Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire

by Edward Lucas White

  CHAPTER XII

  SUCCOUR

  As on the days before, no one passed us and, indeed, as far as I couldjudge, no living thing came near us, except a hare or two. We kept closeunder our heap of leaves, inside our niche of rock. But this time I didnot snuggle inside my cloak and quilt; I cast off, first the quilt, thenthe cloak, and lay in my tunic only, panting and gasping. For it was avery hot, still day, and my fever increased, increased so much, in fact,that I could stomach but little food at dusk and took but little interestin anything; in my condition, in Agathemer's brand, in his departure.

  His return, late at night, was to me only one incident of a sort ofcontinuous nightmare: I was half asleep, wholly delirious and everyimpression was as the half-delusion of a half-waking dream. I was barelyhalf-conscious, yet I had sense enough to lie still, except for writhingand turning over, and to restrain myself from singing or screaming.

  At dawn I ate even less than at dusk, but I did eat something. Eatingroused me enough for me to insist on Agathemer's stripping me andscourging me. He felt my forehead, my wrists and my feet, and shook hishead.

  "You have a terrific fever," he said, "and four festering wounds, for thebrand-mark is festering already; you are in danger of death anyhow as itis; you will never recover from a scourging."

  I, with all a delirious man's unreasoning, insisted and again threatenedto give myself up.

  The sun was about two hours high, gilding the treetops and sending shaftsof golden light through the still wet foliage. One such shaft of sunshineshot between the two halves of the great rock that sheltered us and fellon the table-topped fragment of stone, like a nearly buried altar, whichlay midway of them.

  Writhing and groaning I slipped out of my quilt, cloak and tunic, and,groaning, I crawled to the flat-topped stone. Face down on it I lay, mychest against it, my knees on the ground, my arms outstretched, my fingersgripping the far edge of the altar-stone.

  So placed I bade Agathemer lay on with the scourge.

  "Flay me!" I ordered. "I should be torn raw from neck to hips. The worse Iam scored and ripped the more protection the scars will be. Lay onfuriously. If I faint, finish the job before you revive me."

  He began lashing me, but hesitatingly; I reviled him for a coward; but thepain, even of the first strokes, was too much for me. I could feel thesweat on my forehead, my finger nails dug into the sides of the stone, itssharp edge cut into the soft inside of my clutching fingers, I bit mytongue to keep from shrieking, yet my voice, as I taunted Agathemer andrailed at him, rose to a sort of scream.

  He laid on more fiercely. After a dozen blows or more a harder blow mademe groan. At that instant I was aware of a shadow above me, of a humanfigure rushing past me, and the blows ceased.

  I let go my clutch on the rock and tried to stand up. I did succeed inkneeling up, supported by my hand on the altar stone. So half erect Ilooked round.

  Agathemer lay under the intruder, who had him by the throat with bothhands. Partly by sight, even from behind him, partly by the objurgationwhich he panted out, I recognized Chryseros Philargyrus and realized thathe thought that Agathemer had been torturing me in revenge for hisflogging at Nemestronia's.

  I instantly forgot my plight and my natural instincts asserted themselves.As if I had been then what I had been ten days before, I ordered Chryserosto loose Agathemer and he obeyed me, as if I had been what I felt myself,his master.

  He and Agathemer stood up and looked at me and each other: I must havemade a laughable spectacle, swaying as I knelt, my hands on the rock, myhair and beard mere clipped stubble, and I naked, with my back bleedingand both shoulders and one hip inflamed, purple-red and puffy. Certainlyboth Chryseros and Agathemer appeared comical to me, even in my pain andmisery and weakness and through the enveloping horror of my fever.Agathemer, his hair and beard a worse stubble than mine, was gasping andruefully rubbing his throat, making a ridiculous figure in his browntunic, patched with patches of red, yellow and blue, all sewed on withwhite thread. Chryseros was panting, and his bald head shone in the sun.He had cast off his cloak as he rushed at Agathemer and stood only in hisrusty brown tunic, himself as dry and lean as a dead limb of a tree.

  Although he had obeyed instantly when I ordered him to loose Agathemer,yet, perhaps from some vagary of my fever, I stared at Chryseros withoutany other feeling than that he had been for most of his life the tenant ofour family enemy. As I looked at him I felt utterly lost, as if there wasnow no hope for me, as if Chryseros would certainly betray me to theauthorities. I felt utterly despairing and totally reckless. This mood,oddly enough, urged me to do the very best thing I could have done.

  Either from right instinct or delirious folly, I informed Chryseros fullyof our purposes, doings and plans. He apologized to Agathemer for hisassault on him, affirmed his complete loyalty to me and promised allpossible assistance and perfect secrecy. He examined me and said:

  "I'll have your wounds clean, your back dried up, every inch of youhealing properly and your fever cooled before morning. Here, Agathemer,help get him abed."

  They washed my back and laid me, naked as I was, on the quilt laid overthe bed of leaves, then they covered me with the other quilt.

  "You two keep close till I come back," Chryseros advised. "Someone elsemight use this path. I'll be back soon and I'll arrange to excite nosuspicion."

  When he returned he had me out on the flat-topped stone, washed my backand wounds, and then bathed them with some lotion which, when firstapplied, felt cooling and soothing, but almost at once burnt into me tillevery part of my back, my hip and both my shoulders smarted worse than hadthe one shoulder as the brand seared it: at least that was how I felt. Iwrithed and groaned.

  "Keep still!" Chryseros admonished me. "Keep quiet! This is doing yougood."

  And he chafed my back, inundating it with his fiery liniment till I was onthe verge of fainting from mere pain. Half fainting I was as the tworaised me to my feet and put the tunic on me, as they helped me back to mybed in the little grotto. When I was recumbent Chryseros made me drink anauseous, black, bitter liquid and then lie flat.

  "Keep there till morning," he said, "and fast. Food can do you no goodwhile you have such a fever and fasting can do you no harm."

  Actually I was asleep before I knew it and slept all day and all night,not waking until Agathemer, when Chryseros ordered it, roused me. Theypressed on me a quart bowl of milk warm from the cow, and I drank most ofit. I felt much better and Chryseros pronounced me free from fever andafter he had inspected my back and wounds and again inundated them withhis fiery lotion, declared all inflammation had vanished and that I washealing up properly. He enjoined Agathemer to let me have no food butmilk, said he would bring more after sunset, and told us to keep close inthe niche. I slept all day long, and after a second draught of milk atdusk, all night till the sun was well up.

  I woke feeling stiff and sore, uncomfortable on my back, hip andshoulders, but with no positive pain anywhere: also I felt like my usualself. And I may say here, parenthetically, that I never had another day'sillness through all the vicissitudes of my flight, hiding, adventures andmisfortunes.

  Chryseros brought me milk; excellent wheat bread; a smooth and appetizingveal-stew, with beans and lentils in it and seasoned with spices; cheesenewly made from fresh curds, and luscious plums. He let me eat my fill anddrink all the milk I wanted. But he would not let me taste the wine ofwhich Agathemer drank moderately.

  "If you feel sleepy," said Chryseros, "roll over, cover yourself and go tosleep; we can talk tomorrow."

  "I do not feel sleepy," I declared, "and I feel very much like askingquestions."

  "Then we'll talk at once," he said, "we'll take all the time needed foryour recovery; but once you are recovered, we'll waste no time in gettingyou out of Sabinum."

  The morning was fair and warm, with a light breeze. I was on my bed ofleaves inside my nook of rock. Agathemer was squatted by my head, his backagainst that edge of the niche; by my feet, leaning against the opp
ositeedge of the niche, facing Agathemer, and therefore where I could best seeand hear him sat Chryseros.

  He began by telling me that I must remain where I was until he judged mefit to travel, even if I remained ten days more; but that he thought Imight be able to start to-morrow night and would make his preparationsaccordingly. His first idea, he said, had been to set off on horseback forSpolitum, near, which he had a sister married to a prosperous farmer, towhom he had paid visits at intervals of about five years. He had thoughtthat it would be easy and safe to take me and Agathemer with him on foot,disguised as slaves. This idea, however, Agathemer had antagonized,pointing out that any convoy from my estate would be severely scrutinizedand every man examined and searched; that there was no chance of ourescaping by such a plan.

  At this point of his discourse he told me that the Praetorians had alreadydeparted from Villa Andivia leaving in charge Gratillus, a treasuryofficer of the confiscation department, a man whom I knew too well as alsoa member of the secret service, an articled Imperial spy and an activeprofessional informer, moreover a man who had always hated my uncle, andwho had hated me from my boyhood.

  According to Chryseros, Gratillus had made no great effort to find me,since, in fact, neither he nor anyone connected with the government hadhad any suspicion that I had returned home. He had merely made aperfunctory investigation to assure himself, as he thought, that I had notso returned. He had examined all the tenantry and slaves, had askedquestions, but had tortured no one and had been quite satisfied with theanswers he had received. Oddly enough, while he had closely questionedhimself and my other eight tenants as to the date of my departure for Romeand as to whether they had seen me since they last saw me in Rome, andwhile he had questioned Uturia and Ofatulena as to whether they had seenme since I set off for Rome, he had somehow omitted or forgotten to askOfatulenus the same questions, so that he had been able to answertruthfully the only questions asked of him. Agathemer, I found, had toldChryseros that only he and Ofatulenus had seen me between my return andescape.

  Gratillus had especially questioned the wives of my eight tenants, and asChryseros was a widower, his widowed daughter, who lived with him. Each ofthese he had summoned before him separately and had interrogated alone andat length. This was like Gratillus.

  He had made but one arrest, and this dumbfounded me. Ducconius Furfur hadbeen interrogated, like all my neighbors, but, while the rest had beendismissed after answering what questions were put to them, Furfur, withtwo servants, had accompanied to Rome the Praetorians when they went away.

  The more I reflected on this the stranger it seemed.

  Neither Chryseros nor Agathemer had any doubt that a close watch was beingquietly kept to make sure that I could not now return to Villa Andiviawithout being caught; nor yet leave it if I did return or had returned.

  As a result of his discussion with Agathemer they had agreed that we wereto leave by night and on foot, as we had originally intended. But he hadargued that, while it was perfectly sensible for us to plan to passourselves off as runaway slaves if arrested and questioned, there was nosense whatever in doing anything to appear like runaway slaves unless wewere actually arrested and questioned. Agathemer had admitted this, buthad pointed out that, while we had no hope of any assistance whatever, andwere planning to escape by our own unaided efforts, there was nopossibility of our trying to appear anything else than runaway slaves, ashe could easily steal slaves' cloaks and tunics from my spare stores, buthad no hope of getting his hands on any other garments. He had joyfullyaccepted the ideas and suggestions which Chryseros put forward, as well ashis proffers of assistance.

  Chryseros directed that the two copper cylinders and most of the spoils ofAgathemer's pilferings should be left in our little grotto, hidden underthe dead leaves. He would then smuggle them away and dispose of them. Hewould supply us with rusty brown tunics and cloaks of undyed mixed wool,such as were worn by poor or economical farmers throughout Sabinum. Alsohe would supply us with hats better than those Agathemer had fetched;belts; and travelling wallets, neither too big nor too small, neither toonew nor too worn, and each with a shoulder-strap for easy carriage; good,heavy shoes, two pair of them for each of us, so that we might carry aspare pair in each wallet. In the wallets also we were to hide the huntingknives Agathemer had taken from my uncle's collection; which knives,blades, handles and sheaths Chryseros highly approved.

  At sight of the flageolet he grinned, the only smile I saw on his facewhile he was helping us in our hiding and out of it. Agathemer,obstinately, insisted on taking that flageolet. And Chryseros grudginglyadmitted that it might prove a really valuable possession, perhaps. Wetook, of course, our two little flint and steel cases.

  Chryseros said we ought to eat all we could manage to swallow up to themoment of our departure. He would pack our wallets with food which couldbe made to last four or five days and would be plenty for two days. Mostimportant of all he would supply us with money, half copper and halfsilver, as much as our wallets could properly hold, so as not to make usappear thieves, if we were suspected and haled before a magistrate. Withmoney we could travel openly and by day after we were well out of Sabinum.

  We planned to make our way eastward, inclining very little to the north,towards Fisternae. The crossing of the Tolenus and Himella should give usno trouble whatever. We would pass south of Cliternia and north ofFisternae. Chryseros questioned Agathemer closely as to his knowledge ofthe byroads, and applauded him highly, only on a few points correcting himor amplifying what he knew. North of Fisternae we could gain the mountainsand work northwards.

  The most dangerous part of our proposed route, the critical point of ourescape, would be the crossing of the Avens and the Salarian Highway, whichwe must effect somewhere near Forum Decii, between Interocrium andFalacrinum. Once in the mountains we should be able easily to continue onnorthwards into Umbria.

  Chryseros suggested that, once in Umbria, we could pass ourselves off asbuyers of cattle, goats and mules, all of which were bred on the mountainfarms and regularly bought up by itinerant dealers who drove them or hadthem driven to Rome. The Umbrian mountains had no such numbers of theseanimals as Sabinum produced and their quality was far inferior, so thatthe dealers were always men of small means, driving close bargains.

  All this sounded very promising and, about half way between sunrise andnoon, he left us to hide for the rest of the day. I slept well and wokefeeling almost myself, with merely trifling discomfort from my fasthealing wounds.

  When Chryseros returned in the dusk, I ate ravenously. He brought us good,coarse tunics and cloaks, also hats, shoes, and belts; and for each of us,a small leather case containing two good needles and a little hank ofstrong linen thread. We talked in subdued tones, as before, and kept it upuntil long after dark.

  Next morning I woke full of hope and eager to be off. Chryseros broughtour wallets and we packed them with everything they were to hold exceptmost of the food. We had a long wrangle over the money, as Chryseroswanted to force on us more silver than I thought it safe to carry.

  That night, after a generous meal and a long final talk with Chryseros, weset off to sneak our way into the Aemilian Estate and from there eastward.Before we set off Chryseros insisted on hanging round each of our necks,by the usual leathern thong, one of those tiny, flat leathern pouches, inwhich slaves were accustomed to wear protective amulets. He declared thatthese contained talismans of great potency and of inestimable value to usin our flight, as in any risk or venture. At the moment of parting, to myamazement, he burst into tears, threw his arms around me, held me closeand clung to me sobbing, and kissing me as if I had been his own son. Aswe moved off I could still hear his sobs.

  We had excellent luck. Hiding by day and threading devious paths by nightwe reached and passed the Avens and the Salarian Highway without anyencounter with any human being; and indeed without near proximity to any.Our daytime hiding-places all turned out to have been well chosen and noone approached us in any one of them. The moon, which
was in her firstquarter on the night of our setting out, helped us nightly. There was norain and only some moderate cloudiness, enough to be helpful at the timeof the full moon, when there was enough light all night for us to see totravel at a good rate of speed and without any error at forks in thepaths; and yet not enough light to make us conspicuous to any who might beabroad late at night.

  Once beyond the Nar and almost at the borders of Umbria, we grew bolder,travelled by day, bought food as we needed it, put up at inns and actedthe character we had assumed, of Sabines intent on stock-buying in theUmbrian mountains. No one appeared to suspect us and we had no adventures.

  But, inevitably, once we had escaped, we did not so much think ofimmediate danger as of permanent safety. Chryseros had confirmed ourinstinctive opinion that, as Sabines, we should be much less likely toarouse suspicion in Umbria and the Po Valley than in Samnium, Lucania orBruttium. We had never thought of escape southward; northward we had meantto work our way, from the instant of conceiving the idea of escaping. Butwe had no settled, coherent plan as to how to achieve safety and keepalive. We could not hide in the mountains indefinitely.

  We both agreed that we could hide best in a large city. Marseilles mighthave been a perfect hiding-place could we have reached it, full as italways was of riff-raff from all the shores of the Mediterranean and fromall parts of Italy. But Marseilles we could reach only by the AurelianHighway, through Genoa along the coast, and the Aurelian Highway wascertain to be sown with spies and likely enough might be travelled upon byofficials who had known me from childhood and would probably know methrough any disguise.

  Aquileia, on the other hand, was far more populous than Marseilles, evenmore a congeries of rabble from all shores and districts, even more easy-going. In Aquileia we should be able to earn a comfortable living by nottoo onerous activities and to be wholly unsuspected. Towards Aquileia wedecided to try to make our way. The roads, being less travelled, would beless spied-on and we should meet officials less likely to recognize me.

  But, if we were to reach Aquileia, we must husband our silver. Agathemer'sidea was that, from where we reached the borders of Umbria, somewherebetween Trebia and Nursia, we should keep as near as possible to the chineof the mountain-chain, using the roads, paths, tracks or trails highest upthe slope of the mountains; avoiding being seen as much as possible, and,if we were seen, claiming to have lost our way through misunderstandingthe directions given us by the last natives we had met. He proposed tosteal food for us, instead of buying it, and expounded his ideas,maintaining that it would be easy and not dangerous.

  We tried his plan and succeeded well with it. So wild and untravelled werethe districts which we traversed that, nearly half the time, we werewelcomed at farmsteads, (to which welcome Agathemer's flageolet-playinggreatly assisted us), invited to spend the night and had lavished upon ourentertainment all their rustic abundance, so that we visibly grew fat.When such luck did not befall us we had no trouble in helping ourselves tosupplies, for, far up the mountains, most habitations were shacks tenantedonly in summer and only by lads acting as goat-herds or herdsmen, whospent the day abroad with their charges, so that we could readily entertheir deserted cabins and take what we pleased; especially as, if a doghad been left to guard the hut, I could always master him so that hegreeted me fawning and stood wagging his tail as we made off.

  Except these not very risky raids for provender and such encounters ascalled for more than usually ingenious lying from Agathemer, we had noadventures.

  But we realized from day to day and more and more insistently, that wewere progressing slowly, far slower than we had anticipated. It was plainthat we could not hope to reach Aquileia before winter set in. It wasmanifest that it would be unsafe to attempt to winter anywhere in the Povalley between the mountains and Aquileia. At Ravenna, Bononia or Padua weshould be noticed, investigated and perhaps recognized: anywhere in theopen country, at any village or farm, we should, even more certainlyexcite suspicion. We must winter in the mountains. But how or where?

  The question was solved for us by our first considerable adventure. Inever knew the precise locality. We had, in traversing the mountainstrails, avoided any semblance of ignorance of our general locality and hadsedulously refrained from asking any questions except as to our way tosome nearby objective, generally imaginary. All I know is that we weresomewhere on the northeastern slope of the long chain of mountains beyondIguvium and Tifernum perhaps near the headwaters of the Sena. On themorning of our adventure we were on a long spur of the main range, so thatwe were headed not northwest but northeast. The weather was still fine andwarm, but autumn was not far off. We hadn't seen a habitation since thatat which we had passed the night, and we had made about three leaguessince we left it, following what was at first a good mountain road, butwhich grew worse and worse till it became a mere trail.