________________________________________________
_ THE sun had lowered toward its setting, and seemed to dissolve in
the red of the evening. The spectacle was finished. Crowds were
leaving the amphitheatre and pouring out to the city through the
passages called vomitoria. Only Augustians delayed; they were
waiting for the stream of people to pass. They had all left their
seats and assembled at the podium, in which Caesar appeared
again to hear praises. Though the spectators had not spared
plaudits at the end of the song, Nero was not satisfied; he had
looked for enthusiasm touching on frenzy. In vain did hymns of
praise sound in his ears; in vain did vestals kiss his "divine" hand,
and while doing so Rubria bent till her reddish hair touched his
breast. Nero was not satisfied, and could not hide the fact. He was
astonished and also disturbed because Petronius was silent. Some
flattering and pointed word from his mouth would have been a
great consolation at that moment. Unable at last to restrain
himself, Caesar beckoned to the arbiter.
"Speak," said he, when Petronius entered the podium.
"I am silent," answered Petronius, coldly, "for I cannot find words.
Thou hast surpassed thyself."
"So it seemed to me too; but still this people --"
"Canst thou expect mongrels to appreciate poetry?"
"But thou too hast noticed that they have not thanked me as I
deserve."
"Because thou hast chosen a bad moment."
"How?"
"When men's brains are filled with the odor of blood, they cannot
listen attentively."
"Ah, those Christians!" replied Nero, clenching his fists. "They
burned Rome, and injure me now in addition. What new
punishment shall I invent for them?"
Petronius saw that he had taken the wrong road, that his words had
produced an effect the very opposite of what he intended; so, to
turn Caesar's mind in another direction, he bent toward him and
whispered, --
"Thy song is marvellous, but I will make one remark: in the fourth
line of the third strophe the metre leaves something to be desired."
Nero, blushing with shame, as if caught in a disgraceful deed, had
fear in his look, and answered in a whisper also, --
"Thou seest everything. I know. I will re-write that. But no one
else noticed it, I think. And do thou, for the love of the gods,
mention it to no one, -- if life is dear to thee."
To this Petronius answered, as if in an outburst of vexation and
anger, --
"Condemn me to death, O divinity, if I deceive thee; but thou wilt
not terrify me, for the gods know best of all if I fear death."
And while speaking he looked straight into Caesar's eyes, who
answered after a while, --
"Be not angry; thou knowest that I love thee."
"A bad sign!" thought Petronius.
"I wanted to invite thee to-day to a feast," continued Nero, "but I
prefer to shut myself in and polish that cursed line in the third
strophe. Besides thee Seneca may have noticed it, and perhaps
Secundus Carinas did; but I will rid myself of them quickly."
Then he summoned Seneca, and declared that with Acratus and
Secundus Carinas, he sent him to the Italian and all other
provinces for money, which he commanded him to obtain from
cities, villages, famous temples, -- in a word, from every place
where it was possible to find money, or from which they could
force it. But Seneca, who saw that Caesar was confiding to him a
work of plunder, sacrilege, and robbery, refused straightway.
"I must go to the country, lord," said he, "and await death, for I am
old and my nerves are sick."
Seneca's Iberian nerves were stronger than Chilos; they were not
sick, perhaps, but in general his health was bad, for he seemed like
a shadow, and recently his hair had grown white altogether.
Nero, too, when he looked at him, thought that he would not have
to wait long for the man's death, and answered, --
"I will not expose thee to a journey if thou art ill, but through
affection I wish to keep thee near me. Instead of going to the
country, then, thou wilt stay in thy own house, and not leave it."
Then he laughed, and said, "If I send Acratus and Carinas by
themselves, it, will be like sending wolves for sheep. Whom shall I
set above them?"
"Me, lord," said Domitius Afer.
"No! I have no wish to draw on Rome the wrath of Mercury, whom
ye would put to shame with your villainy. I need some stoic like
Seneca, or like my new friend, the philosopher Chilo."
Then he looked around, and asked, --
"But what has happened to Chilo?"
Chilo, who had recovered in the open air and returned to the
amphitheatre for Caesar's song, pushed up, and said, --
"I am here, O Radiant Offspring of the sun and moon. I was ill, but
thy song has restored me."
"I will send thee to Achaea," said Nero. "Thou must know to a
copper how much there is in each temple there."
"Do so, O Zeus, and the gods will give thee such tribute as they
have never given any one."
"I would, but I do not like to prevent thee from seeing the games."
"Baal!" said Chilo.
The Augustians, delighted that Caesar had regained humor, fell to
laughing, and exclaimed, --
"No, lord, deprive not this valiant Greek of a sight of the games."
"But preserve sue, O lord, from the sight of these noisy geese of
the Capitol, whose brains put together would not fill a nutshell,"
retorted Chilo. "O firstborn of Apollo, I am writing a Greek hymn
in thy honor, and I wish to spend a few days in the temple of the
Muses to implore inspiration."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Nero. "It is thy wish to escape future games.
Nothing will come of that!"
"I swear to thee, lord, that I am writing a hymn."
"Then thou wilt write it at night. Beg inspiration of Diana, who, by
the way, is a sister of Apollo."
Chilo dropped his head and looked with malice on those present,
who began to laugh again. Caesar, turning to Senecio and Suilius
Nerulinus, said, --
"Imagine, of the Christians appointed for to-day we have been able
to finish hardly half!"
At this old Aquilus Regulus, who had great knowledge of
everything touching the amphitheatre, thought a while, and said, --
"Spectacles in which people appear sine armis et sine arte last
almost as long and are less entertaining."
"I will command to give them weapons," answered Nero.
But the superstitious Vestinius was roused from meditation at
once, and asked in a mysterious voice, --
"Have ye noticed that when dying they see something? They look
up, and die as it were without pain. I am sure that they see
something."
He raised his eyes then to the opening of the amphitheatre, over
which night had begun to extend its velarium dotted with stars. But
others answered with laughter and jesting suppositions as to what
the Christians could see at the moment of death. Meanwhile
Caesar gave a signal to the slave torch-bearers, and left the Circus;
after him followed vestals, senators, dignitaries, and Augustians.
The night was clear and warm. Before the Circus were moving
throngs of people, curious to witness the departure of Caesar; but
in some way they were gloomy and silent. Here and there applause
was heard, but it ceased quickly. From the spoliarium creaking
carts bore away the bloody remnants of Christians.
Petronius and Vinicius passed over their road in silence. Only
when near his villa did Petronius inquire, --
"Hast thou thought of what I told thee?" "I have," answered
Vinicius.
"Dost believe that for me too this is a question of the highest
importance? I must liberate her in spite of Caesar and Tigellinus.
This is a kind of battle in which I have undertaken to conquer, a
kind of play in which I wish to win, even at the cost of my life.
This day has confirmed me still more in my plan."
"May Christ reward thee."
"Thou wilt see."
Thus conversing, they stopped at the door of the villa and
descended from the litter. At that moment a dark figure
approached them, and asked, --
"Is the noble Vinicius here?"
"He is," answered the tribune. "What is thy wish?"
"I am Nazarius, the son of Miriam. I come from the prison, and
bring tidings of Lygia."
Vinicius placed his hand on the young man's shoulder and looked
into his eyes by the torchlight, without power to speak a word, but
Nazarius divined the question which was dying on his lips, and
replied, --
"She is living yet. Ursus sent me to say that she prays in her fever,
and repeats thy name."
"Praise be to Christ, who has power to restore her to me," said
Vinicius. He conducted Nazarius to the library, and after a while
Petronius came in to hear their conversation.
"Sickness saved her from shame, for executioners are timid," said
the youth. "Ursus and Glaucus the physician watch over her night
and day."
"Are the guards the same?"
"They are, and she is in their chamber. All the prisoners in the
lower dungeon died of fever, or were stifled from foul air."
"Who art thou?" inquired Petronins.
"The noble Vinicius knows me. I am the son of that widow with
whom Lygia lodged."
"And a Christian?"
The youth looked with inquiring glance at Vinicius, but, seeing
him in prayer, he raised his head, and answered, --
"I am."
"How canst thou enter the prison freely?"
"I hired myself to carry out corpses; I did so to assist my brethren
and bring them news from the city."
Petronius looked more attentively at the comely face of the youth,
his blue eyes, and dark, abundant hair.
"From what country art thou, youth?" asked he.
"I am a Galilean, lord."
"Wouldst thou like to see Lygia free?"
The youth raised his eyes. "Yes, even had I to die afterwards."
Then Vinicius ceased to pray, and said, --
"Tell the guards to place her in a coffin as if she were dead. Thou
wilt find assistants to bear her out in the night with thee. Near the
'Putrid Pits' will be people with a litter waiting for you; to them ye
will give the coffin. Promise the guards from me as much gold as
each can carry in his mantle."
While speaking, his face lost its usual torpor, and in him was
roused the soldier to whom hope had restored his former energy.
Nazarius was flushed with delight, and, raising his hands, he
exclaimed,
"May Christ give her health, for she will be free."
"Dost thou think that the guards will consent?" inquired Petronius.
"They, lord? Yes, if they know that punishment and torture will
not touch them."
"The guards would consent to her flight; all the more will they let
us bear her out as a corpse," said Vinicius.
"There is a man, it is true," said Nazarius, "who burns with red-hot
iron to see if the bodies which we carry out are dead. But he will
take even a few sestertia not to touch the face of the dead with
iron. For one aureus he will touch the coffin, not the body."
"Tell him that he will get a cap full of aurei," said Petronius. "But
canst thou find reliable assistants?"
"I can find men who would sell their own wives and children for
money."
"Where wilt thou find them?"
"In the prison itself or in the city. Once the guards are paid, they
will admit whomever I like."
"In that case take me as a hired servant," said Vinicius.
But Petronius opposed this most earnestly. "The pretorians might
recognize thee even in disguise, and all would be lost. Go neither
to the prison nor the 'Putrid Pits.' All, including Caesar and
Tigellinus, should be convinced that she died; otherwise they will
order immediate pursuit. We can lull suspicion only in this way:
When she is taken to the Alban Hills or farther, to Sicily, we shall
be in Rome. A week or two later thou wilt fall ill, and summon
Nero's physician; he will tell thee to go to the mountains. Thou and
she will meet, and afterward --"
Here he thought a while; then, waving his hand, he said, --
"Other times may come."
"May Christ have mercy on her," said Vinicius. "Thou art speaking
of Sicily, while she is sick and may die."
"Let us keep her nearer Rome at first. The air alone will restore
her, if only we snatch her from the dungeon. Hast thou no manager
in the mountains whom thou canst trust?"
"I have," replied Vinicius, hurriedly. "Near Corioli is a reliable
man who carried me in his arms when I was a child, and who loves
me yet."
"Write to him to come to-morrow," said Petronius, handing
Vinicius tablets. "I will send a courier at once."
He called the chief of the atrium then, and gave the needful orders.
A few minutes later, a mounted slave was coursing in the night
toward Corioli.
"It would please me were Ursus to accompany her," said Vinicius.
"I should be more at rest."
"Lord," said Nazarius, "that is a man of superhuman strength; he
can break gratings and follow her. There is one window above a
steep, high rock where no guard is placed. I will take Ursus a rope;
the rest he will do himself."
"By Hercules!" said Petronius, "let him tear himself out as he
pleases, but not at the same time with her, and not two or three
days later, for they would follow him and discover her
hiding-place. By Hercules! do ye wish to destroy yourselves and
her? I forbid you to name Corioli to him, or I wash my hands."
Both recognized the justice of these words, and were silent.
Nazarius took leave, promising to come the next morning at
daybreak.
He hoped to finish that night with the guards, but wished first to
run in to see his mother, who in that uncertain and dreadful time
had no rest for a moment thinking of her son. After some thought
he had determined not to seek an assistant in the city, but to find
and bribe one from among his fellow corpse-bearers. When going,
he stopped, and, taking Vinicius aside, whispered, --
"I will not mention our plan to any one, not even to my mother, but
the Apostle Peter promised to come from the amphitheatre to our
house; I will tell him everything."
"Here thou canst speak openly," replied Vinicius. "The Apostle
was in the amphitheatre with the people of Petronius. But I will go
with you myself."
He gave command to bring him a slave's mantle, and they passed
out. Pctronius sighed deeply.
"I wished her to die of that fever," thought he, "since that would
have been less terrible for Vinicius. But now I am ready to offer a
golden tripod to Esculapius for her health. Ah! Ahenobarbus, thou
hast the wish to turn a lover's pain into a spectacle; thou, Augusta,
wert jealous of the maiden's beauty, and wouldst devour her alive
because thy Ruflus has perished. Thou, Tigellinus, wouldst destroy
her to spite me! We shall see. I tell you that your eyes will not
behold her on the arena, for she will either die her own death, or I
shall wrest her from you as from the jaws of dogs, and wrest her in
such fashion that ye shall not know it; and as often afterward as I
look at you I shall think, These are the fools whom Caius Petronius
outwitted."
And, self-satisfied, he passed to the triclinium, where he sat down
to supper with Eunice. During the meal a lector read to them the
Idyls of Theocritus. Out of doors the wind brought clouds from the
direction of Soracte, and a sudden storm broke the silence of the
calm summer night. From time to time thunder reverberated on the
seven hills, while they, reclining near each other at the table,
listened to the bucolic poet, who in the singing Done dialect
celebrated the loves of shepherds. Later on, with minds at rest,
they prepared for sweet slumber.
But before this Vinicius returned. Petronius heard of his coming,
and went to meet him.
"Well? Have ye fixed anything new?" inquired he. "Has Nazarius
gone to the prison?"
"He has," answered the young man, arranging his hair, wet from
the rain. "Nazarius went to arrange with the guards, and I have
seen Peter, who commanded me to pray and believe."
"That is well. If all goes favorably, we can bear her away
to-morrow night."
"My manager must be here at daybreak with men."
"The road is a short one. Now go to rest."
But Vinicius knelt in his cubiculum and prayed.
At sunrise Niger, the manager, arrived from Corioli, bringing with
him, at the order of Vinicius, mules, a litter, and four trusty men
selected among slaves from Britain, whom, to save appearances,
he had left at an inn in the
Subura. Vinicius, who had watched all night, went to meet him.
Niger, moved at sight of his youthful master, kissed his hands and
eyes, saying, --
"My dear, thou art ill, or else suffering has sucked the blood from
thy face, for hardly did I know thee at first."
Vinicius took him to the interior colonnade, and there admitted
him to the secret. Niger listened with fixed attention, and on his
dry, sunburnt face great emotion was evident; this he did not even
try to master.
"Then she is a Christian?" exclaimed Niger; and he looked
inquiringly into the face of Vinicius, who divined evidently what
the gaze of the countryman was asking, since he answered, --
"I too am a Christian."
Tears glistened in Niger's eyes that moment. He was silent for a
while; then, raising his hands, he said, --
"I thank Thee, O Christ, for having taken the beam from eyes
which are the dearest on earth to me."
Then he embraced the head of Vinicius, and, weeping from
happiness, fell to kissing his forehead. A moment later, Petronius
appeared, bringing Nazarius.
"Good news!" cried he, while still at a distance.
Indeed, the news was good. First, Glaucus the physician
guaranteed Lygia's life, though she had the same prison fever of
which, in the Tullianum and other dungeons, hundreds of people
were dying daily. As to the guards and the man who tried corpses
with red-hot iron, there was not the least difficulty. Attys, the
assistant, was satisfied also.
"We made openings in the coffin to let the sick woman breathe,"
said Nazarius. "The only danger is that she may groan or speak as
we pass the pretorians. But she is very weak, and is lying with
closed eyes since early morning. Besides, Glaucus will give her a
sleeping draught prepared by himself from drugs brought by me
purposely from the city. The cover will not be nailed to the coffin;
ye will raise it easily and take the patient to the litter. We will
place in the coffin a long bag of sand, which ye will provide."
Vinicius, while hearing these words, was as pale as linen; but he
listened with such attention that he seemed to divine at a glance
what Nazarius had to say.
"Will they carry out other bodies from the prison?" inquired
Petronius.
"About twenty died last night, and before evening more will be
dead," said the youth. "We must go with a whole company, but we
will delay and drop into the rear. At the first corner my comrade
will get lame purposely. In that way we shall remain behind the
others considerably. Ye will wait for us at the small temple of
Libitina. May God give a night as dark as possible!"
"He will," said Niger. "Last evening was bright, and then a sudden
storm came. To-day the sky is clear, but since morning it is sultry.
Every night now there will be wind and rain."
"Will ye go without torches?" inquired Vinicius.
"The torches are carried only in advance. In every event, be near
the temple of Libitina at dark, though usually we carry out the
corpses only just before midnight."
They stopped. Nothing was to be heard save the hurried breathing
of Vinicius. Petronius turned to him, --
"I said yesterday that it would be best were we both to stay at
home, but now I see that I could not stay. Were it a question of
flight, there would be need of the greatest caution; but since she
will be borne out as a corpse, it seems that not the least suspicion
will enter the head of any one."
"True, true!" answered Vinicius. "I must be there. I will take her
from the coffin myself."
"Once she is in my house at Corioli, I answer for her," said Niger.
Conversation stopped here. Niger returned to his men at the inn.
Nazarius took a purse of gold under his tunic and went to the
prison. For Vinicius began a day filled with alarm, excitement,
disquiet, and hope.
"The undertaking ought to succeed, for it is well planned," said
Petronius. "It was impossible to plan better. Thou must feign
suffering, and wear a dark toga. Do not desert the amphitheatre.
Let people see thee. All is so fixed that there cannot be failure. But
-- art thou perfectly sure of thy manager?"
"He is a Christian," replied Vinicius.
Petronius looked at him with amazement, then shrugged his
shoulders, and said, as if in soliloquy, --
"By Pollux! how it spreads, and commands people's souls. Under
such terror as the present, men would renounce straightway all the
gods of Rome, Greece, and Egypt. Still, this is wonderful! By
Pollux! if I believed that anything depended on our gods, I would
sacrifice six white bullocks to each of them, and twelve to
Capitoline Jove. Spare no promises to thy Christ."
"I have given Him my soul," said Vinicius.
And they parted. Petronius returned to his cubiculum; but Vinicius
went to look from a distance at the prison, and thence betook
himself to the slope of the Vatican hill, -- to that hut of the
quarryman where he had received baptism from the hands of the
Apostle. It seemed to him that Christ would hear him more readily
there than in any other place; so when he found it, he threw
himself on the ground and exerted all the strength of his suffering
soul in prayer f or mercy, and so forgot himself that he
remembered not where he was or what he was doing. In the
afternoon he was roused by the sound of trumpets which came
from the direction of Nero's Circus. He went out of the hut, and
gazed around with eyes which were as if just opened from sleep.
It was hot; the stillness was broken at intervals by the sound of
brass and continually by the ceaseless noise of grasshoppers. The
air had become sultry, the sky was still clear over the city, but near
the Sabine Hills dark clouds were gathering at the edge of the
horizon.
Vinicius went home. Petronius was waiting for him in the atrium.
"I have been on the Palatine," said he. "I showed myself there
purposely, and even sat down at dice. There is a feast at the house
of Anicius this evening; I promised to go, but only after midnight,
saying that I must sleep before that hour. In fact I shall be there,
and it would be well wert thou to go also."
"Are there no tidings from Niger or Nazarius?" inquired Vinicius.
"No; we shall see them only at midnight. Hast noticed that a storm
is threatening?"
"Yes."
"To-morrow there is to be an exhibition of crucified Christians, but
perhaps rain will prevent it."
Then he drew nearer and said, touching his nephew's shoulder, --
"But thou wilt not see her on the cross; thou wilt see her only in
Corioli. By Castor! I would not give the moment in which we free
her for all the gems in Rome. The evening is near."
In truth the evening was near, and darkness began to encircle the
city earlier than usual because clouds covered the whole horizon.
With the corming of night heavy rain fell, which turned into
steam on the stones warmed by the heat of the day, and filled the
streets of the city with mist. After that came a lull, then brief
violent showers.
"Let us hurry!" said Vinicius at last; "they may carry bodies from
the prison earlier because of the storm."
"It is time!" said Petronius.
And taking Gallic mantles with hoods, they passed through the
garden door to the street. Petronius had armed himself with a short
Roman knife called sicca, which he took always during night trips.
The city was empty because of the storm. From time to time
lightning rent the clouds, illuminating with its glare the fresh walls
of houses newly built or in process of building and the wet
flag-stones with which the streets were paved. At last a flash came,
when they saw, after a rather long road, the mound on which stood
the small temple of Libitina, and at the foot of the mound a group
of mules and horses.
"Niger!" called Vinicius, in a low voice.
"I am here, lord," said a voice in the rain.
"Is everything ready?"
"It is. We were here at dark. But hide yourselves under the
rampart, or ye will be drenched. What a storm! Hail will fall, I
think."
In fact Niger's fear was justified, for soon hail began to fall, at first
fine, then larger and more frequent. The air grew cold at once.
While standing under the rampart, sheltered from the wind and icy
missiles, they conversed in low voices.
"Even should some one see us," said Niger, "there will be no
suspicion; we look like people waiting for the storm to pass. But I
fear that they may not bring the bodies out till morning."
"The hail-storm will not last," said Petronius. "We must wait even
till daybreak."
They waited, listening to hear the sound of the procession. The
hail-storm passed. but immediately after a shower began to roar.
At times the wind rose, and brought from the 'Putrid Pits" a
dreadful odor of decaying bodies, buried near the surface and
carelessly.
"I see a light through the mist," said Niger, -- "one, two, three, --
those are torches. See that the mules do not snort," said he, turning
to the men.
"They are coming!" said Petronius.
The lights were growing more and more distinct. After a time it
was possible to see torches under the quivering flames.
Niger made the sign of the cross, and began to pray. Meanwhile
the gloomy procession drew nearer, and halted at last in front of
the temple of Libitina. Petronius, Vinicius, and Niger pressed up to
the rampart in silence, not knowing why the halt was made. But
the men had stopped only to cover their mouths and faces with
cloths to ward off the stifling stench which at the edge of the
"Putrid Pits" was simply unendurable; then they raised the biers
with coffins and moved on. Only one coffin stopped before the
temple. Vinicius sprang toward it, and after him Petronius, Niger,
and two British slaves with the litter.
But before they had reached it in the darkness, the voice of
Nazarius was heard, full of pain, --
"Lord, they took her with Ursus to the Esquiline prison. We are
carrying another body! They removed her before midnight."
Petronius, when he had returned home, was gloomy as a storm,
and did not even try to console Vinicius. He understood that to free
Lygia from the Esquiline dungeons was not to be dreamed of. He
divined that very likely she had been taken from the Tullianum so
as not to die of fever and escape the amphitheatre assigned to her.
But for this very reason she was watched and guarded more
carefully than others. From the bottom of his soul Petronius was
sorry for her and Vinicius, but he was wounded also by the thought
that for the first time in life he had not succeeded, and for the first
time was beaten in a struggle.
"Fortune seems to desert me," said he to himself, "but the gods are
mistaken if they think that I will accept such a life as his, for
example."
Here he turned toward Vinicius, who looked at him with staring
eyes. "What is the matter? Thou hast a fever," said Petronius.
But Vinicius answered with a certain strange, broken, halting
voice, like that of a sick child, -- "But I believe that He -- can
restore her to me."
Above the city the last thunders of the storm had ceased. _
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