Felicitas: A Tale of the German Migrations: A.D. 476

by Felix Dahn

  The citizens passed an anxious night. The watch went their rounds onthe ramparts with torches, and small fires burnt at the spots wherebroad flagstones covered the surface of the earth and turf.

  The fires were extinguished at dawn of the early June morning; thesentinels looked carefully out into the country in the full morninglight; there was nowhere a trace of the enemy.

  Peasants came as usual from all parts into the town to sell or to buy.They were astonished to find the gates closed. They were allowed topass in singly, all being carefully examined to see if they weretrustworthy people or spies, perhaps even barbarians in disguise.

  But the inoffensive peasants were terrified at this unusual sharpnessof the gate-watch; to question them was without rhyme or reason. Theyevidently knew nothing, and were much more zealous and anxious toinquire in the town what had taken place.

  From the north-west, in the direction of Vindelicia, from which theapproach of the barbarians was expected, the country people had comein, as usual, in numbers; they had observed nothing suspicious. Butfrom the south-east hardly anyone came. It excited no remark, fewvillas and houses lay that way, and it was only seldom that afrequenter of the market came from thence. One might have consideredthe fright of the previous evening as a dream, only the dead horsemanwas a silent witness to its actuality.

  The first hours of the day passed away without any threateningindications; there was no enemy visible even in the far distance; thebridge over the Ivarus below the town (a second joined the two bankswithin the walls) was seen to be unoccupied.

  As the Tribune was still kept a prisoner in the Capitol by the accidentto his knee, Severus ordered the Vindelician gate to be opened; he wentwith a company to the bridge, caused the end on the left, western bankto be barricaded with pieces of rock and timber, left there thirtyspearmen and slingers, and then returned to the town quite satisfiedthat there was no trace of the enemy. But the old soldier did not relaxhis watchfulness; he ordered the gates to be kept closed and the towersgarrisoned, and any occurrence was to be notified immediately to him inthe Bath of Amphitrite, whither he now went, to wash away the cares ofthe night and the heat and dust of the march.

  After having fully enjoyed the bath, he sat comfortably on the softwoollen rug covering the marble seat, which formed a semicircle aroundthe porphyry bath, rubbing now arms, and now legs, from the hip to theknee.

  This man of about fifty-five years was a model of healthy and vigorousstrength; his limbs showed that the practice of the hunt and gymnasticshad developed the power of his strongly-formed body.

  He now ceased his movements, and sank gradually into deep thought. Hishead fell deeper and deeper on his breast; at last he extended hisright arm and began to draw figures in the clean white sand, whichcovered the space between the marble seat and the edge of the bath.

  "Must rank our men still deeper against the German wedge," murmured heto himself. "Ten men--twelve men deep. No, they don't waver yet. Andyet--it must be just a question of arithmetic to defeat these Germans.It is only a problem of stroke and counter-stroke. Who may solve it? Itwould be best"----

  "It would be best," broke in gently a melancholy voice, "that we lay inour last long sleep, where there is no longer either stroke orcounterstroke."

  Severus turned; the white woollen curtain of the inner bath was movedaside; a handsome man in the strength of youth, and fully armed, stoodbehind it.

  "Thou, Cornelius! What meanest thou?"

  "Thou knowest my meaning. The best for man is not to have been born."

  "Shame on thee! thirty years old, and already so tired of life."

  "Shame on _thee_! Nearly sixty years, and still so foolishly fond oflife."

  "What dost thou bring?"

  "Advice: evacuate the town, all the citizens to the Capitol. An expressmessenger over the Alps for help."

  "Thou seest spectres!"

  "Ah! If I saw only _them_! But I see the Germans!"

  "There is no trace of them far and wide."

  "It is exactly that which is mysterious. They must be near, quite near;and no one knows where they are."

  "_Why_ must they be quite near?"

  "Because the gray heron does not go southwards in the month of June;and because he never flies so low."

  "What has that to say to it?"

  "I will tell you. I was making the midnight round to relieve the guardat the Porta Latina. From the battlements of the tower I looked outsharply into the night. Nothing was to be seen, and nothing to beheard, except the song of the nightingale. Then suddenly I heard thecry of the gray heron."

  "They are not numerous here," said Severus; "but they do appear in thestagnant waters and in the marshes of the Ivarus."

  "Certainly; but the cry did not come from the river; it sounded on thisside of the stream, out of the mountain forest."

  "Making an eyrie there, perhaps."

  "It was the _migratory call_. And they migrate in August. And after thefirst call there was a second, a third, a fourth answer, till thesounds died away in the distance."

  "The echo from the hills!"

  "That is conceivable. But the cry did not come from high in the air; itcame from below, from the ground, up to me on the battlements of thetower. The heron does not fish at night."

  The old man smiled pleasantly. "Do, my Cornelius, believe the oldhuntsman. It fishes at night when it has a brood to feed. I have myselfcaught one in the morning in the fishing-net which I had set theevening before."

  "But that arrow was winged with the feathers of the--gray heron. And asoften as the heron called, there answered still deeper out of theeastern forest the shrill cry of the black eagle."

  "Accident! And how could the Germans come here from the east? From thewest, from Vindelicia only, could the Alemanni come, who are thenearest Germans to us. How could they have crossed the river unnoticed,unless they have wings, like the gray heron himself? Foresight is verypraiseworthy, my young friend, and thou seest I am not wanting invigilance. But thou art too anxious; youth and age have exchanged their_role_, I know," hastened Severus to add, as an angry look flashedacross the handsome face of the young man, "I know Cornelius Ambiorixis only anxious for Rome, not for himself."

  "Why should I be anxious about a life that has no charm and no value?"asked the other, again composed, and sitting down by the old man. "Thephilosophy of the sceptics has destroyed the old gods for us; and Icannot believe in the Jew of Nazareth. A blind fate guides the world.Rome--my pride, my dream--sinks, sinks irretrievably."

  "Thou errest there," answered the other, quite composed. "I wouldto-day throw myself on this sword"--he grasped the weapon which laynear him on a cushion--"if I shared thy belief. But this sword--it isinherited from my imperial ancestor, Probus--gives me always freshencouragement. Nine German kings knelt before that hero's tent, when hedrew this sword out of the scabbard, and commanded the trembling ones,according to their own custom, to swear allegiance by the sword. Andthey swore it."

  "That is long ago."

  "And with this sword is also bequeathed in our family the oracularpromise: 'This sword is conqueror in every battle.' It has been provedin many generations of our house. I myself, while I was allowed toserve, had defeated the Germans in twenty battles and fights, with thissword." And the old man pressed the weapon tenderly to his breast.

  "Pardon, if I correct thee," said the young man, smiling sadly; "notwith this sword, but with Isaurians, Moors, Illyrians, and, most ofall, with Germans, hast thou other Germans conquered. Rome, Latium,Italy has no more men. There are no more Romans. Celtic blood flows inmy veins, Dacian in thine. And why canst thou no longer serve? Becausethou hast often conquered, the mistrustful Emperor has taken thegeneral's staff from thy hand, and in gratitude for thy services sentthee here in honourable banishment."

  "It was very--undeserved," said Severus, rising; "but no matter! I canbe of use to the Roman state here also."

  "Too late!" sighed the other. "_Fuimus Troes!_ It is over with us. Asiato the Parthi
ans, Europe to the Germans, and to us--destruction. Itseems to me that each people, as each man, lives out its life. Twelvecenturies have gone by since Romulus was suckled by the she-wolf. Wemust allow that she had good milk--the venerable beast--and the wolf'sblood in our veins has lasted long. But now it is diseased, and thebaptismal water has utterly ruined it. How can the government of theworld be maintained, when hardly any Roman marries, and the fewchildren that are born are not suckled by the mothers, while thesebroad-hipped German women are filling the land with their numerousprogeny. They literally eat us up, these forest people; they dispossessus from the earth more through their chaste fruitfulness than by theirdeadly courage. Three hundred and forty thousand Goths did the EmperorClaudius destroy; in four years after there stood four hundred thousandin the field. They grow like the heads of the Hydra. And we have noHercules. I have had enough of it. I shall bring it to an end in thenext battle. One does not suffer long after a blow from a Germanbattle-axe."

  Severus seized the hand of the young man who had spoken so bitterly. "Ihonour thy sorrow, Cornelius, but thou shouldest act according to thyown words: thy Thalamos stands empty; thou must again make Hymen soundforth under the gray pillars."

  "Ha!" laughed the young man fiercely, "that a second Emperor may enticeaway from me a second spouse, as a bishop the first bride, an Emperorthe first wife led astray? No! truly there are no more Romans; butstill fewer Roman women. Pleasure, love of ornament, and love of power,are the three Graces whom they invoke. Have you ever heard that thepriests among these barbarians befool the young girls? or their kingsentice wives from the hearths of their free husbands? I have not. But apeople without gods, without native warriors, without true wives,without children--such a people can no longer live. A people that hasevery reason to tremble before its own slaves, ten times more numerousthan itself! If thou hadst only seen the murderous dark looks withwhich the slaves of Zeno, the usurer, threatened their lord and theslave-master, as they were just now driven in chains through thestreet! But I myself? How stands it with me? I have been everywhere,and held many different offices in Rome, in Ravenna, in Byzantium:soldier, magistrate, writer--all with success; and yet I found itall--vain, hollow. I have tried everything, it is all naught. Now,returned home to the town of my fathers, I find it ruled by a usurerfrom Byzantium and a sensualist and brawler from Mauritania; and theonly one who still makes any opposition to this alliance, is not_thou_, and not _I_; we are only two honourable Romans! no: a Christianpriest, whose fatherland, as he boasts, is not the Roman Empire, butheaven!--I have had enough of it!--I say it again: a people withoutgods, without wives, without mothers, without children--a people whosebattles are fought by levied barbarians--such a people can no longerlive! It must die; and that soon. Come, then, come, ye Alemanni! Icannot swallow hemlock. I will fall with the clang of the tuba, andimagine that I am falling under Camillus or Scipio."

  Cornelius was wildly excited. Severus seized him by both shoulders:

  "Promise me not to seek death until you see the next battle lost, andthat you will be willing to live if we conquer."

  Cornelius nodded, sadly smiling, "I think I can boldly promise that.Thou and thy conquering sword--you will no longer keep back the quicklyapproaching ruin."

  At this moment a shrill blast from the tuba struck on their ear. Thecurtain of the inner bath was torn aside; an armed burgher rushed inand cried: "Hasten, Severus; now they are coming. German horsemen aregalloping hither out of the western forest on the other side of theriver!"