CHAPTER XVI.
THE WATCHTOWER OF USELLA.
Our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn. MACBETH.
The watchtower in which Caius Crispus and his gang had taken refuge fromthe legionaries, was one of those small isolated structures, many of whichhad been perched in the olden time on the summits of the jutting crags, orin the passes of the Appennines, but most of which had fallen long beforeinto utter ruin.
Some had been destroyed in the border wars of the innumerable pettytribes, which, ere the Romans became masters of the peninsula, dividedamong themselves that portion of Italy, and held it in continual turmoilwith their incessant wars and forays.
Some had mouldered away, by the slow hand of ruthless time; and yet morehad been pulled down for the sake of their materials, which now filled amore useful if less glorious station, in the enclosures of tilled fields,and the walls of rustic dwellings.
From such a fate the watchtower of Usella had been saved by severalaccidents. Its natural and artificial strength had prevented its sack orstorm during the earlier period of its existence—the difficulty ofapproaching it had saved its solid masonry from the cupidity of the ruralproprietors—and, yet more, its formidable situation, commanding one of thegreat hill passes into Cisalpine Gaul, had induced the Roman government toretain it in use, as a fortified post, so long as their Gallic neighborswere half subdued only, and capable of giving them trouble by theirtumultuous incursions.
Although it had consisted, therefore, in the first instance, of littlemore than a rude circular tower of that architecture called Cyclopean,additions had been made to it by the Romans of a strong brick wall with aparapet, enclosing a space of about a hundred feet in diameter, accessibleonly by a single gateway, with a steep and narrow path leading to it, andthoroughly commanded by the tower itself.
In front, this wall was founded on a rough craggy bank of some thirty feetin height, rising from the main road traversing the defile, by which aloneit could be approached; for, on the right and left, the rocks had beenscarped artificially; and, in the rear, there was a natural gorge throughwhich a narrow but impetuous torrent raved, between precipices a hundredfeet in depth, although an arch of twenty foot span would have crossed theravine with ease.
Against the wall at this point, on the inner side, the Romans hadconstructed a small barrack with three apartments, each of which had anarrow window overlooking the bed of the torrent, no danger beingapprehended from that quarter.
Such was the place into which Crispus had retreated, under the guidance ofone of the Etruscan conspirators, after the attack of the Roman infantry;and, having succeeded in reaching it by aid of their horses half an hourbefore their pursuers came up, they had contrived to barricade the gatewaysolidly with some felled pine trees; and had even managed to bring in withthem a yoke of oxen and a mule laden with wine, which they had seized fromthe peasants in the street of the little village of Usella, as theygallopped through it, goading their blown and weary animals to the top oftheir speed.
It was singularly characteristic of the brutal pertinacity, and perhaps ofthe sagacity also, of Caius Crispus, that nothing could induce him torelease the miserable Julia, who was but an incumbrance to their flight,and a hindrance to their defence.
To all her entreaties, and promises of safety from his captors, and rewardfrom her friends, if he would release her, he had replied only with asneer; saying that he would ensure his own safety at an obolus’ fee, andthat, for his reward, he would trust noble Catiline.
"For the rest," he added, "imagine not that you shall escape, to rejoicethe heart of that slave Arvina. No! minion, no! We will fight ’till ourflesh be hacked from our bones, ere they shall make their way in hither;and if they do so, they shall find thee—dead and dishonored! Pray,therefore, if thou be wise, for our success."
Such might in part indeed have been his reasoning; for he was cruel andlicentious, as well as reckless and audacious; but it is probable that,knowing himself to be in the vicinity of Catiline’s army, he calculated onfinding some method of conveying to him information of the prize that laywithin his grasp, and so of securing both rescue and reward.
If he had not, however, in the first instance thought of this, it was notlong ere it occurred to him; when he at once proceeded to put it intoexecution.
Within half an hour of the entrance of the little party into thissemi-ruinous strong-hold, the legionary foot came up, about a hundred andfifty men in number, but without scaling ladders, artillery, or engines.
Elated by their success, however, they immediately formed what was calledthe _tortoise_, by raising their shields and overlapping the edges of themabove their heads, in such a manner as to make a complete penthouse, whichmight defend them from the missiles of the besieged; and, under cover ofthis, they rushed forward dauntlessly, to cut down the palisade with theirhooks and axes.
In this they would have probably succeeded, for the arrows and ordinarymissiles of the defenders rebounded and rolled down innocuous from thetough brass-bound bull-hides; and the rebels were already well nigh indespair, when Caius Crispus, who had been playing his part gallantly atthe barricade, and had stabbed two or three of the legionaries with hispilum, in hand to hand encounter, through the apertures of the grating,rushed up to the battlements, covered with blood and dust, and shouting—
"Ho! by Hercules! this will never do, friends. Give me yon crow-bar—So!take levers, all of you, and axes! We must roll down the coping on theirheads,"—applied his own skill and vast personal strength to the task. Inan instant the levers were fixed, and grasping his crow-bar with giganticenergy, he set up his favorite chaunt, as cheerily as he had done of oldin his smithy on the Sacred Way—
"Ply, ply, my boys, now ply the lever! Heave at it, heave at it, all! Together! Great Mars, the war God, watches ye laboring Joyously. Joyous watches"—
But his words were cut short by a thundering crash; for, animated by hisuntamed spirit, his fellows had heaved with such a will at the long lineof freestone coping, that, after tottering for a few seconds, and reelingto and fro, it all rushed down with the speed and havoc of an avalanche,drowning all human sounds with the exception of one piercing yell ofanguish, which rose clear above the confused roar and clatter.
"Ho! by the Thunderer! we have smashed them beneath their tortoise, likean egg in its shell! Now ply your bows, brave boys! now hurl yourjavelins! Well shot! well shot indeed, my Niger! You hit that high-crestedcenturion full in the mouth, as he called on them to rally, and nailed histongue to his jaws. Give me another pilum, Rufus! This," he continued, ashe poised and launched it hurtling through the air, "This to theensign-bearer!" And, scarce was the word said, ere the ponderous missilealighted on his extended shield, pierced its tough fourfold bull-hide, asif it had been a sheet of parchment; drove through his bronze cuirass, andhurled him to the ground, slain outright in an instant. "Ha! they have gotenough of it! Shout, boys! Victoria! Victoria!"
And the wild cheering of the rebels pealed high above the roar of thetorrent, striking dismay into the soul of the wretched Julia.
But, although the rebels had thus far succeeded, and the legionaries hadfallen back, bearing their dead and wounded with them, the success was byno means absolute or final; and this no man knew better than theswordsmith.
He watched the soldiers eagerly, as they drew off in orderly array intothe hollow way, and after a short consultation, posting themselvesdirectly in front of the gate with sentinels thrown out in all directions,lighted a large watch fire in the road, with the intention, evidently, ofconverting the storm into a blockade.
A few moments afterward, he saw a soldier mount the horse of the slaincenturion, and gallop down the hill in the direction of Antonius’ army,which was well known to be lying to the south-eastward. Still a fewminutes later a small party was sent down into the village, and returnedbringing provisions, which the men almost immediately began to cook, afterhaving posted a chain of vidette
s from one bank to the other of theprecipitous ravine, so as to assure themselves that no possibility ofescape was left to the besieged in any direction, by which they conceivedescape to be practicable.
"Ha!" exclaimed Crispus, as he watched their movements, "they will give usno more trouble to-night, but we will make sure of them by posting onesentinel above the gate, and another on the head of the watch-tower. Thenwe will light us a good fire in the yard below, and feast there on thebeef and wine of those brute peasants. The legionaries fancy that they canstarve us out; but they know not how well we are provided. Hark you, myNiger. Go down and butcher those two beeves, and when they are flayed anddecapitated, blow me a good loud trumpet blast and roll down the headsover the battlements. Long ere we have consumed our provender, Catilinewill be down on them in force! I go to look around the place, and make allcertain."
And, with the words, he ascended to the summit of the old watch-tower andstood there for many minutes, surveying the whole conformation of thecountry, and all the defences of the place, with a calm and skilful eye.
The man was by no means destitute of certain natural talents, and anaptitude for war, which, had it been cultivated or improved, mightpossibly have made him a captain. He speedily perceived, therefore, thatthe defences were tenable so long only as no ladders or engines should bebrought against them; which he was well assured would be done, withintwenty-four hours at the latest. He knew also that want of provisions mustcompel him to surrender at discretion before many days; and he felt it tobe very doubtful whether, without some strong effort on their partCatiline would hear at all of their situation, until it should be entirelytoo late.
He began, therefore, at once, to look about him for means of despatchingan envoy, nothing doubting that succor would be sent to him instantly,could the arch traitor be informed, that the lovely Julia was a prisonerawaiting his licentious pleasure.
Descending from the battlements, he proceeded at once to the barrack roomsin the rear, hoping to find some possibility of lowering a messenger intothe bed of the stream, or transporting him across the ravine, unseen bythe sentinels of the enemy.
Then, casting open a door of fast decaying wood-work, he entered the firstof the low mouldering unfurnished rooms; and, stepping across the pavedfloor with a noiseless foot, thrust his head out of the window and gazedanxiously up and down the course of the ravine.
He became satisfied at once that his idea was feasible; for the old wallwas built, at this place, in salient angles, following the natural line ofthe cliffs; and the window of the central room was situated in the bottomof the recess, between two jutting curtains, in each of which was anotherembrasure. It was evident, therefore, that a person lowered by the middlewindow, into the gorge beneath, would be screened from the view of anywatchers, by the projection of the walls; and Crispus nothing doubted butthat, once in the bottom of the ravine, a path might be found more or lessdifficult by which to reach the upper country.
Beyond the ravine rose many broken knolls covered with a thick undergrowthof young chesnut hollies, wild laurels, and the like; and through these, awinding road might be discovered, penetrating the passes of the hills, andcrossing the glen at a half mile’s distance below on a single-arched brickbridge, by which it joined the causeway occupied by the legionaries.
Having observed so much, Caius Crispus was on the point of withdrawing hishead, forgetting all about his prisoner, who, on their entrance into thisdismantled hold, had been thrust in hither, as into the place where shewould be most out of harm’s way, and least likely to escape.
But just as he was satisfied with gazing, the lovely face of Julia, paleas an image of statuary marble, with all her splendid auburn hair unbound,was advanced out of the middle window; evidently looking out like himselffor means of escape. But to her the prospect was not, as to him,satisfactory; and uttering a deep sigh she shook her head sadly, and wrungher hands with an expression of utter despair.
"Ha! ha! my pretty one, it is too deep, I trow!" cried Crispus, whom shehad not yet observed, with a cruel laugh, "Nothing, I swear, without wingscan descend that abyss; unless like Sappho, whom the poets tell us of, itwould put an end to both love and life together. No! no! you cannot escapethus, my pretty one; and, on the outside, I will make sure of you. For therest I will send you some watch cloaks for a bed, some supper, and somewine. We will not starve you, my fair Julia, and no one shall harm youhere, for I will sleep across your door, myself, this night, and ereto-morrow’s sunset we shall be in the camp with Catiline."
He was as good as his word, for he returned almost immediately, bringing apile of watch-cloaks, which he arranged into a rude semblance of a bed,with a pack saddle for the pillow, in the innermost recess of the innerroom, with some bread, and beef broiled hastily on the embers, and somewine mixed with water, which last she drank eagerly; for fear and anxietyhad parched her, and she was faint with thirst.
Before he went out, again he looked earnestly from the unlatticed window,in order to assure himself that she had no means of escape. Scarce was hegone, before she heard the shrill blast of the Roman trumpets blownclearly and scientifically, for the watch-setting; and, soon afterward,all the din and bustle, which had been rife through the livelong day, sankinto silence, and she could hear the brawling of the brook below chafingand raving against the rocks which barred its bed, and the wind murmuringagainst the leafless treetops.
Shortly after this, it became quite dark; and after sitting musing awhilewith a sad and despairing heart, and putting up a wild prayer to the Godsfor mercy and protection, she went once more and leaned out of the window,gazing wistfully on the black stones and foamy water.
"Nothing," she said to herself sadly, repeating Caius Crispus’ words,"could descend hence, without wings, and live. It is too true! alas! tootrue!—" she paused for a moment, and then, while a flash of singularenthusiastic joy irradiated all her pallid lineaments, she exclaimed, "butthe Great Gods be praised? one can leap down, and die! Let life go! whatis life? since I can thus preserve my honor!" She paused again andconsidered; then clasped her hands together, and seemed to be on the pointof casting herself into that awful gulf; but she resisted the temptation,and said, "Not yet! not yet! There is hope yet, on earth! and I will liveawhile, for hope and for Paullus. I can do this at any time—of thisrefuge, at least, they cannot rob me. I will live yet awhile!" And withthe words she turned away quietly, went to the pile of watch-cloaks, andlying down forgot ere long her sorrows and her dread, in calm and innocentslumber.
She had not been very long asleep, however, when a sound from without thedoor aroused her; and, as she started to her feet, Caius Crispus lookedinto the cell with a flambeau of pine-wood blazing in his right hand, toascertain if she was still within, and safe under his keeping.
"You have been sleeping, ha!" he exclaimed. "That is well, you must beweary. Will you have more wine?"
"Some water, if you will, but no wine. I am athirst and feverish."
"You shall have water."
And thrusting the flambeau into the earth, between the crevices in thepavement, he left the room abruptly.
Scarce was he gone, leaving the whole apartment blazing with a brightlight which rendered every object within clearly visible to any spectatorfrom the farther side of the ravine, before a shrill voice with somethingof a feminine tone, was heard on the other brink, exclaiming in suppressedtones—
"Hist! hist! Julia?"
"Great Gods! who calls on Julia?"
"Julia Serena, is it thou?"
"Most miserable I!" she made answer. "But who calls me?"
"A friend—be wary, and silent, and you shall not lack aid."
But Julia heard the heavy step of the swordsmith approaching, and layingher finger on her lips, she sprang back hastily from the window, and whenher gaoler entered, was busy, apparently, in arranging her miserable bed.
It was not long that he tarried; for after casting one keen glance aroundhim, to see that all was right; he freed her of his hated presence, ta
kingthe torch along with him, and leaving her in utter darkness.
As soon as his footstep had died away into silence, she hurried back tothe embrasure, and gazed forth earnestly; but the moon had not yet risen,and all the gulf of the ravine and the banks on both sides were black asnight, and she could discern nothing.
She coughed gently, hoping to attract the attention of her unknown friend,and to learn more of her chances of escape; but no farther sound or signalwas made to her; and, after watching long in hope deferred, and anxietyunspeakable, she returned to her sad pallet and bathed her pillow with hottears, until she wept herself at length into unconsciousness of suffering,the last refuge of the wretched, when they have not the christian’s hopeto sustain them.
She was almost worn out with anxiety and toil, and she slept soundly,until the blowing of the Roman trumpets in the pass again aroused her; andbefore she had well collected her thoughts so as to satisfy herself whereshe was and wherefore, the shouts and groans of a sudden conflict, therattling of stones and javelins on the tiled roof, the clang of arms, andall the dread accompaniments of a mortal conflict, awoke her to a fullsense of her situation.
The day lagged tediously and slow. No one came near her, and, although shewatched the farther side of the gorge, with all the frantic hope which isso near akin to despair, she saw nothing, heard nothing, but a fewwood-pigeons among the leafless tree-tops, but the sob of the torrent andthe sigh of the wintry wind.
At times indeed the long stern swell of the legionary trumpets would againsound for the assault, and the din of warfare would follow it; but theskirmishes were of shorter and shorter duration, and the tumultuouscheering of the rebels at the close of every onslaught, proved that theirdefence had been maintained at least, and that the besiegers had gained noadvantage.
It was, perhaps, four o’clock in the afternoon; and the sun was beginningto verge to the westward, when, just after the cessation of one of thebrief attacks—by which it would appear that the besiegers intended ratherto harass the garrison and keep them constantly on the alert, than toeffect anything decided—the sound of armed footsteps again reached theears of Julia.
A moment afterward, Caius Crispus entered the room hastily, accompanied byNiger and Rufus, the latter bearing in his hand a coil of twisted rope,manufactured from the raw hide of the slaughtered cattle, cut into narrowstripes, and ingeniously interwoven.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, starting for a moment, as he saw Julia. "I hadforgotten you. We have been hardly pressed all day, and I have had no timeto think of you; but we shall have more leisure now. Are you hungry,Julia?"
For her only reply she pointed to the food yet untouched, which he hadbrought to her on the previous evening, and shook her head sadly; bututtered not a word.
"Well! well!" he exclaimed, "we have no time to talk about such mattersnow; but eat you shall, or I will have you crammed, as they stufffat-livered geese! Come, Niger, we must lose no minute. If they attackagain, and miss me from the battlements, they will be suspectingsomething, and will perhaps come prying to the rear.—Have you seen anysoldiers, girl, on this side? I trow you have been gazing from the windowall day long in the hope of escaping, but I suppose you will not tell metruly."
"If I tell you not truly, I shall hold my peace. But I will tell you, thatI have seen no human being, no living thing, indeed; unless it be athrush, and three wood pigeons, fluttering in the treetops yonder."
"That is a lie, I dare be sworn!" cried Niger. "If it had been the truthshe would not have breathed a word of it to us. Beside which, it is toocool altogether!"
"By Mulciber my patron! if I believed so, it should go hardly with her;but it matters not. Come, we must lose no time."
And passing into the central room of the three, they made one end of therope fast about the waist of Niger, and the other to an upright mullion inthe embrasure, which, although broken half way up, afforded ample purchasewhereby to lower him into the chasm.
This done, the man clambered out of the window very coolly, goingbackward, as if he were about to descend a ladder; but, when his face wason the point of disappearing below the sill, as he hung by his handsalone, having no foothold whatever, he said quietly, "If I shout, CaiusCrispus, haul me up instantly. I shall not do so, if there be any pathbelow. But if I whistle, be sure that all is right. Lower away. Farewell."
"Hold on! hold on, man!" replied Crispus quickly, "turn yourself round soas to bring your back to the crag’s face, else shall the angles of therock maim, and the dust blind you. That’s it; most bravely done! you are aright good cragsman."
"I was born among the crags, at all events," answered the other, "and Ithink now that I am going to die among them. But what of that? One mustdie some day! Fewer words! lower away, I say, I am tired of hanging herebetween Heaven and Tartarus!"
No words were spoken farther, by any of the party; but the smith with theaid of Rufus paid out the line rapidly although steadily, hand under hand,until the whole length was run out with the exception of some three orfour feet.
Just at this moment, when Crispus was beginning to despair of success, andwas half afraid that he had miscalculated the length of the rope, thestrain on it was slackened for a moment, and then ceased altogether.
The next instant a low and guarded whistle rose from the gorge, above thegurgling of the waters, but not so loud as to reach any ears save thosefor which it was intended.
A grim smile curled the swordsmith’s lip, and his fierce eye glitteredwith cruel triumph. "We are safe now.—Catiline will be here long beforedaybreak. Your prayers have availed us, Julia; for I doubt not," he added,with malicious irony, "that you have prayed for us."
Before she had time to reply to his cruel sarcasm, a fresh swell of thebesiegers’ trumpets, and a loud burst of shouts and warcries from thebattlement announced a fresh attack. The smith rushed from the roominstantly with Rufus at his heels, and Julia had already made one steptoward the window, intending to attempt the perilous descent, alone andunaided, when Crispus turned back suddenly, crying,
"The Rope! the Rope! By the Gods! do not leave the rope! She hath enoughof the Amazon’s blood in her to attempt it—"
"Of the _Roman’s_ blood, say rather!" she exclaimed, springing toward thecasement, half maddened in perceiving her last hope frustrated.
Had she reached it, she surely would have perished; for no female head andhands, how strong and resolute so ever, could have descended that frailrope, and even if they could, the ruffian, rather than see her so escape,would have cut it asunder, and so precipitated her to the bottom of therocky chasm.
But she did not attain her object; for Caius Crispus caught her with botharms around the waist and threw her so violently to the after end of theroom, that, her head striking the angle of the wall, she was stunned forthe moment, and lay almost senseless on the floor, while the savage, witha rude brutal laugh at her disappointment, rushed out of the room, bearingthe rope along with him.
Scarce had he gone, however, when, audible distinctly amid the dissonantdanger of the fray, the same feminine voice, which she had heard on theprevious night, again aroused her, crying "Hist! hist! hist! Julia."
She sprang to her feet, and gained the window in a moment, and there, onthe other verge of the chasm, near twenty feet distant from the window atwhich she stood, she discovered the figure of a slender dark-eyed anddark-complexioned boy, clad in a hunter’s tunic, and bearing a bow in hishand, and a quiver full of arrows on his shoulder.
She had never seen that boy before; yet was there something in hisfeatures and expression that seemed familiar to her; that sort of vagueresemblance to something well known and accustomed, which leads men tosuppose that they must have dreamed of things which mysteriously enoughthey seem to remember on their first occurrence.
The boy raised his hand joyously, and cried aloud, without any fear ofbeing heard, well knowing that all eyes and ears of the defenders of theplace were turned to the side when the fight was raging, "Be of goodcheer; you are saved, Julia. Paull
us is nigh at hand, but ere he come, _I_will save you! Be of good courage, watch well these windows, but seem tobe observing nothing."
And with the words, he turned away, and was lost to her sight in aninstant, among the thickly-set underwood. Ere long, however, she caught aglimpse of him again, mounted upon a beautiful white horse, and galloppinglike the wind down the sandy road, which wound through the wooded knollstoward the bridge below.
Again she lost him; and again he glanced upon her sight, for a singlesecond, as he spurred his fleet horse across the single arch of brick, anddashed into the woods on the hither side of the torrent.
Two weary hours passed; and the sun was nigh to his setting, and she hadseen, heard nothing more. Her heart, sickening with hope deferred, and allher frame trembling with terrible excitement, she had almost begun todoubt, whether the whole appearance of the boy might not have been a mereillusion of her feverish senses, a vain creation of her distempered fancy.
Still, fiercer than before, the battle raged without, and now there was nointermission of the uproar; to which was added the crashing of the roofsbeneath heavy stones, betokening that engines of some kind had beenbrought up from the host, or constructed on the spot.
At length, however, her close watch was rewarded. A slight stir among theevergreen bushes on the brink of the opposite cliff caught her quick eye,and in another moment the head of a man, not of the boy whom she had seenbefore, nor yet, as her hope suggested, of her own Paullus, but of anaquiline-nosed clean-shorn Roman soldier, with an intelligent expressionand quick eye, was thrust forward.
Perceiving Julia at the window, he drew back for a second; and the boyappeared in his place, and then both showed themselves together, thesoldier holding in his hand the bow and arrows of the hunter youth.
"He is a friend," said the boy, "do all that he commands you."
But so fiercely was the battle raging now, that it was his signs, ratherthan his words, which she comprehended.
The next moment, a gesture of his hand warned her to withdraw from theembrasure; and scarcely had she done so before an arrow whistled from thebow and dropped into the room, having a piece of very slender twineattached to the end of it.
Perceiving the intention at a glance, the quick witted girl detached thestring from the shaft without delay, and, throwing the latter out of thewindow lest it should betray the plan, drew in the twine, until she hadsome forty yards within the room, when it was checked from the other side,neither the soldier nor the youth showing themselves at all during theoperation.
This done, however, the boy again stood forth, and pitched a leadenbullet, such as was used by the slingers of the day, into the window.
Perceiving that the ball was perforated, she secured it in an instant tothe end of the clue, which she held in her hand, and, judging that theobject of her friends was to establish a communication from their side,cast it back to them with a great effort, having first passed the twinearound the mullion, by aid of which Crispus had lowered down hismessenger.
The soldier caught the bullet, and nodded his approbation with a smile,but again receded into the bushes, suffering the slack of the twine tofall down in an easy curve into the ravine: so that the doublecommunication would scarce have been perceived, even by one looking forit, in the gathering twilight.
The boy’s voice once more reached her ears, though his form was concealedamong the shrubbery. "Fear nothing, you are safe," he said, "But we can dono more until after midnight, when the moon shall give us light to rescueyou. Be tranquil, and farewell."—
Be tranquil!—tranquil, when life or death—honor or infamy—bliss ordespair, hung on that feeble twine, scarce thicker than the spider’s web!hung on the chance of every flying second, each one of which was bringingnigher and more nigh, the hoofs of Catiline’s atrocious band.
When voice of man can bid the waves be tranquil, while the north-wester istossing their ruffian tops, and when the billows slumber at his bidding,then may the comforter assay, with some chance of success, to still thethrobbings of the human heart, convulsed by such hopes, such terrors, asthen were all but maddening the innocent and tranquil heart of Julia.
Tranquil she could not be; but she was calm and self-possessed, andpatient.
Hour after hour lagged away; and the night fell black as the pit ofAcheron, and still by the glare of pale fires and torches, the lurid lightof which she could perceive from her windows, reflected on the heavens,the savage combatants fought on, unwearied, and unsparing.
Once only she went again to that window, wherefrom hung all her hopes; sofearful was she, that Crispus might find her there, and suspect what wasin process.
With trembling fingers she felt for the twine, fatal as the thread ofdestiny should any fell chance sever it; and in its place she found astout cord, which had been quietly drawn around the mullion, still hangingin a deep double bight, invisible amid the gloom, from side to side of thechasm.
And now, for the first time, she comprehended clearly the means by whichher unknown friends proposed to reach her. By hauling on one end of therope, any light plank or ladder might be drawn over to the hither from thefarther bank, and the gorge might so be securely bridged, and safelytraversed.
Perceiving this, and fancying that she could distinguish the faint clinkof a hammer among the trees beyond the forest knoll, she did indeed becomealmost tranquil.
She even lay down on her couch, and closed her eyes, and exerted all thepower of her mind to be composed and self-possessed, when the moment ofher destiny should arrive.
But oh! how day-long did the minutes seem; how more than year-long thehours.
She opened her curtained lids, and lo! what was that faint pale lustre,glimmering through the tree-tops on the far mountain’s brow?—all glory toDiana, chaste guardian of the chaste and pure! it was the signal of hersafety! it was! it was the ever-blessed moon!—
Breathless with joy, she darted to the opening, and slowly, warilycreeping athwart the gloomy void, she saw the cords drawn taught, andrunning stiffly, it is true, and reluctantly, but surely, around themouldering stone mullion; while from the other side, ghost-like and pale,the skeleton of a light ladder, was advancing to meet her hand as if bymagic.
Ten minutes more and she would be free! oh! the strange bliss, theinconceivable rapture of that thought! free from pollution, infamy! freeto live happy and unblemished! free to be the beloved, the honored brideof her own Arvina.
Why did she shudder suddenly? why grew she rigid with dilated eyes, andlips apart, like a carved effigy of agonized surprise?—
Hark to that rising sound, more rapid than the rush of the stream, andlouder than the wailing of the wind! thick pattering down the rocky gorge!nearer and nearer, ’till it thunders high above all the tumult of thebattle! the furious gallop of approaching horse, the sharp and angry clangof harness!—
Lo! the hot glare, outfacing the pale moonbeam, the fierce crimson blazeof torches gleaming far down the mountain side, a torrent of rushing fire!
Hark! the wild cheer, "Catiline! Catiline!" to the skies! mixed with thewailing blast of the Roman trumpets, unwillingly retreating from thehalf-won watchtower!—
"Pull for your lives!" she cried, in accents full of horror and appallinganguish—"Pull! pull! if ye would not see me perish!"—
But it was all too late. Amid a storm of tumultuous acclamation, Catilinedrew his panting charger up before the barricaded gateway, which had solong resisted the dread onset of the legionaries, and which now instantlyflew open to admit him. Waving his hand to his men to pursue theretreating infantry, he sprang down from his horse, uttering but one wordin the deep voice of smothered passion—"Julia!"—
His armed foot clanged on the pavement, ere the bridge was entirelywithdrawn; for they, who manned the ropes, now dragged it back, asvehemently as they had urged forward a moment since.
"Back from the window, Julia!"—cried the voice—"If he perceive the ropes,all is lost! Trust me, we never will forsake you! Meet him! be bold! bedari
ng! but defy him not!"—
Scarce had she time to catch the friendly admonition and act on it, as shedid instantly, before the door of the outer room was thrown violentlyopen; and, with his sallow face inflamed and fiery, and his black eyeblazing with hellish light, Catiline exclaimed, as he strode in hot hasteacross the threshold,
"At last! at last, I have thee, Julia!"
The Roman Traitor, Vol. 2 Page 16
