CHAPTER XXIII
A LETTER AND A LOSS
When Agrippa returned to his house that night, he found old Silassitting in the vestibule, opposite the place of the atriensis, hishands on his knees, his dull face uncommonly animated and expressive.
It was long past the hour when the household servants had retired, andthe porter at the door was drowsy, but the instant Agrippa set foot onhis threshhold Silas started up and bowed in excitement.
"An evil day," he said. "Thy wardrobe hath been entered and much fineraiment is gone."
"But thou hast made an evil night of it, Silas: thou shouldst havewithheld thy calamitous recital until the morning. Hast discovered thethief?"
Silas bowed again. "I have: yet, I have been restrained from takinghim."
"O pliable Jew! None but Caesar can steal my wardrobe unmolested. Whoprotects the thief?"
"Marsyas."
"What! Marsyas? Save thou art too unimaginative to be a fictionist Ishould say thou makest thy story. Why does Marsyas protect mypillager?"
"He says we are well rid of the knave."
"Not if he carried off so much as a sandal-lace. I am a Jew andtherefore jealous for my own property. Marsyas, as an Essene, is givento dividing without protest with thieves. I remember the Greek whohelped himself to Marsyas' patrimony on Olivet. But who is the thief?"
"Eutychus."
"Eutychus! By Hermes, he could not help it with that face! But go on;what is the circumstance?"
"He took," Silas continued, "the umber toga, embroidered with silver,much of thy Jewish vestments, the gazelle wallet which contained thyamulet, and drachmae and bracelets of gold. He is rich!"
"Of a surety: the knave hath only the more attached himself to me.What a pity! Otherwise we were well rid of him. And Marsyas bade theelet him go?"
"The young man was disturbed. According to instructions, he sent amessenger to thy stables, without the walls, to bid Eutychus have thycar ready to-morrow for thy visit to Tusculum. But the messengerpresently returned with the information that Eutychus had not been seenabout the stables that day. At the same moment, I discovered thelosses among thy apparel. And Marsyas instantly suspected Eutychus.He sent two slaves in search of him. They returned in an hour sayingthat he had been discovered in Janiculum in a wine-shop, robed like anAugustan in thy umber toga, and making merry with wine that could onlytickle a Samaritan's throat. When they tried to bring him, heobjected, saying thou shouldst not miss him, seeing that thou hadstlearned the pleasure of walking in thy less fortunate days."
Agrippa's forehead darkened.
"Even for that I should hand him over to the lictors!" he exclaimed.
"It is not all. When the two slaves then tried to fetch him by force,they were attacked by him and the wine-shop keeper and others, andobliged to flee for their lives. I besought Marsyas, then, to permitme to inform the authorities and have him taken, but he opined that thecharioteer's insolence was new and sudden, wherefore full of meaning.Seeing that it was Eutychus' intent to enrage thee, thou wast betternot enraged; to wash thy hands of him and bless the day that hedeparted."
Agrippa yawned.
"To-morrow we shall search for him and have him taken. It isimprovident to have so much philosophy as Marsyas. But what had theknave of a charioteer against me? It is Marsyas who hath enchantedDrumah, and who took him by the throat in the alabarch's house. Ishall speak with Marsyas to-morrow."
He took himself with increasing effort up the stairs along the corridortoward his rest. With the facility which characterized many ofAgrippa's troubles, the offender had already dropped out of his mind.
He had fenced with Caligula that morning, he had feasted with Macrothat night. At midday he had slighted Piso, the enemy of both.Caligula had had him draw a sketch of Judea on the wax of the gymnasiumfloor and designate the possessions of the old Herod; Macro, in hiscups, had asked confidentially if Caligula approved him. Altogetherthe day had been filled with tokens presaging success. He smiledsleepily, remembering Silas' extravagant concern over the robbery.
"Calamity is all in the mark on the scale of Fortune," he opined. "Ayear ago to lose a handful of drachmae would have ruined me."
As he passed Marsyas' door, he stepped back suddenly and stopped. Thelong curtain dragged on the floor at one side had given him aninteresting glimpse of the lighted interior. Within, Marsyas, seatedat a table, had at that moment flung away his stylus and dropped hishead on the writing. Almost immediately he sprang up, and, seizing theparchment, thrust it into the blaze of the lamp at his hand.
Astonishment gathered on the Herod's face.
In the blaze the writing curled, the flame eating into the slow-burningparchment, burned low, but surely, reaching toward the fingers thatgrasped it. Presently Marsyas dropped it. Then the night-wind, risingfrom the sea, swept in through the cancelli with a shriek, put out thelamp instantly and swept the long dragging curtain against the Herodstanding in the dimly-illuminated corridor. He got out of sighthurriedly.
After the first gust, the wind dropped, sending long streams ofimpelling draft through cancelli, doorway and hall. Before it, alongthe pavement, something came skittering out of Marsyas' cubiculum.Agrippa looked at it. It was a roll of parchment, charred and crushedby the tense grip of fingers.
Agrippa waited. After a slight movement within, silence fell again,and was not thereafter broken. The prince's eyes fell on the charredwriting. It was almost at his feet. His fine head dropped to oneside, then to the other; he put his fingers into his hair, smiled alittle and picked up the parchment. A moment later, in his ownapartment, he unrolled it by his lamp.
Only a word here and there, at the end held in Marsyas' fingers, waslegible, but Agrippa gathered from these the tone, the purpose and theidentity, as he thought, of the one addressed.
"-- me for loving thee -- my punishment --. Yet ---- sin against myteachi ---- Willingly for thy sake ------ but to pretend ---- continuemy ---- against ---- which threatens thee. Have I lost -- soul for acaprice ---- and beseech levity -- to lov -- me? the pointing finger---- of sel -- scorn! An outcast from Heaven ---- truant from hell,haunting earth in search of thee for ever!--SYAS."
Agrippa's eyes sobered.
"Junia is a brand of fire," he said to himself. "I shall make an endof this!"
Saul of Tarsus: A Tale of the Early Christians Page 23
