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

by Edward Lucas White

  CHAPTER XXVII

  THE POINT OF VIEW

  That evening, after our dinner, a perfect dinner eaten under a grape-arbor, lingering over the fruit and honey in the mingled light of waningdusk and a clear crescent moon, I showed Septima my belt and bags, put inthe belt what silver would fill it to a flaccid and comfortable flatness,and gave her all the gold and the rest of the silver. I had alreadyexplained to her what impended over us, and had emphasized my wish toremain with her and my anxiety to know that she was provided for, if wewere to be separated.

  I did not visit the post of the road-constabulary as often as the camp ofthe outlaws. Next day I rode over to their post and chatted with one ofthe sergeants and several of the men. They were in doubt between, twoopinions: most held that their presence in the district had frightened thebandits away and that they had left the neighborhood and transferred theirattention to a wholly different region; only a few maintained the viewthat the brigands had been lurking near from before their arrival and thatall their efforts had failed to locate their hiding place. I heard nothingwhich led me to believe that they had any inkling of the location of theoutlaws' camp, of their purposes, or of their intended coup.

  After a day of happy idling on my crag I visited Bulla. He was gay.

  "It promises well," he volunteered. "The procurator and his gold are wellon this side of Ariminum and the propraetor and widow left Rome yesterday.They'll he here within two days of each other, if he holds the rate he haskept all the way from Bononia and they travel as such luxurious folksgenerally do. Come over as often as you like. No one will suspect you orfollow you. I'll keep you posted as to what our advices promise us. Youmay be able to help us."

  By this time I was so interested in Bulla and his plans that I oscillatedbetween my crag, the outlaws' camp and the constabulary post, with no moreother occupations than what I judged absolutely needful to forestall anyunwelcome interest in my doings and the possibility of too many personsknowing of my visits to the outlaws.

  When next I visited them Bulla told me that something had alarmed theprocurator. Either some rumor of their presence along the road had reachedhim or he knew of the bad reputation of the stretch of the FlaminianHighway through the Umbrian mountains between Forum Sempronii and Nuceria,which it had acquired some years before when the King of the Highwaymenhimself had made on it a succession of valuable captures which had yieldedhim princely booty and the reports of which had spread all over Italy.Anyhow their advices informed them that he had packed his bullion-chestswith stones and old-iron and had parcelled out his packets of dust andnuggets among the wagons of a long train of arena-beasts.

  "We'll fool him!" Bulla boasted. "We'll nab him and hold him for a bigransom. Also we'll not only make sure of his bullion chests in case ourinformation is false, or based on an intentional rumor he has given out asa blind; but we'll get that bullion, too, if it is not in the chests, buthidden in the wagons in the guise of dusty packets of provender for thedraft-cattle or of meat for the caged beasts. We'll get it!"

  Prom his mention of the wagons we fell into talk of the increasingdifficulty of getting fresh meat for the lions and other beasts, of thedepletion of the flocks and herds along the roads from Aquileia, to Rome;and he told me that his advices reported that the whole country near thehighways was already swept clean of all goats, sheep and cattle, exceptbreeding stock, milch stock and their choicest young kept for breeding.The inhabitants could get no beef, mutton or goats' flesh for themselves;all had gone into the maws of hyenas, tigers, wolves and the rest; and theprocurators were insisting on the farmers selling their kids, lambs,calves, ewes and cows-in-milk, any stock, even mules and horses; anyanimals fit to butcher for lion-food.

  From this we came round to chatting of my talks with the teamsters and ofmy prospect from my crag. I had told Bulla of the crag long before, but hedid not seem to have taken in the idea. Now he was delighted.

  "If I'd paid attention to you soon enough," he said, "I'd have put in aday or two with you watching the show. It's too late now. Our prayed forchances are coming soon, and not far apart."

  Next day he was gleeful.

  "It's all going to work out like the end of a theater-play," he said. "Theprocurator and the propraetor and his charge are practically certain tocome along tomorrow afternoon. I calculate that they will meet not farsouth of your crag. I've planned to post one ambush near the foot of yourcrag, just south of it, another at a judicious interval down the roadnearer Rome. I'll have 'em between the two ambushes about the middle ofthe afternoon or between that and sunset. We'll nab all three ransomprizes at once and we'll lay our hands on the jewels, coin and gold almostat the same instant. I've arranged to lead the constables off on a falsescent about noon and they'll be miles away up a lonely crossroad when wepull off our coup. We'll make our getaway, with the swag, hours beforethey can get wind of the occurrence and follow on our trail. We'll have along start of them.

  "You can watch the whole thing from your crag. This ideal weather is goingto last many days yet. And the moon will be full two nights from now, soits light will help us two nights on our getaway. I envy you up on thatcrag watching the show, comfortable as a senator at a theater, aloft likeJupiter on Olympus in the Iliad."

  Next day I made sure that the _Villicus_ would not want me, had Septimaput up for me an abundant supply of her inviting food and set off aboutthe middle of the morning for my crag, on foot, of course. I climbed tothe very top and ensconced myself under and among sheltering bushes sothat I was certain that I could not be seen from the road in eitherdirection, yet could view it both ways as far as the horizon, except justat the foot of the crag and where, in the distance, hilltops hid thehollows behind them. Close by me I placed my precious kidskin of muchwatered wine, I might say of water flavored with wine, so that it wouldkeep cool in the thickest shade. The day was hot, clear and still and therays of the sun fierce. The occasional slight breezes were very welcome.

  The outlook was really magnificent; a broad prospect of rolling pasturage,hilly pasturage, and wooded mountains; the grass-lands and grassyhillsides diversified by scattered trees, clumps of trees and smallgroves; the lower levels of woodland broken by grassy glades; the brightergreen of the forests of chestnut, beech, and oak merging imperceptiblyinto the darker green of the pine-forests; the score of farms in sightbrilliant in the green landscapes like semi-jewels; all the wide prospectglowing under a deep blue sky, varied by a very few very white clouds, theintense sunlight beating down on everything. It was a perfect summer day.

  I conned the road, on which I saw only the rear of a column of wagonsconvoying arena-beasts receding over the hilltops to southwards, and thenormal traffic, horsemen or two-horse carriages or wagons far apart andfew. I dozed.

  I must have slept a full hour. I waked hot, but much refreshed, feelinglively and full of interest in what was to come. Just after I waked I sawthe constabulary, the officers and about a third of the men on horseback,the rest afoot, come up the road from the direction of their post, whichwas south of the crag. The infantrymen, tramped their fastest and themounted men kept pace with them. They were evidently off on their wild-goose chase. As they came into sight below me, after passing my perch, Iwatched them double-quick northwards and wheel to their right into thefirst crossroad. They were barely out of sight among the forested hillswhen I saw momentarily, on the Highway, fully four miles to northward, ona sunlit hilltop, what I took to be the first wagon of a train of teamsdrawing cages of arena-beasts. I watched the road in that direction. WhatI saw confirmed my conjecture. Soon the road to northward was filled fromits farthest visible hilltop to just below my crag with wagon-teams suchas I had many times watched transporting cages of lions, tigers, leopards,panthers and the like. I made out also some cages which I was certaincontained hyenas.

  Every little while I glanced the other way. Just as the first wagons ofthe long train vanished from my sight into that section of the roadimmediately below me where my crag hid it from my view, I saw appear on
ahilltop to southwards what I made sure was the travelling carriage of awealthy noble. I conjectured that it had inside of it the ransomablepropraetor. I kept my eyes on the road in that direction, only glancingnorthward from time to time. One such glance caught a glimpse of atravelling carriage among the beast-wagons; probably the procurator incharge of the bullion.

  After I had caught glimpses of it on several successive hilltops thepropraetor's carriage was near enough, on one of them, for me to recognizeit. Of course, I had known from childhood the travelling carriages of oursenate and nobility. As everybody knows, each, has a certain unmistakableindividuality. Our makers of travelling carriages never make two preciselyalike, and, what is more, the tastes of different families are sodifferent that patterns are very unlike. I recognized the carriage forthat of Faltonius Bambilio.

  Why he was going out as propraetor of Asia so long after his term aspraetor was a puzzle to me. I accepted it as one of the countlesseccentricities of Imperial administration under Commodus. Theirregularities of the management of the provinces ruled in the name ofCaesar by prefects and procurators had notoriously extended to theprovinces ruled by proconsuls and propraetors in the name of the senate. Ihad always disliked, despised and even hated Bambilio for his pomposity,self-esteem and bad manners. I rejoiced at the opportunity to look on athis capture.

  It was by this time past the middle of the afternoon, the day stillsurpassingly fair and lovely, with few clouds in the sky, a steady lightbreeze, the mellow afternoon sunlight bathing the world and the sunalready visibly declining towards the western horizon.

  While I was grinning at my thoughts and watching the advance of Bambilio'scarriage, glancing back at intervals at the beast-train and theprocurator's coach, I caught sight, on the highway behind Bambilio'scarriage, of another travelling carriage of which I had descried noglimpse before, though I must have missed seeing it as it topped severalhills further south. When I caught sight of it, it was near enough for meto recognize it at first view.

  Vedia's travelling coach!

  Between the first and second beat of my thumping heart, I went through anamazing variety of complex, shifting and lucid thinking. And my thinking,multifold and effective as it was, was but as a chip on the surface of afreshet in a mountain gorge amid the torrent of emotions which inundatedme.

  Since I had begun to mend as the result of the succour and medication ofold Chryseros Philargyrus I had resolutely refrained from, thinking ofVedia. I had argued with myself that it was impossible for me to forget orignore the daily and hourly contrasts between my former status as awealthy nobleman and my present condition as a fugitive always in dangerand generally in acute discomfort. Amid the inevitable resultantdepression I might keep alive, healthy and sane if I concentrated mythoughts on self-congratulation at my survival. If I dwelt on my downfallI should lose my wits. If, in addition to thoughts of my loss of rank,wealth, friends and ease I yielded to my inclination to brood over my lossof Vedia, I should infallibly go insane. I resolutely put thoughts of heraway. I succeeded in keeping them away. During my winter at the hut in themountains, during my succeeding adventures, I had not thought of Vedia;thoughts of her had crossed my mind but seldom and fleetingly.

  Now, all at once, I was overwhelmed by the realization of how ardently,how unalterably I loved her, how keenly I longed for her, how tenderly Ifelt towards her. Nothing, past, present or future, mattered to me exceptVedia and her welfare. I had been thinking with relished amusement of thedismay of some pampered beauty haled from, her luxurious coach and offthrough the wild mountains, immured in some lonely cave in the forests,guarded by coarse ruffians, reduced to the most primitive diet andbedding, forced to endure all sorts of discomforts, and threatened withdeath or worse if an enormous ransom were not forthcoming promptly. I hadbeen chuckling at the prospect of getting a far-off glimpse of the firstact of this comedy.

  My revulsion of feeling was dazing. I was hot and cold with horror at thethought of Vedia's agony, terror and misery and of her danger amongBulla's swarthy, brutal ruffians with their black curly hair and beardsintensifying the villainy of their lowering faces, with their mighty handsalways close to their daggers. Vedia I must save!

  How?

  Almost as I recognized her carriage, my eyes, instinctively sweeping myentire outlook, caught sight of Selinus feeding among a small herd ofyoung mares on a hillside midway of the extensive pasture on the otherside of the road just to north of my crag. I knew there was, a little tothe north of the crag, on the same side of the road, a knoll from whichthat bit of hillside was plainly visible at no great distance. I had myplan worked out in all its details.

  I drank all I could hold of my watered wine, left my cloak by the kidskin,tucked a small packet of food into my belt-wallet, and raced down, thesteep slope of the mountainside to the north of the crag, leaping fromrock to rock under the huge forest trees. I reached the gentler slopesnear the highway and gained the top of the knoll. Selinus was in plainview, grazing among his brides, and by good luck, all were headed towardsme. I stood on the summit of the knoll and waved my arms. Selinus caughtsight of me and galloped joyously down the slope of the pasture towardsme. When he was near I ran towards him down the slope of the knoll, beingcareful that he should not lose sight of me. My luck held and he and Iapproached the highway and each, other where there was a comfortableinterval between the lion's cage on the wagon which had been passing whenI topped the knoll and the leading yoke of the team tugging the wagon nextbehind. The wind, also, was towards me, so that Selinus did not smell thelions till he and I met in the highway and I had mounted him. Like ahunting dog bounding over a fallen tree Selinus had leapt the tall thornhedge which bordered the highway to keep stock off it and in the meadow.

  Once I was on his back we set off northward at full gallop, which almostat once quickened into a maddened run. He had shied violently as we passedthe first cage and he winded the lion in it, but I stuck on him. Also Istuck on at each, less violent sideways lurch as we passed cage aftercage: tiger, panther, leopard, hyenas or lion; all smelt equallyterrifying to him, but he only ran faster and his terror went into speedahead rather than into leaps aside.

  When we reached the crossroad, up which the constabulary had turned, theprocurator's carriage was still somewhere up the highway; I had not seenit since I left the top of the crag. The train of beast-wagons seemedendless.

  Into the crossroad we turned and up it Selinus tore. I chuckled. No road-police, no matter how young, nimble and long-winded, could maintain adouble-quick any distance on that up-slope. Selinus mounted the hills likea grayhound after a hare. We were sure to overtake the detachment soon.They could not have gone far.

  Overtake them we did and the maddened run at which Selinus scaled thosesteep hills caught their officer's attention. I had rehearsed what I meantto say and wasted no words. What I said conveyed the whole situation tohim.

  "We are too few horsemen to overcome them," he said, "but we can scarethem from their booty and maybe from their captives. We'll ride ourfastest and we have time to reach them before they are thinking of flight.The complete surprise will save the jewels, coin and gold and most likelythe lady and the officials.

  "But you fellows must double-quick after us to support us in case theyrecover from their amazement, rally and round on us from some nearvantage-ground. You can retrace your steps in a tenth of the time it tookus to reach here. Race!

  "And you, Felix, give me that racer of yours. Fall in with the men. HereCaius, give Felix your saddle and bridle. Your mare is giving out. Felix,saddle and bridle your horse for me. Caius, take my horse."

  In a moment I was afoot among the infantry constables, the officer was inthe saddle on Selinus, the reins in his hands, and the horsemen were offat a tearing gallop, with us footmen after them at a run which carried usalmost by leaps down the steep slope.

  When we reached the highway neither the mounted police nor any outlawswere anywhere in sight. But it was plain that more time than I hadrealized had elapsed sin
ce I vaulted on Selinus. Not only was the sun nearthe horizon, but the bandits had evidently been further up the road thanthis. For an instant I marvelled that they had come this far at all whenboth their ambushes were south of the crag. Then I realized that they hadbeen searching the wagons for the bullion. Every wagon was stalled, halfwere overset, the tongue-yoke of each was hamstrung, every cage was empty,not a lion, tiger or leopard, panther or hyena to be seen; all,apparently, let out that their cages might be ransacked. I conjecturedthat letting them out had taken less time than it would have taken to killthem.

  Panting, sweating, nearing exhaustion, we hastened along the highway at ajolting run not much faster than the quick walk of untired men, but ourbest speed. We passed scores of stalled wagons, every cage empty, twohamstrung oxen or mules or even horses lying in agony before each wagon,the rest of the cattle either loosed and gone or held fast by the stalledwagons behind them. We saw not one teamster, not one beast. The longseries of stalled wagons, with their hamstrung or stalled cattle and emptycages extended to the foot of the crag and beyond it. Beyond it we came onthe procurator's carriage, empty; no horse to it or by it. Still we hadseen no human being.

  A half-mile further, midway of a flat stretch of road, on one side ofwhich was an expanse of swampy ground, varied with pools bordered bysedge, reeds and bushes, with areas of tussocks and with clumps of willowsand alders, we came on Bambilio's and Vedia's carriages, their gildeddecorative carvings, coral-red panel-bars, pearl-shell panel-panes, gildedrosette-bosses, silver-plated hubs and gilded spokes and felliesglittering in the late sunshine.

  His coach was without any sign of a horse near it, hers with all fourhamstrung; their white leather harness, with its gold and silver bosses,horridly stained with the blood they had spattered all over them as theylay struggling and trying to kick. Both carriages were empty, theircushions and mattresses and other contents scattered about on the roadway.

  The sun was near setting. Our sergeants, blown as their men and as I,paused and mopped their faces. We scanned the outlook. Far away well upthe mountain side we caught sight of a group of burly men, and among thema slender figure clad in a garb of pale lavender hue with the sheen ofsilk. Below and close a similar group among which were two figuresconspicuous for crimson cloaks or the like. Far below and much nearer uswe glimpsed the pursuing horsemen.

  Off we set, and our fresh excitement seemed to put fresh vigor into all ofus. We ran a full mile straight across pastures and wooded hills towardsthe point where I had glimpsed Vedia.

  The sun set.

  The constables ran on, panting, but by no means failing.

  I gave out.

  The hopelessness of such pursuit took all the heart out of me.

  I stopped.

  I could not hope to keep up with the excited police. I could not believethat they would give any effective support to their mounted comrades oreven that they could overtake the outlaws after sunset in such broken andwooded country, or that any or all of them could rescue any of theprisoners I shuddered to think of Vedia in the clutches of such ruthlessvillains. But I could accomplish nothing towards helping her. I turned toslink homewards.

  Half way to the spot where we had left the highway I encountered a lion.He did not attack me or menace me and I was not afraid of him. But thesight of him brought to my attention that the light was waning and that Iwas, for a man afoot, a considerable distance from my cottage in brokencountry full of escaped beasts of prey. I had never understood my powerover all animals, but I had always conceived that it depended on the way Ilooked to them when they gazed at me. I was totally unafraid of the mostferocious beast by daylight, but by no means comfortable in twilight ordusk, while after dark I had no reason to think that a lion, or tigerwould prove more tractable to me than to any other man. I felt that I musthasten home, if I was ever to reach it alive. With what breath I had leftI ran the rest of the easy downhill path to the highway.

  When I reached it twilight had not yet deepened into dusk and I could seefairly well. The four hamstrung horses were struggling pitifully to riseand screaming at intervals. With my sheathknife I put them out of theirmisery; as also the four pack-mules which lay, similarly hamstrung, in theroadway, behind the carriage.

  In spite of my dread of carnivora after dark I examined the coach and whatlay about it on the road. There were two kidskins, bulging roundly,presumably with wine. Three covered food hampers, unopened; and, intact, abeautiful little inlaid chest, such as ladies have for their combs,brushes, ointment-pots and similar toilet articles. From their condition Iconjectured that the bandits had just commenced to rummage the coach whenthe unexpected approach of the mounted constables, whose small numbersthey most likely did not realize, had scared them away.

  Reluctant to be off and fearing to remain, I glanced about, irresolute. Ina clump of willows and alders in the midst of the swampy tract I caughtsight of a bit of color out of keeping with anything which naturallybelonged there and suggesting a woman's garment. There was a dryshod wayto that clump of trees and bushes. I threaded it towards what I hadglimpsed. When I was hardly more than half way from the road to the clumpI thought I heard a sob. I made haste.

  Hearing the place I saw a young and slender and graceful woman dressed asa slave girl. Somehow the sight of her brought to my mind's-eye vividrecollections of my convalescent outings in Nemestronia's water-garden.She looked terrified and yet hesitating to flee from me, as if she fearedthe swamp. A step nearer I realized that Vedia's maid, a woman not unlikeher in build, as faithful to her as Agathemer was to me and amazinglyastute, had had the shrewdness and also the time to fool the brigands byexchanging clothes with her mistress in the carriage.

  "Vedia!" I exclaimed. "Caia!"

  "Castor!" she screamed. "You know me? You call me Caia? Are you a ghost?Are you alive? And that voice! Oh, are you real?"

  "Real and alive," I answered. "I am myself. I am Hedulio."

  To my amazement there, in the dusk under the willows, among the alders,she gave a half-smothered shriek and the next instant her arms were roundmy neck and mine round her, and she was sobbing on my shoulder, repeating:

  "Call me Caia again. This is too good to be true."