plans without me, my lords," she said coldly."Since, as you say, the praefect of Rome is dead, I can make no choiceworthy of him who is gone. I choose to return to mine allegiance, myloyalty to the Caesar and to my House."
"If the Caesar returns," urged Hortensius Martius, "he will vent some ofhis wrath on thee."
"Then will I suffer for my treachery, my lords," she rejoined proudly,"in accordance with my deserts."
"But Augusta ..."
"I pray you, my lord," she interposed haughtily, "do not prolong yourarguments. My mind is made up. An you value your own safety in thefuture, 'twere wiser to make preparations for a lengthy stay away fromRome."
"Hadst thou listened to us yesterday ..." sighed Ancyrus, the elder.
"A heavy crime had lain against us all," she said. "Be thankful, mylords, that in the history of Rome when it comes to be written, yourdeed will not have sullied the page that marks to-day. And now, mylords, I bid you farewell! You are in no danger if you leave the cityforthwith. The rejoicings at the entry of the Caesar and the homecomingof his legions will last many days, during that time your names will beerased from the tablets of my kinsman's memory."
"The gods grant it!" murmured Caius Nepos. "But thou, Augusta, what ofthee?"
"I, my lords," she said with a gentle smile, the irony of which was loston their self-centred intellects, "I pray you have no thoughts of me. Ihave been placed in the keeping of one who, I am told, is mightier thanCaesar. There must I be safe; so farewell, my lords; we meet again, Ihope, in happier and more peaceful times."
She stood up and one by one--for was she not still the Augusta and thefavourite kinswoman of the Caesar?--they bent the knee before her andkissed the hem of her gown. After which act of homage they retired withbacks bent and walking backwards out of the room.
My lord Hortensius Martius was the last to take his leave. He went downon both knees and would have encircled the Augusta with his arms, onlyshe drew back quickly a step or two.
"Dea ... in the name of my love for thee ..." he began.
But she interrupted him gently, yet firmly.
"Speak not to me of love, my lord," she said. "'Tis but love's ghostthat moves to and fro when you speak."
Then as he would have protested, she put up her hand with a gesture offinality.
"It is no use, my lord. What love there is in me, that you could neverhave aroused--not even in the past. I entreat you not to insist. Lovecannot be compelled. It is or is not. Whence it comes we know not;mayhap the gods do know ... mayhap there is only one who knows ... andhe seems to give much, but also to take all.... Therefore mayhap lovecomes from him, and when we are not prepared to give up all for love'ssake, then doth he withhold the supreme gift and leave our heartsbarren.... Mayhap! mayhap!" she sighed, "alas! I know not! and you, goodmy lord, do not look so puzzled and so scared. I bid you fa
rewell now.I'll not forget you; to remember is so much easier than to love."
He had perforce to accept his dismissal. He felt rebellious against fateand would have liked to have forced her will. But as she stood therebefore him, clad all in white, so young and so chaste and yet a womanwho knew what love was, an awed reverence for her crept into his heartand he felt that indeed he would never dare to speak again to her oflove.
He too kissed the hem of her tunic now, just as the others had done, andjust as they had done he walked out of her presence backwards with backbent and an overwhelming disappointment in his heart.
CHAPTER XXXVI
"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding."--PHILIPPIANSIV. 7.
Three months had gone by since then. Rome had acclaimed the Caesar andrejoiced over his homecoming. There were holidays and spectacles,chariot races and gladiatorial combats, and the people of Rome forgotthat it had ever shouted: "Hail Taurus Antinor Caesar! Hail!"
Now the calls were for Caius Julius Caesar Caligula, and those who hadmost loudly shouted for his death, cringed most obsequiously at hisfeet. The very name of the ex-praefect of Rome was already forgotten.
His testament, made, it appears, just before his death, had beencopiously commented on at first. All his slaves had received theirfreedom together with a sufficient sum to enable one and all to live incomfort in the new state of freedom. The rest of the vast property ownedby the late praefect was being somewhat mysteriously administered, andup to this hour no one had been able to gain any definite informationwith regard to its ultimate destination. There were those who averredthat a great deal of ready money--including the proceeds of the sale ofthe late praefect's house in Rome and of his villa at Ostia--had foundits way to a section of very poor freedmen who lived on the Aventine andwho formed a somewhat isolated little colony not viewed altogetherkindly by the official magistracy of the city.
But all that was mere gossip and did not withstand the test of time.After three months people had plenty of other matters to think of and totalk about.
There were the festivals and games which had accompanied the re-entry ofthe Caesar into Rome. The city had been beflagged and adorned withbanners and with garlands. For thirty days did the rejoicings last, andbrilliant sunshine shone over the golden glories of autumn and kissedthe foliage of oleanders until they blushed a brilliant crimson, andtinged the marble of palaces and temples every morning with rose.
The games in the great Circus went on without intermission for thirtydays; there were military and naval pageants, combats between the lionsfrom Numidia and the new hyenas and crocodiles; there were gladiatorialcontests and chariot races. Much human blood was shed for thedelectation of the masters of the world, much skill displayed, muchprowess vanquished by prowess greater, much valour laid to dust.
But the Caesar's pet black panther did not appear again in the Circus.The mighty fist of the dead praefect had mayhap laid the creature low;in any case it were not safe to re-awaken dormant memories.
And Caius Julius Caesar Caligula, the father of his armies, the best andgreatest of Caesars, showed himself at all these pageants more crazedthan ever; he hardly ever spoke now to the people. 'Twas averred thatCaesonia, his wife, had given him a potion to cure him of his infatuationfor Dea Flavia, his kinswoman, whom he had exalted above all the otherAugustas, and whose absence from Rome and from all festivities hadrendered him half distracted with wrath.
He would have liked to vent that wrath on Dea, but he could not layhands on her. She had left her palace even before his re-entry intoRome, taking none but two of her most trusted slaves with her; theothers did not know whither she had gone. Some thought that she had goneon a journey to a villa which she possessed in Sicilia, others thoughtthat she was living a life of retirement in a lonely dwelling on theSabine Hills, preparatory to devoting her virginity to the glory ofVesta.
Caius Julius Caesar Caligula prepared to have her sought for throughoutthe length and breadth of his Empire, and would no doubt have succeededin time in this search had not a few months later Chaerea, thepraetorian tribune, done the work with his hands which the dagger ofyoung Escanes had failed to do.
The winter had been slow in coming, but it had come at last. An icy windblew from across the sea. Overhead the sky was the colour of lead andgreat banks of clouds chased one another wantonly above the hills thattower over Jerusalem.
There was hardly a path up the rugged incline, the rains and winds andsnows of the past seven years had obliterated the marks which a surgingcrowd had once made in the wake of the sacred feet.
It was close on the ninth hour and the shadows of evening were alreadydrawing in very fast. A tall figure dressed in sombre garments walkedslowly up the hill which is called Calvary.
His head was uncovered and he had no wand wherewith to ease hisfootsteps; the blustering gusts of wind blew the tawny hair over hisbrow.
He held his head erect and his eyes did not watch the places where trodhis feet. They were fixed on ahead, up toward the summit of the hill,there where a Cross stood broken and lonely with wooden armsoutstretched and the birds of heaven circling all round it.
Every day for seven days now had the pilgrim wandered up the steepdesolate hill. Every day for seven days he had reached the summit erethe ninth hour was called from the city walls. He lived at a small innjust inside the third wall, and every day at noon he set out upon hispilgrimage and only came home when the darkness of the night lay denseupon the valley.
To-day he was more weary than he had ever been before. His feet feltlike leaden weights that seemed to be dragging him down and everdownwards, and the loneliness of the place had its image within hisheart.
On the summit he fell on his knees and knelt at the foot of the Cross,leaning his aching forehead against the cold, dank wood.
"How long, oh my God, how long?" he murmured. "The misery is more than Ican bear. I am ready to do Thy work, oh God, to speak Thy Word whereThou dost bid me go, but take her image, dear Lord, from before mineeyes, it stands for ever 'twixt Thy Cross and me. Break my heart, ohGod, since her image fills it and its every beat is not in Thy name.Take the cup from me, dear Lord! It is too bitter and I cannot drink!"
The night drew in around him; the lights in the city below wereextinguished one by one. The croaking birds on the lonely Cross hadfound a home far away in the gloom.
The pilgrim knelt against the Cross, he could hardly see the objectsnearest to him, the small prickly shrubs, the rough grass, the loosestones that looked so white and spectral in the waning light. He couldhardly see, for his eyes ached with the dull misery of tears that wouldnot fall; but suddenly a sound softer than that made by a night-bird inits flight struck upon his ear.
It was like the drawing of a garment upon the rugged ground. One or twosmall stones detached themselves from their bed of wet earth and rolledaway from under the tread of feet that walked upwards toward the summit.
The pilgrim did not move, and yet he heard the sound. It came nearer tohim, and nearer, and suddenly he was not alone; something living andwarm knelt on the stony ground beside him, and gentle fingers that hadthe softness and the coolness of snow were laid upon his burning hands.
"I came as quickly as I could," said a tender voice close to his ear."But it has taken me some time to find thee. Had it not been for Folcesand his devotion I might mayhap never have found thee. We came toJerusalem yesterday. To-day at noon I saw thee starting forth from outthe city. I followed thee, but the way was rough.... I feared I shouldnever reach the summit ... and yet 'twas here I wished to speak tothee."
All this while he had remained numb and silent. He knew even when firsther hand touched his that God had ended his sorrow and taken his achingsoul into His keeping at last. But for the moment he thought that sweetdeath had kissed his eyelids and that this was the first taste ofparadise. Darkness was closing in around them both; he could scarcelydistinguish her features, but it seemed to him as if glory shone out ofher eyes, glory so radiant that it illumined th
e darkness and piercedthe walls of the night.
"Is it thou?" he murmured. "Oh God! have pity on me! Her image, hersweet image, allow it to fade from my mind ere my brain becomes atraitor to Thee!"
"'Tis not a vision, dear heart," she whispered softly, "'tis not adream. It is I, Dea Flavia, whom thou didst call the beloved of thyheart. I came because I loved thee and because here on this spot I wouldlearn from thee the mysteries of thy God."
"Is it thou? And hast thou come to me from heaven?"
"No, dear heart, only from far-off Rome. And I have come to thee, to bewith thee and to follow thee wherever thou wilt lead me."
"Yet will my wanderings lead me far," he said, "my Lord has called and Imust go."
"Then will I go with thee," she said.
"To far-off lands, dear heart, to speak the Word of God to those whoheard it not."
"I will go with thee," she reiterated simply.
"To far-off lands whence I came, a sea-girt land which once was mineown. My fathers lived there. I would go back and tell my people of allthat I saw here on Calvary seven years ago."
"Then thither will I go with thee," she replied, "thy home will be myhome, thy people my people and thy God shall be my God, for thine am Inow and always. I am ignorant yet but this I do know, that thy God mustbe the great, the true and only God. None other God but He could haveput in thy heart the strength of sacrifice which hath brought thee--whohad Rome at thy feet--a lonely wanderer to the foot of this Cross."
She knelt beside him and he no longer cowered, limitless joy was in hisheart and immeasurable gratitude.
"For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of the Father with Hisangels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works."
The wings of the wind brought the sacred words to his ears. He kissedthe rough wooden Cross there where the Divine feet had rested, and DeaFlavia pressed her lips on it too, and the peace that passeth allunderstanding descended upon them both.
Overhead the clouds had parted, their silver lining showed clearlyagainst the dull blue sky, and in the midst of that rent in thefirmament, far away in the limitless beyond, a star shone out bright andclear.
Then they both rose, and hand in hand they walked slowly down the hill.
THE END
[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors in the originaledition have been corrected.
In Chapter VIII, a missing comma was added to "'Silence' admonishedMarcus Ancyrus"; and "unnatural brighteness" was changed to "unnaturalbrightness".
Chapter XXIV was misnumbered as Chapter XXVI.
In Chapter XXIV, "weary little sight" was changed to "weary littlesigh".
In Chapter XXX, "plit from end to end" was changed to "split from end toend"; and "bow my hear down with shame" was changed to "bow my head downwith shame".
Also, the table of contents has been created for this electronicedition. It was not present in the original work.]
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