Valeria, the Martyr of the Catacombs: A Tale of Early Christian Life in Rome
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CHAPTER XXI.
A CRIME PREVENTED.
The deadly malice of Fausta, Furca, and Naso towards the EmpressValeria, foiled in its attempt to invoke upon her the penalties of theedict against the Christians, sought, by secret means, to procure herdeath. Juba, the black slave, was heavily bribed to prepare some of hermost subtle poisons and procure their administration. But here adifficulty presented itself, and it is a striking illustration of thecorruption of the Empire and of the daily peril in which the inhabitantsof the Imperial palace dwelt--a state of peril which finds its modernanalogue only in the continual menace under which the Czar of all theRussias lives, with a sword of Damocles suspended by a single hair abovehis head. Such was the atmosphere of suspicion which pervaded the wholepalace, such the dread of assassination or of poisoning, that trustyguards and officers swarmed in the ante-chambers and prevented access tothe members of the Imperial family except under the most rigidprecautions of safety; and a special officer was appointed, whose duty,as his title of _Pr[ae]gustalor_ implies, was to taste every kind of foodor drink provided for the Imperial table. Regard for his personal safetywas, of course, a guarantee that the utmost precautions were observed inpreparing the daily food of the Imperial household. Juba in vainattempted to bribe some of the kitchen scullions and cooks to mix withthe savoury viands designed for the use of Valeria, who generallylunched in her private apartments, a potent poison. They accepted,indeed, her bribes, but prudently declined to carry out their part ofthe agreement, well knowing that she dare not venture to criminateherself by an open rupture with them.
At length she resolved on attempting a more subtle but less certain modeof administering a deadly drug. While in the service of a priest of Isisin Egypt, she had extorted or cajoled from an Abyssinian slave in hisservice certain dark secrets, learned it was said by the Queen of Shebafrom Solomon, and handed down from age to age as the esoteric lore ofthe realm. One of these was the preparation of a volatile poison sosubtle and powerful that its mere inhalation was of deadly potency. As ameans of conveying this to her victim, and at the same time ofdisguising the pungent aromatic odour, a basket of flowers which she hadplentifully sprinkled with the deadly poison was sent to the Empress. Tomake assurance doubly sure, she concealed among the flowers one ofthose beautiful but deadly asps, such as that from the bite of which thedusky Queen of Egypt, the wanton Cleopatra, died. This, for purposesconnected with her nefarious arts, she had procured as what evil thingcould not be procured?--from the dealers in deadly drugs, philtres, andpotions in the crowded Ghetto of Rome.
To ensure the conveyance of the deadly gift to the hands of Valeriaherself, Juba invented the fiction that they were a thankoffering fromthe young Greek, Isidorus, to his Imperial patroness for favoursreceived. With her characteristic cunning Juba had possessed herself ofthe secret of his services rendered to the Empress, and of the interestfelt in him by her august mistress.
Valeria was in her _boudoir_ with her favourite and now inseparableCallirho[e:], as her tire woman, dressing her hair, when the fatal missivearrived. As Callirho[e:] received the basket from the hands of Juba, theeyes of the slave gleamed with the deadly hate of a basilisk, and shemuttered as she turned away--
"May the curse of Isis rest on them both. My fine lady has driven blackJuba from the tiring room of the Empress. May she now share her fate,"and, like a sable Atropos, she glided from the chamber with stealthy andcat-like tread.
"Oh! what fresh and fragrant flowers," exclaimed the Empress Valeria, asshe bent over them, "see how the dew is yet fresh upon their petals."Here she raised the basket so as more fully to inhale their fragrance.At that moment the concealed and deadly asp whose dark green and glossyskin had prevented its detection among the acanthus and lily leaves,seized, with his envenomed fang, the damask cheek of the fair Valeria,and for a moment clung firmly there.
"God, save her!" exclaimed Callirho[e:], who in a moment recognized thecruel aspic, of which, as a child, she had been often warned in hernative Antioch, and with an eager gesture she flung the venomous reptileto the ground and crushed its head beneath her sandal's heel. On thequick instinct of the moment and without stopping to think of theconsequences to herself, she threw her arms about her Imperial mistress'neck, and pressing her lips to her cheek, sucked the venom from the yetbleeding wound.
The cry of the Empress as the little serpent stung her cheek brought aswarm of attendants and slaves into the room, among them black Juba andthe officer of the guard who was responsible for the Empress' safety.Valeria had fainted and lay pale as ashes on her couch, a crimson streamflowing from her cheek.
"Dear heart!" exclaimed Juba, with an ostentatious exhibition ofwell-feigned grief, "let her inhale this fragrant elixir. It is a potentrestorative in such deadly faints," and she attempted to complete herdesperate crime by thrusting the poisonous perfume under Valeria'snostrils.
"Who was last in the presence before this strange accident--if it be anaccident--occurred?" demanded the officer.
"I and Juba, were the only ones," faltered Callirho[e:], when a deathlypallor passed over her face, and with a convulsive shudder she fellwrithing on the ground.
"You are under arrest," said the officer to. Juba, and then to a soldierof the guard, "Go, seize and seal up her effects--everything she has;and you," turning to another, "send at once the court physician."
The attendants meanwhile were fanning and sprinkling with water theseemingly inanimate forms of the Empress and Callirho[e:]. When thephysician came and felt the fluttering pulse and noted the dilated eyesof his patients, he pronounced it a case of acrid poisoning andpromptly ordered antidotes. The Empress, in a few days rallied andseemed little the worse beyond a strange pallor which overspread herfeatures and an abnormal coldness, almost as of death, which pervadedher frame. From these she never fully recovered, but throughout her lifewas known in popular speech as "The White Lady."
Upon Callirho[e:] the effects of the poison were still more serious. By herprompt action in sucking the aspic virus from the envenomed wound, shehad saved the life of her beloved mistress, but at the peril of her own.The venom coursed through her veins, kindling the fires of fever in herblood. Her dilated eyes shone with unusual brilliance; her speech wasrapid; her manner urgent; and her emotions and expressions werecharacterized by a strange and unwonted intenseness. The physician inanswer to the eager questioning of Valeria, gravely shook his head, andsaid that the case was one that baffled his skill--that cure there wasnone for the aspic's poison if absorbed into the system, although as ithad not in this case been communicated directly to the blood, possiblythe youth and vigour of the patient might overcome the toxic effect ofthe contagium--so he learnedly discoursed.
"My dear child, you have given your life for mine," exclaimed theEmpress, throwing her arms around her late enfranchised slave, andbedewing her cheek with her tears.
"God grant it be so," said Callirho[e:], with kindling eye. "I would gladlydie to save you from a sorrow or a pain. I owe you more than life. I oweyou liberty and a life more precious than my own."
"All that love and skill can do, dear heart, shall be done," said theEmpress caressingly, "to preserve you to your new-found liberty, and toyour sire."
"As God wills, dearest lady," answered Callirho[e:], kissing her mistress'hand. "In His great love I live or die content. I bless Him every hourthat He has permitted me to show in some weak way, the love I bear mybest and dearest earthly friend."
And with such fond converse passed the hours of Valeria's convalescence,and of Callirho[e:]'s deepening decline.