Unto Caesar

  CHAPTER XX

  "His blood shall be on our head, if any hand be uponhim."--JOSHUA II. 19.

  The heat was intense! The glare from the tribunes opposite seemed tosear the eyes, and from below there rose to the nostrils that awfulsickening stench of human blood.

  The public, frantic with excitement, was clapping and cheering;thousands of necks were craned to get a better view into the floor ofthe arena, thousands of fans were fluttering, children were laughing andwomen chattered incessantly, like a pack of monkeys.

  And down below the baffled panther sent roar upon roar of rage into theseething cauldron of a thousand sounds.

  The creature had been cheated to the last; a score of victims had beenpushed into his lair to tempt him. He had stalked them in play at first,then more earnestly, finally with a mad desire for blood. But always hisprey escaped him, invisible hands showed the means of escape; thecrimson ladders seemed to multiply their numbers until all round thewalls they showed innumerable paths to safety.

  The panther seemed to know that those streaks of crimson were his muteenemies. He made several ineffectual dashes for them, but always hisclaws slid against the marble, and he fell back into the sand, snarlingwith rage.

  Once or twice his prey was more attainable. He caught a foot, a leg, ahand; thrice he brought a huge, panting body to the ground, but eventhen he was cheated of his victory. Long iron grapnels, wielded byunseen hands, dragged the mangled limbs and torn bodies roughly from hisclutch, leaving behind them trails of torn flesh and streams of blood,which only helped to exasperate the beast by their insufficiency.

  And now the panther was like a black, snake-like fury, blind with rageand unsatisfied lust, with tail lashing like a whipcord and yellow eyesthat gleamed like tiny suns. His jaws were red and dripping, his clawshad been torn by the same grapnels that had snatched his prey from him.

  He had ceased to roar, but snarl upon snarl escaped his panting throat.The public delighted in him. They loved to see the ferocious brutemaddened by these tortures, beside which the agony of Tantalus was butthe misery of a child.

  Then Caligula rose to his feet and his heralds blew loud blasts upontheir trumpets. In a moment silence fell on the entire arena; thepandemonium of shouts and laughter and shrieks of agony was hushed as ifby the magic of an almighty power.

  The Emperor was standing and desired speech, and all at once silencedescended upon this vast concourse of people. Everyone rose, since theCaesar was standing; all heads were turned towards the tribune, all eyesfixed upon the misshapen figure with its halo of gold round thegrotesque head, and the metal thunderbolts held aloft in the hand.

  The only sound that was not stilled at the Caesar's bidding was--downbelow--the snarl of the angry panther.

  "Citizens of Rome," began Caligula, as soon as he could make himselfheard, "patricians of Rome! soldiers! senators! all my people! I--evenI--your Caesar, your Emperor, your god, do give you greeting! I havesought to please you and to make you happy on this my first day amongstyou all."

  Here he was interrupted by vociferous cheering. Next to shows andspectacles, to games and theatres, there was nothing that the people ofRome loved better than to hear impassioned speeches thundered at themeither from the rostra in the Forum, or from any convenient spot whencethe voice of a good speaker would rouse a sense of excitement or elationin their hearts. Demagogues and agitators, rhetoricians and poets wereall sure of a hearing, if only they were sufficiently inspired andsufficiently eloquent. But it was not often that the Caesar himself wouldpour forth imperial oratory into the delighted ears of his people, and afervent speech from the Emperor at this moment, when excitement andexhilaration were at fever-pitch, was a pleasure which no one hadforeseen but which filled everyone with delight.

  "Glad am I," continued Caligula, when the excitement had calmed downmomentarily, "that my efforts to please you have met with success."

  "They have! They have!" yelled the enthusiastic crowd.

  "The gods have indeed rewarded me--not beyond my deserts, for that wereimpossible--but in a just measure, by giving me the love of my people."

  "Hail Caesar! Hail the greatest and best of Caesars!" came in deafeningechoes from every side of the immense Amphitheatre.

  "I thank you all! Your loyalty to-day has greatly cheered me. I--as yoursupreme lord and god--will shower my blessings upon you. As a god I amimmortal; always I will watch over you, sitting at the right hand ofJupiter Victor, my father, from all times. But in my earthly shape Imay not be with you always. There may come a time when god-like dutiescall me to Olympus. Then must a wise and just ruler take my place at thehead of this great Empire."

  "No! no! Hail to thee Caesar! Immortal Caesar!" cried the people, andCaligula, stricken with vanity as if with plague, was deaf to theironical cheers that accompanied these cries.

  "Immortal am I," he said, whilst his bloodshot eyes travelled restlesslyover the sea of faces spread out before him. "Immortal, yet destined toleave you one day. When that day comes, there will be weeping in thecity and moanings throughout the Empire, but the wise and just ruler whowill follow in my wake will--while not able to console you for myloss--continue the good works which I have commenced. Citizens of Rome,patricians, soldiers, all listen to what I say."

  His face now looked purple with excitement, his hoarse voice shook as itescaped his throat, and his hair, thin and lanky, seemed to stand uponend all round his large, bulging forehead.

  A gentle breeze had caught the folds of his purple tunic, and itfluttered all round him with a curious swishing noise, like the sighingof creatures in pain.

  The hand that held Jove's thunderbolt trembled visibly, and theperspiration was streaming down his face. There was not a man or womanpresent there at this moment who did not look upon him as an abject andhideous monster, there was no one there who did not loathe and despisehim! And yet everyone listened, and not one voice was raised in derisionat his senseless oratory.

  Only the panther snarled, and its tail beat against the ground with adull, monotonous sound.

  And Dea Flavia, standing beside the monster, white as the lilies whichnow lay withered at her feet, listened to every word that he said,whilst Taurus Antinor gazed on her and saw again in her eyes that lookof anticipation and of understanding, as of one who knows what is tocome.

  "Citizens of Rome," resumed the imperial mountebank after an impressivepause, "I have spent days and nights in communion with the gods,thinking of your welfare--of your welfare when I no longer will beamongst you all. And this is what I and the gods have decided. Listen tome, for the gods speak to you through my mouth--I, even I, your Caesarand your god, do speak.

  "There dwells amongst us all one whose divinity is almost equal to mineown--one who by her beauty and her grace hath found favour with the godsand with me. She is of the House of Caesar, and hath name Dea Flavia; andI, the Caesar, have called her Augusta, and set her up above all otherwomen in Rome. She comes from the House of great Augustus himself, andit is a descendant of the great Augustus who alone will be worthy towield the sceptre of Caesar when it hath fallen from my grasp. Thereforethis have I decided. The son of Dea Flavia shall in time to come followin my footsteps, and make you happy and prosperous even as I have done;and because of this my decision must I give Dea Flavia as wife unto aman who is worthy of her. Many there are who have aspired to her hand,but all of them have I hitherto rejected, because not one of them hadgiven proof of his courage or of his strength. Citizens of Rome,patricians, and soldiers all! What we must look for in your future ruleris valour in the face of death, coolness and intrepidity in the sight ofdanger. These qualities, which grace your present Caesar, must betransmitted to his successor through Dea Flavia, the divine, and by afather who has given signal proof of his virtues. I have enjoined theAugusta Dea Flavia to bestow her hand on him who above all is worthy tobe her lord. To this has she consented and to-day will she make herchoice, and herewith do I call on you patricians who aspire to her handto enter the lists in her hono
ur. Give a proof of your valour, of yourintrepidity, of your courage! Show that you are as valiant as the lion,as wary as the snake. Descend into the arena now, unarmed save for thehands which the gods have given you, and thus engage that unconqueredmonster in single combat! An even chance of life is given you! AndI--even I your Caesar--will give unto the victor the hand of the AugustaDea Flavia in marriage!"

  Even before his last words had echoed along the marble walls, deafeningcries and cheers rent the air. Men shouted, women screamed and wavedtheir fans, mantles were torn from every shoulder and swung overheadlike flags.

  "Hail to Caesar! Hail to the best and greatest of Caesars! Hail to theAugusta! Dea Flavia, hail!"

  The shouts were incessant, even whilst Caligula, delighted with hisoratory, exultant over the success of his plan, stood there trembling inevery limb, with moist, purple face turned from right to left to receivethe acclamations of his people. His tiny eyes blinked with the glarethat struck fully at them from opposite, his throat was parched withscreaming, his tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth.

  Excitement was overmastering him; the effort to appear outwardly saneand calm was too severe a tax upon his raging temper. The heat, too, nodoubt turned him giddy, for suddenly, even whilst the cries of "Hail!"buzzed in his ears, he threw up his arms and tottered backwards, rigidas a log, whilst drops of foam gathered at the corners of his mouth.

  It was Taurus Antinor who received the swooning Caesar in his strongarms. Everyone else around was too excited to move. The Augustas,inwardly consumed with jealousy, were striving to keep up an appearanceof dignity in the face of the insult which they deemed had been put uponthem by this semi-deification of their kinswoman.

  Dea Flavia, pale and silent, stood facing the people, with eyes thatseemed to look on something unearthly far away. Her white robes,shimmering with precious stones, fell round her like a shroud, her lipswere parted as with a cry that had died even before it had found birthin her throat. The public thought that she looked proud, and acclaimedher because of this strange aloofness which seemed to envelop her wholeperson. She did not look of this world at all. Even the eyes appearedsightless and dead.

  When the Caesar fell back, half fainting, she seemed to wake from herdream, a shudder went right through her as her eyes slowly turned fromtheir vacant gaze to the prostrate figure of this inhuman monster, lyingstricken like a felled brute, in the arms of the praefect of Rome.

  Once again, and for the third time to-day, her eyes met those of TaurusAntinor, but this time it seemed to him that within their stillmysterious depths he read something akin to an appeal.

  As on that day in the Forum, intense pity--which had given birth tolove--filled his heart for this beautiful young girl who seemed solonely in the midst of all this pomp.

  The purity of her soul appeared to him undimmed, even though he knew nowthat she had expected this awful thing all along, and that she was nostranger to this monstrous barter of her person for the attainment of acrazy Emperor's whim, or to make holiday for the rabble of Rome. In hissight her pride remained unshaken; only her loyalty and allegiance hadbeen given to the Caesar in the same way as his own had been. She, in hersimple, womanly way, was rendering unto Caesar that which was Caesar's,and Taurus Antinor, whilst tenderly pitying her, felt that he had neverloved her as fondly as he did now.

  The curse of the dying freedwoman was indeed bearing fruit. Dea'sfavours, her loyalty, were turning to bitter malediction for therecipients. More than one man to-day, mayhap, would die an horribledeath in the hope of winning her grace. And Taurus Antinor, in thesilent depths of his soul, prayed unto God that the woman he lovedshould never--as Menecreta had foretold--be driven to beg for mercy froma heart that knew it not and find a pitiless ear turned to her prayers.

  Caligula had quickly shaken himself free from the arms that held him.The fainting fit which had threatened him passed away as swiftly as ithad come. His lust of hate and revenge was so keen at this moment thatit conquered all his physical weakness. When he realised that it wasTaurus Antinor who was supporting him, he contrived to smile benignlyand placidly upon him.

  "I am well! I am well!" he reiterated cheerfully. "Did my voice carryall over the Amphitheatre? Did everyone hear what I said?"

  "Everyone heard thy voice, O Caesar!" said Taurus Antinor slowly, "andsee the aspirant for the Augusta's hand has prepared to do battle forher sake!"