CHAPTER 2.
THE COURT.
The traveller who so far departs from the ordinary track of tourists inmodern Italy as to visit the city of Ravenna, remembers withastonishment, as he treads its silent and melancholy streets, andbeholds vineyards and marshes spread over an extent of four milesbetween the Adriatic and the town, that this place, now half deserted,was once the most populous of Roman fortresses; and that where fieldsand woods now present themselves to his eyes the fleets of the Empireonce rode securely at anchor, and the merchant of Rome disembarked hisprecious cargoes at his warehouse door.
As the power of Rome declined, the Adriatic, by a strange fatality,began to desert the fortress whose defence it had hitherto secured.Coeval with the gradual degeneracy of the people was the gradualwithdrawal of the ocean from the city walls; until, at the beginning ofthe sixth century, a grove of pines already appeared where the port ofAugustus once existed.
At the period of our story--though the sea had even then recededperceptibly--the ditches round the walls were yet filled, and thecanals still ran through the city in much the same manner as theyintersect Venice at the present time.
On the morning that we are about to describe, the autumn had advancedsome days since the events mentioned in the preceding chapter.Although the sun was now high in the eastern horizon, the restlessnessproduced by the heat emboldened a few idlers of Ravenna to brave thesultriness of the atmosphere, in the vain hope of being greeted by abreeze from the Adriatic as they mounted the seaward ramparts of thetown. On attaining their destined elevation, these sanguine citizensturned their faces with fruitless and despairing industry towards everypoint of the compass, but no breath of air came to reward theirperseverance. Nothing could be more thoroughly suggestive of theundiminished universality of the heat than the view, in everydirection, from the position they then occupied. The stone houses ofthe city behind them glowed with a vivid brightness overpowering to thestrongest eyes. The light curtains hung motionless over the lonelywindows. No shadows varied the brilliant monotony of the walls, orsoftened the lively glitter on the waters of the fountains beneath. Nota ripple stirred the surface of the broad channel, that now replacedthe ancient harbour. Not a breath of wind unfolded the scorching sailsof the deserted vessels at the quay. Over the marshes in the distancehung a hot, quivering mist; and in the vineyards, near the town, not aleaf waved upon its slender stem. On the seaward side lay, vast andlevel, the prospect of the burning sand; and beyond it the mainocean--waveless, torpid, and suffused in a flood of fiercebrightness--stretched out to the cloudless horizon that closed thesunbright view.
Within the town, in those streets where the tall houses cast a deepshadow on the flagstones of the road, the figures of a few slaves mighthere and there be seen sleeping against the walls, or gossipinglanguidly on the faults of their respective lords. Sometimes an oldbeggar might be observed hunting on the well-stocked preserves of hisown body the lively vermin of the South. Sometimes a restless childcrawled from a doorstep to paddle in the stagnant waters of a kennel;but, with the exception of these doubtful evidences of human industry,the prevailing characteristic of the few groups of the lowest orders ofthe people which appeared in the streets was the most listless andutter indolence. All that gave splendour to the city at other hours ofthe day was at this period hidden from the eye. The elegant courtiersreclined in their lofty chambers; the guards on duty ensconcedthemselves in angles of walls and recesses of porticoes; the gracefulladies slumbered on perfumed couches in darkened rooms; the gildedchariots were shut into the carriage-houses; the prancing horses wereconfined in the stables; and even the wares in the market-places wereremoved from exposure to the sun. It was clear that the luxuriousinhabitants of Ravenna recognised no duties of sufficient importance,and no pleasures of sufficient attraction, to necessitate the exposureof their susceptible bodies to the noontide heat.
To give the reader some idea of the manner in which the indolentpatricians of the Court loitered away their noon, and to satisfy, atthe same time, the exigencies attaching to the conduct of this story,it is requisite to quit the lounging-places of the plebeians in thestreets for the couches of the nobles in the Emperor's palace.
Passing through the massive entrance gates, crossing the vast hall ofthe Imperial abode, with its statues, its marbles, and its guards inattendance, and thence ascending the noble staircase, the first objectthat might on this occasion have attracted the observer, when he gainedthe approaches to the private apartments, was a door at an extremity ofthe corridor, richly carved and standing half open. At this spot weregrouped some fifteen or twenty individuals, who conversed by signs, andmaintained in all their movements the most decorous and completesilence. Sometimes one of the party stole on tiptoe to the door, andlooked cautiously through, returning almost instantaneously, andexpressing to his next neighbour, by various grimaces, his immenseinterest in the sight he had just beheld. Occasionally there came fromthis mysterious chamber sounds resembling the cackling of poultry,varied now and then by a noise like the falling of a shower of small,light substances upon a hard floor. Whenever these sounds wereaudible, the members of the party outside the door looked round uponeach other and smiled--some sarcastically, some triumphantly. A fewamong these patient expectants grasped rolls of vellum in their hands;the rest held nosegays of rare flowers, or supported in their armssmall statues and pictures in mosaic. Of their number, some werepainters and poets, some orators and philosophers, and some statuariesand musicians. Among such a motley assemblage of professions,remarkable in all ages of the world for fostering in their votaries thevice of irritability, it may seem strange that so quiet and orderly abehaviour should exist as that just described. But it is to beobserved that in attending at the palace, these men of genius made sureat least of outward unanimity among their ranks, by coming equallyprepared with one accomplishment, and equally animated by one hope:they waited to employ a common agent--flattery; to attain a commonend--gain.
The chamber thus sacred, even from the intrusion of intellectualinspiration, although richly ornamented, was of no remarkable extent.At other times the eye might have wandered with delight on theexquisite plants and flowers, scattered profusely over a noble terrace,to which a second door in the apartment conducted; but, at the presentmoment, the employment of the occupant of the room was of soextraordinary a nature, that the most attentive observation must havemissed all the inferior characteristics of the place, to settleimmediately on its inhabitant alone.
In the midst of a large flock of poultry, which seemed strangelymisplaced on a floor of marble and under a gilded roof, stood a pale,thin, debilitated youth, magnificently clothed, and holding in his handa silver vase filled with grain, which he ever and anon distributed tothe cackling multitude at his feet. Nothing could be more pitiablyeffeminate than the appearance of this young man. His eyes were heavyand vacant, his forehead low and retiring, his cheeks sallow, and hisform curved as if with a premature old age. An unmeaning smile dilatedhis thin, colourless lips; and as he looked down on his strangefavourites, he occasionally whispered to them a few broken expressionsof endearment, almost infantine in their simplicity. His whole soulseemed to be engrossed by the labour of distributing his grain, and hefollowed the different movements of the poultry with an earnestness ofattention which seemed almost idiotic in its ridiculous intensity. Ifit be asked, why a person so contemptible as this solitary youth hasbeen introduced with so much care, and described with so muchminuteness, it must be answered, that, though destined to form noimportant figure in this work, he played, from his position, aremarkable part in the great drama on which it is founded--for thisfeeder of chickens was no less a person than Honorius, Emperor of Rome.
It is the very imbecility of this man, at such a time as that we nowwrite on, which invests his character with a fearful interest in theeye of posterity. In himself the impersonation of the meanest vicesinherent in the vicious civilisation of his period, to his feeblenesswas accorded the terrible responsibil
ity of liberating thelong-prisoned storm whose elements we have attempted to describe in thepreceding chapter. With just intellect enough to be capricious, andjust determination enough to be mischievous, he was an instrumentfitted for the uses of every ambitious villain who could succeed ingaining his ear. To flatter his puerile tyranny, the infatuatedintriguers of the Court rewarded the heroic Stilicho for the rescue ofhis country with the penalty of death, and defrauded Alaric of themoderate concessions that they had solemnly pledged themselves toperform. To gratify his vanity, he was paraded in triumph through thestreets of Rome for a victory that others had gained. To pander to hisarrogance, by an exhibition of the vilest privilege of that power whichhad been intrusted to him for good, the massacre of the helplesshostages, confided by Gothic honour to Roman treachery, wasunhesitatingly ordained; and, finally, to soothe the turbulence of hisunmanly fears, the last act of his unscrupulous councillors, ere theEmpire fell, was to authorise his abandoning his people in the hour ofperil, careless who suffered in defenceless Rome, while he was securein fortified Ravenna. Such was the man under whom the mightiest of theworld's structures was doomed to totter to its fall! Such was thefigure destined to close a scene which Time and Glory had united tohallow and adorn! Raised and supported by a superhuman daring, thatinvested the nauseous horrors of incessant bloodshed with a rude andappalling magnificence, the mistress of nations was now fated to sinkby the most ignoble of defeats, under the most abject of tremblers.For this had the rough old kingdom shaken off its enemies by swarmsfrom its vigorous arms! For this had the doubtful virtues of theRepublic, and the perilous magnificence of the Empire, perplexed andastonished the world! In such a conclusion as Honorius ended thedignified barbarities of a Brutus, the polished splendours of anAugustus, the unearthly atrocities of a Nero, and the immortal virtuesof a Trajan! Vainly, through the toiling ages, over the ruin of hernoblest hearts, and the prostitution of her grandest intellects, hadRome striven pitilessly onward, grasping at the shadow--Glory; the fiathad now gone forth that doomed her to possess herself finally of thesubstance--Shame!
When the imperial trifler had exhausted his store of grain, andsatisfied the cravings of his voracious favourites, he was relieved ofhis silver vase by two attendants. The flock of poultry was thenushered out at one door, while the flock of geniuses was ushered in atthe other.
Leaving the emperor to cast his languid eyes over objects of art forwhich he had no admiration, and to open his unwilling ears topanegyrical orations for which he had no comprehension, we proceed tointroduce the reader to an apartment on the opposite side of thepalace, in which are congregated all the beauty and elegance of hisCourt.
Imagine a room two hundred feet long and proportionably broad. Itsfloor is mosaic, wrought into the loveliest patterns. Its sides aredecorated with immense pillars of variegated marble, the recessesformed by which are occupied by statues, all arranged in exquisitevariety of attitude, so as to appear to be offering to whoeverapproaches them the rare flowers which it is the duty of the attendantsto place in their hands. The ceiling is painted in fresco, in patternsand colours harmonising with those on the mosaic floor. The cornicesare of silver, and decorated with mottoes from the amatory poets of theday, the letters of which are formed by precious stones. In the middleof the room is a fountain throwing up streams of perfumed water, andsurrounded by golden aviaries containing birds of all sizes andnations. Three large windows, placed at the eastern extremity of theapartment, look out upon the Adriatic, but are covered at this hour,from the outside, with silk curtains of a delicate green shade, whichcast a soft, luxurious light over every object, but are so thinly wovenand so skilfully arranged that the slightest breath of air which moveswithout finds its way immediately to the languid occupants of the Courtwaiting-room. The number of these individuals amounts to about fiftyor sixty persons. By far the larger half of the assemblage are women.Their black hair tastefully braided into various forms, and adornedwith flowers or precious stones, contrasts elegantly with the brilliantwhiteness of the robes in which they are for the most part clothed.Some of them are occupied in listlessly watching the movements of thebirds in the aviaries; others hold a languid and whispered conversationwith such of the courtiers as happen to be placed near them. The menexhibit in their dresses a greater variety of colour, and in theiroccupations a greater fertility of resource, than the women. Theirgarments, of the lightest rose, violet, or yellow tints, diversifyfantastically the monotonous white robes of their gentle companions.Of their employments, the most conspicuous are playing on the lute,gaming with dice, teasing their lapdogs, and insulting their parasites.Whatever their occupation, it is performed with little attention, andless enthusiasm. Some recline on their couches with closed eyes, as ifthe heat made the labour of using their organs of vision too much forthem; others, in the midst of a conversation, suddenly leave a sentenceunfinished, apparently incapacitated by lassitude from givingexpression to the simplest ideas. Every sight in the apartment thatattracts the eye, every sound that gains the ear, expresses a luxuriousrepose. No brilliant light mars the pervading softness of theatmosphere; no violent colour materialises the light, ethereal hues ofthe dresses; no sudden noises interrupt the fitful and plaintive notesof the lute, jar with the soft twittering of the birds in the aviaries,or drown the still, regular melody of the ladies' voices. All objects,animate and inanimate, are in harmony with each other. It is a sceneof spiritualised indolence--a picture of dreamy beatitude in the inmostsanctuary of unruffled repose.
Amid this assemblage of beauty and nobility, the members of which wererather to be generally noticed than particularly observed, there was,however, one individual who, both by the solitary occupation he hadchosen and his accidental position in the room, was personallyremarkable among the listless patricians around him.
His couch was placed nearer the window than that of any other occupantof the chamber. Some of his indolent neighbours--especially those ofthe gentler sex--occasionally regarded him with mingled looks ofadmiration and curiosity; but no one approached him, or attempted toengage him in conversation. A piece of vellum lay by his side, onwhich, from time to time, he traced a few words, and then resumed hisreclining position, apparently absorbed in reflection, and utterlyregardless of all the occupants, male and female, of the imperialapartment. Judging from his general appearance, he could scarcely betwenty-five years of age. The conformation of the upper part of hisface was thoroughly intellectual--the forehead high, broad, andupright; the eyes clear, penetrating, and thoughtful;--but the lowerpart was, on the other hand, undeniably sensual. The lips, full andthick, formed a disagreeable contrast to the delicate chiselling of thestraight Grecian nose; while the fleshiness of the chin, and the jovialredundancy of the cheeks, were, in their turn, utterly at variance withthe character of the pale, noble forehead, and the expression of thequick, intelligent eyes. In stature he was barely of the middle size;but every part of his body was so perfectly proportioned that heappeared, in any position, taller than he really was. The upper partof his dress, thrown open from the heat, partly disclosed the finestatuesque formation of his neck and chest. His ears, hands, and feetwere of that smallness and delicacy which is held to denote thearistocracy of birth; and there was in his manner that indescribablecombination of unobtrusive dignity and unaffected elegance, which inall ages and countries, and through all changes of manners and customs,has rendered the demeanour of its few favoured possessors theinstantaneous interpreter of their social rank.
While the patrician was still occupied over his vellum, the followingconversation took place in whispers between two ladies placed near thesituation he occupied.
'Tell me, Camilla,' said the eldest and stateliest of the two, 'who isthe courtier so occupied in composition? I have endeavoured, I knownot how often, to catch his eye; but the man will look at nothing buthis roll of vellum or the corners of the room.'
'What, are you so great a stranger in Italy as not to know him!'replied the other, a lively girl of small d
elicate form, who fidgetedwith persevering restlessness on her couch, and seemed incapable ofgiving an instant's steady attention to any of the objects around her.'By all the saints, martyrs, and relics of my uncle the bishop!'
'Hush! You should not swear!'
'Not swear! Why, I am making a new collection of oaths, intendedsolely for ladies' use! I intend to set the fashion of swearing bythem myself!'
'But answer my question, I beseech you! Will you never learn to talkon one subject at a time?'
'Your question--ah, your question! It was about the Goths?'
'No, no! It was about that man who is incessantly writing, and willlook at nobody. He is almost as provoking as Camilla herself!'
'Don't frown so! That man, as you call him, is the senator Vetranio.'
The lady started. It was evident that Vetranio had a reputation.
'Yes!' continued the lively Camilla, 'that is the accomplishedVetranio; but he will be no favourite of yours, for he sometimesswears--swears by the ancient gods, too, which is forbidden!'
'He is handsome.'
'Handsome! he is beautiful! Not a woman in Italy but is languishingfor him!'
'I have heard that he is clever.'
'Who has not? He is the author of some of the most celebrated saucesof the age. Cooks of all nations worship him as an oracle. Then hewrites poetry, and composes music, and paints pictures! And as forphilosophy--he talks it better than my uncle the bishop!'
'Is he rich?'
'Ah! my uncle the bishop!--I must tell you how I helped Vetranio tomake a satire on him! When I was staying with him at Rome, I used oftento see a woman in a veil taken across the garden to his study; so, toperplex him, I asked him who she was. And he frowned and stammered,and said at first that I was disrespectful; but he told me afterwardsthat she was an Arian whom he was labouring to convert. So I thought Ishould like to see how this conversion went on, and I hid myself behinda bookcase. But it is a profound secret; I tell it you in confidence.'
'I don't care to know it. Tell me about Vetranio.'
'How ill-natured you are! Oh! I shall never forget how we laughed whenI told Vetranio what I had seen. He took up his writing materials, andmade the satire immediately. The next day all Rome heard of it. Myuncle was speechless with rage! I believe he suspected me; but he gaveup converting the Arian lady, and--'
'I ask you again--Is Vetranio rich?'
'Half Sicily is his. He has immense estates in Africa, olive-groundsin Syria, and corn-fields in Gaul. I was present at an entertainmenthe gave at his villa in Sicily. He fitted up one of his vessels fromthe descriptions of the furnishing of Cleopatra's galley, and made hisslaves swim after us as attendant Tritons. Oh! it was magnificent!'
'I should like to know him.'
'You should see his cats! He has a perfect legion of them at hisvilla. Twelve slaves are employed to attend on them. He is mad aboutcats, and declares that the old Egyptians were right to worship them.He told me yesterday, that when his largest cat is dead he willcanonise her, in spite of the Christians! And then he is so kind tohis slaves! They are never whipped or punished, except when theyneglect or disfigure themselves; for Vetranio will allow nothing thatis ugly or dirty to come near him. You must visit his banqueting-hallin Rome. It is perfection!'
'But why is he here?'
'He has come to Ravenna, charged with some secret message from theSenate, and has presented a rare breed of chickens to that foolish--'
'Hush! you may be overheard!'
'Well!--to that wise emperor of ours! Ah! the palace has been sopleasant since he has been here!'
At this instant the above dialogue--from the frivolity of which theuniversally-learned readers of modern times will, we fear, recoil withcontempt--was interrupted by a movement on the part of its hero whichshowed that his occupation was at an end. With the elaboratedeliberation of a man who disdains to exhibit himself as liable to behurried by any mortal affair, Vetranio slowly folded up the vellum hehad now filled with writing, and depositing it in his bosom, made asign to a slave who happened to be then passing near him with a dish offruit.
Having received his message, the slave retired to the entrance of theapartment, and beckoning to a man who stood outside the door, motionedhim to approach Vetranio's couch.
This individual immediately hurried across the room to the window wherethe elegant Roman awaited him. Not the slightest description of him isneeded; for he belonged to a class with which moderns are as wellacquainted as ancients--a class which has survived all changes ofnations and manners--a class which came in with the first rich man inthe world, and will only go out with the last. In a word, he was aparasite.
He enjoyed, however, one great superiority over his modern successors:in his day flattery was a profession--in ours it has sunk to a pursuit.
'I shall leave Ravenna this evening,' said Vetranio.
The parasite made three low bows and smiled ecstatically.
'You will order my travelling equipage to be at the palace gates anhour before sunset.'
The parasite declared he should never forget the honour of thecommission, and left the room.
The sprightly Camilla, who had overheard Vetranio's command, jumped offher couch, as soon as the parasite's back was turned, and running up tothe senator, began to reproach him for the determination he had justformed.
'Have you no compunction at leaving me to the dulness of this horriblepalace, to satisfy your idle fancy for going to Rome,' said she,pouting her pretty lip, and playing with a lock of the dark brown hairthat clustered over Vetranio's brow.
'Has the senator Vetranio so little regard for his friends as to leavethem to the mercy of the Goths?' said another lady, advancing with awinning smile to Camilla's side.
'Ah, those Goths!' exclaimed Vetranio, turning to the last speaker.'Tell me, Julia, is it not reported that the barbarians are reallymarching into Italy?'
'Everybody has heard of it. The emperor is so discomposed by therumour, that he has forbidden the very name of the Goths to bementioned in his presence again.'
'For my part,' continued Vetranio, drawing Camilla towards him, andplayfully tapping her little dimpled hand, 'I am in anxious expectationof the Goths, for I have designed a statue of Minerva, for which I canfind no model so fit as a woman of that troublesome nation. I aminformed upon good authority, that their limbs are colossal, and theirsense of propriety most obediently pliable under the discipline of thepurse.'
'If the Goths supply you with a model for anything,' said a courtierwho had joined the group while Vetranio was speaking, 'it will be witha representation of the burning of your palace at Rome, which they willenable you to paint from the inexhaustible reservoir of your ownwounds.'
The individual who uttered this last observation was remarkable amongthe brilliant circle around him by his excessive ugliness. Urged byhis personal disadvantages, and the loss of all his property at thegaming-table, he had latterly personated a character, theaccomplishments attached to which rescued him, by their disagreeableoriginality in that frivolous age, from oblivion or contempt. He was aCynic philosopher.
His remark, however, produced no other effect on his hearers' serenitythan to excite their merriment. Vetranio laughed, Camilla laughed,Julia laughed. The idea of a troop of barbarians ever being able toburn a palace at Rome was too wildly ridiculous for any one's gravity;and as the speech was repeated in other parts of the room, in spite oftheir dulness and lassitude the whole Court laughed.
'I know not why I should be amused by that man's nonsense,' saidCamilla, suddenly becoming grave at the very crisis of a mostattractive smile, 'when I am so melancholy at the thought of Vetranio'sdeparture. What will become of me when he is gone? Alas! who will beleft in the palace to compose songs to my beauty and music for my lute?Who will paint me as Venus, and tell me stories about the ancientEgyptians and their cats? Who at the banquet will direct what dishes Iam to choose, and what I am to reject? Who?'--and poor little Camilla
stopped suddenly in her enumeration of the pleasures she was about tolose, and seemed on the point of weeping as piteously as she had beenlaughing rapturously but the instant before.
Vetranio was touched--not by the compliment to his more intellectualpowers, but by the admission of his convivial supremacy as a guide tothe banquet, contained in the latter part of Camilla's remonstrance.The sex were then, as now, culpably deficient in gastronomicenthusiasm. It was, therefore, a perfect triumph to have made a convertto the science of the youngest and loveliest of the ladies of the Court.
'If she can gain leave of absence,' said the gratified senator,'Camilla shall accompany me to Rome, and shall be present at the firstcelebration of my recent discovery of a Nightingale Sauce.'
Camilla was in ecstasies. She seized Vetranio's cheeks between herrosy little fingers, kissed him as enthusiastically as a child kisses anew toy, and darted gaily off to prepare for her departure.
'Vetranio would be better employed,' sneered the Cynic, 'in inventingnew salves for future wounds than new sauces for future nightingales!His carcase will be carved by Gothic swords as a feast for the wormsbefore his birds are spitted with Roman skewers as a feast for hisguests! Is this a time for cutting statues and concocting sauces? Fieon the senators who abandon themselves to such pursuits as Vetranio's!'
'I have other designs,' replied the object of all this moralindignation, looking with insulting indifference on the Cynic'srepulsive countenance, 'which, from their immense importance to theworld, must meet with universal approval. The labour that I have justachieved forms one of a series of three projects which I have for sometime held in contemplation. The first is an analysis of the newpriesthood; the second, a true personification, both by painting andsculpture, of Venus; the third, a discovery of what has been hithertouninvented--a nightingale sauce. By the inscrutable wisdom of Fate, ithas been so willed that the last of the objects I proposed to myselfhas been the first attained. The sauce is composed, and I have justconcluded on this vellum the ode that is to introduce it at my table.The analysation will be my next labour. It will take the form of atreatise, in which, making the experience of past years the groundworkof prophecy for the future, I shall show the precise number ofadditional dissensions, controversies, and quarrels that will berequired to enable the new priesthood to be themselves the destroyersof their own worship. I shall ascertain by an exact computation theyear in which this destruction will be consummated; and I have by me asthe materials for my work an historical summary of Christian schismsand disputes in Rome for the last hundred years. As for my seconddesign, the personification of Venus, it is of appalling difficulty.It demands an investigation of the women of every nation under the sun;a comparison of the relative excellences and peculiarities of theirseveral charms; and a combination of all that is loveliest in theinfinite variety of their most prominent attractions, under one form.To forward the execution of this arduous project, my tenants at homeand my slave-merchants abroad have orders to send to my villa in Sicilyall women who are born most beautiful in the Empire, or can be broughtmost beautiful from the nations around. I will have them displayedbefore me, of every shade in complexion and of every peculiarity inform! At the fitting period I shall commence my investigations,undismayed by difficulty, and determined on success. Never yet has thetrue Venus been personified! Should I accomplish the task, howexquisite will be my triumph! My work will be the altar at whichthousands will offer up the softest emotions of the heart. It willfree the prisoned imagination of youth, and freshen the fadingrecollections on the memory of age!'
Vetranio paused. The Cynic was struck dumb with indignation. Asolitary zealot for the Church, who happened to be by, frowned at theanalysation. The ladies tittered at the personification. Thegastronomists chuckled at the nightingale sauce; but for the first fewminutes no one spoke. During this temporary embarrassment, Vetraniowhispered a few words in Julia's ear; and--just as the Cynic wassufficiently recovered to retort--accompanied by the lady, he quittedthe room.
Never was popularity more unalloyed than Vetranio's. Gifted with adisposition the pliability of which adapted itself to all emergencies,his generosity disarmed enemies, while his affability made friends.Munificent without assumption, successful without pride, he obligedwith grace and shone with safety. People enjoyed his hospitality, forthey knew that it was disinterested; and admired his acquirements, forthey felt that they were unobtrusive. Sometimes (as in his dialoguewith the Cynic) the whim of the moment, or the sting of a sarcasm, drewfrom him a hint at his station, or a display of his eccentricities;but, as he was always the first soon afterwards to lead the laugh athis own outbreak, his credit as a noble suffered nothing by hisinfirmity as a man. Gaily and attractively he moved in all grades ofthe society of his age, winning his social laurels in every rank,without making a rival to dispute their possession, or an enemy todetract from their value.
On quitting the Court waiting-room, Vetranio and Julia descended thepalace stairs and passed into the emperor's garden. Used generally asan evening lounge, this place was now untenanted, save by the fewattendants engaged in cultivating the flower-beds and watering thesmooth, shady lawns. Entering one of the most retired of the numeroussummer-houses among the trees, Vetranio motioned his companion to takea seat, and then abruptly addressed her in the following words:--
'I have heard that you are about to depart for Rome--is it true?'
He asked this question in a low voice, and with a manner in itsearnestness strangely at variance with the volatile gaiety which hadcharacterised him, but a few moments before, among the nobles of theCourt. As Julia answered him in the affirmative, his countenanceexpressed a lively satisfaction; and seating himself by her side, hecontinued the conversation thus:--
'If I thought that you intended to stay for any length of time in thecity, I should venture upon a fresh extortion from your friendship byasking you to lend me your little villa at Aricia!'
'You shall take with you to Rome an order on my steward to placeeverything there at your entire disposal.'
'My generous Julia! You are of the gifted few who really know how toconfer a favour! Another woman would have asked me why I wanted thevilla--you give it unreservedly. So delicate an unwillingness tointrude on a secret reminds me that the secret should now be yours!'
To explain the easy confidence that existed between Vetranio and Julia,it is necessary to inform the reader that the lady--although stillattractive in appearance--was of an age to muse on her past, ratherthan to meditate on her future conquests. She had known her eccentriccompanion from his boyhood, had been once flattered in his verses, andwas sensible enough--now that her charms were on the wane--to be ascontent with the friendship of the senator as she had formerly beenenraptured with the adoration of the youth.
'You are too penetrating,' resumed Vetranio, after a short pause, 'notto have already suspected that I only require your villa to assist mein the concealment of an intrigue. So peculiar is my adventure in itsdifferent circumstances, that to make use of my palace as the scene ofits development would be to risk a discovery which might produce theimmediate subversion of all my designs. But I fear the length of myconfession will exceed the duration of your patience!'
'You have aroused my curiosity. I could listen to you for ever!'
'A short time before I took my departure from Rome for this place,'continued Vetranio, 'I encountered an adventure of the mostextraordinary nature, which has haunted me with the most extraordinaryperseverance, and which will have, I feel assured, the mostextraordinary results. I was sitting one evening in the garden of mypalace on the Pincian Mount, occupied in trying a new composition on mylute. In one of the pauses of the melody, which was tender andplaintive, I heard sounds that resembled the sobbing of some one indistress among the trees behind me. I looked cautiously round, anddiscerned, half-hidden by the verdure, the figure of a young girl, whoappeared to be listening to the music with the most entrancedattention. Flattered by such a testimony to my s
kill, and anxious togain a nearer view of my mysterious visitant, I advanced towards herhiding-place, forgetting in my haste to continue playing on the lute.The instant the music ceased, she discerned me and disappeared.Determined to behold her, I again struck the chords, and in a fewminutes I saw her white robe once more among the trees. I redoubled myefforts. I played with the utmost expression the most pathetic partsof the melody. As if under the influence of a charm, she began toadvance towards me, now hesitating, now moving back a few steps, nowapproaching, half-reluctantly, half willingly, until, utterlyvanquished by the long trembling close of the last cadence of the air,she ran suddenly up to me, and falling at my feet, raised her hands asif to implore my pardon.'
'Truly this was no common tribute to your skill! Did she speak to you?'
'She uttered not a word,' continued Vetranio. 'Her large soft eyes,bright with tears, looked piteously up in my face; her delicate lipstrembled, as if she wished to speak, but dared not; her smooth roundarms were the very perfection of beauty. Child as she seemed in yearsand emotions, she looked a woman in loveliness and form. For themoment I was too much astonished by the suddenness of her supplicatingaction to move or speak. As soon as I recovered myself I attempted tofondle and console her, but she shrunk from my embrace, and seemedinclined to escape from me again; until I touched once more the stringsof the lute, and then she uttered a subdued exclamation of delight,nestled close up to me, and looked into my face with such a strangeexpression of mingled adoration and rapture, that I declare to you,Julia, I felt as bashful before her as a boy.'
'You bashful! The Senator Vetranio bashful!' exclaimed Julia, lookingup with an expression of the most unfeigned incredulity andastonishment.
'The lute,' pursued Vetranio gravely, without heeding the interruption,'was my sole means of procuring any communication with her. If Iceased playing, we were as strangers; if I resumed, we were as friends.So, subduing the notes of the instrument while she spoke to me in asoft tremulous musical voice, I still continued to play. By this planI discovered at our first interview that she was the daughter of oneNumerian, that she was on the point of completing her fourteenth year,and that she was called Antonina. I had only succeeded in gaining thismere outline of her story, when, as if struck by some suddenapprehension, she tore herself from me with a look of the utmostterror, and entreating me not to follow her if I ever desired to seeher again, she disappeared rapidly among the trees.'
'More and more wonderful! And, in your new character of a bashful man,you doubtless obeyed her injunctions?'
'I did,' replied the senator; 'but the next evening I revisited thegarden grove, and, as soon as I struck the chords, as if by magic, sheagain approached. At this second interview I learned the reason of hermysterious appearances and departures. Her father, she told me, wasone of a new sect, who imagine--with what reason it is impossible tocomprehend--that they recommend themselves to their Deity by makingtheir lives one perpetual round of bodily suffering and mental anguish.Not content with distorting all his own feelings and faculties, thistyrant perpetrated his insane austerities upon the poor child as well.He forbade her to enter a theatre, to look on sculpture, to readpoetry, to listen to music. He made her learn long prayers, and attendto interminable sermons. He allowed her no companions of her ownage--not even girls like herself. The only recreation that she couldobtain was the permission--granted with much reluctance and manyrebukes--to cultivate a little garden which belonged to the house theylived in, and joined at one point the groves round my palace. There,while she was engaged over her flowers, she first heard the sound of mylute for many months before I had discovered her, she had been in thehabit of climbing the enclosure that bounded her garden, and hidingherself among the trees to listen to the music, whenever her father'sconcerns took him abroad. She had been discovered in this occupationby an old man appointed to watch her in his master's absence. Theattendant, however, on hearing her confession, not only promised tokeep her secret, but permitted her to continue her visits to my grovewhenever I chanced to be playing there on the lute. Now the mostmysterious part of this matter is, that the girl seemed--in spite ofhis severity towards her--to have a great affection for her surly; for,when I offered to deliver her from his custody, she declared thatnothing could induce her to desert him--not even the attraction ofliving among fine pictures and hearing beautiful music every hour inthe day. But I see I weary you; and, indeed, it is evident from thelength of the shadows that the hour of my departure is at hand. Let methen pass from my introductory interviews with Antonina, to theconsequences that had resulted from them when I set forth on my journeyto Ravenna.'
'I think I can imagine the consequences already!' said Julia, smilingmaliciously.
'Begin then,' retorted Vetranio, 'by imagining that the strangeness ofthis girl's situation, and the originality of her ideas, invested herwith an attraction for me, which the charms of her person and agecontributed immensely to heighten. She delighted my faculties as apoet, as much as she fired my feelings as a man; and I determined tolure her from the tyrannical protection of her father by the employmentof every artifice that my ingenuity could suggest. I began by teachingher to exercise for herself the talent which had so attracted her inanother. By the familiarity engendered on both sides by such anoccupation, I hoped to gain as much in affection from her as sheacquired in skill from me; but to my astonishment, I still found her asindifferent towards the master, and as tender towards the music, as shehad appeared at our first interview. If she had repelled my advances,if they had overwhelmed her with confusion, I could have adapted myselfto her humour, I should have felt the encouragement of hope; but thecoldness, the carelessness, the unnatural, incomprehensible ease withwhich she received even my caresses, utterly disconcerted me. Itseemed as if she could only regard me as a moving statue, as a mereimpersonation, immaterial as the science I was teaching her. If Ispoke, she hardly looked on me; if I moved, she scarcely noticed theaction. I could not consider it dislike; she seemed to gentle tonourish such a feeling for any creature on earth. I could not believeit coldness; she was all life, all agitation, if she heard only a fewnotes of music. When she touched the chords of the instrument, herwhole frame trembled. Her eyes, mild, serious, and thoughtful when shelooked on me, now brightened with delight, now softened with tears,when she listened to the lute. As day by day her skill in musicincreased, so her manner towards me grew more inexplicably indifferent.At length, weary of the constant disappointments that I experienced,and determined to make a last effort to touch her heart by awakeningher gratitude, I presented her with the very lute which she had atfirst heard, and on which she had now learned to play. Never have Iseen any human being so rapturously delighted as this incomprehensiblegirl when she received the instrument from my hands. She alternatelywept and laughed over it, she kissed it, fondled it, spoke to it, as ifit had been a living thing. But when I approached to suppress theexpressions of thankfulness that she poured on me for the gift, shesuddenly hid the lute in her robe, as if afraid that I should depriveher of it, and hurried rapidly from my sight. The next day I waitedfor her at our accustomed meeting-place, but she never appeared. Isent a slave to her father's house, but she would hold no communicationwith him. It was evident that, now she had gained her end, she caredno more to behold me. In my first moments of irritation, I determinedto make her feel my power, if she despised my kindness; but reflectionconvinced me, from my acquaintance with her character, that in such amatter force was impolitic, that I should risk my popularity in Rome,and engage myself in an unworthy quarrel to no purpose. Dissatisfiedwith myself, and disappointed in the girl, I obeyed the first dictatesof my impatience, and seizing the opportunity afforded by my duties inthe senate of escaping from the scene of defeated hopes, I departedangrily for Ravenna.'
'Departed for Ravenna!' cried Julia, laughing outright. 'Oh, what aconclusion to the adventure! I confess it, Vetranio, such consequencesas these are beyond all imagination!'
'You laugh, Ju
lia,' returned the senator, a little piqued; 'but hear meto the end, and you will find that I have not yet resigned myself todefeat. For the few days that I have remained here, Antonina's imagehas incessantly troubled my thoughts. I perceive that my inclination,as well as my reputation, is concerned in subduing her ungratefulaversion. I suspect that my anxiety to gain her will, if unremoved, sofar influence my character, that from Vetranio the Serene, I shall bechanged into Vetranio the Sardonic. Pride, honour, curiosity, and loveall urge me to her conquest. To prepare for my banquet is an excuse tothe Court for my sudden departure from this place; the real object ofmy journey is Antonina alone.'
'Ah, now I recognise my friend again in his own character,' remarkedthe lady approvingly.
'You will ask me how I purpose to obtain another interview with her?'continued Vetranio. 'I answer, that the girl's attendant hasvoluntarily offered himself as an instrument for the prosecution of myplans. The very day before I departed from Rome, he suddenly presentedhimself to my in my garden, and proposed to introduce me intoNumerian's house--having first demanded, with the air more of an equalthan an inferior, whether the report that I was still a secret adherentof the old religion, of the worship of the gods, was true. Suspiciousof the fellow's motives (for he abjured all recompense as the reward ofhis treachery), and irritated by the girl's recent ingratitude, Itreated his offer with contempt. Now, however, that my dissatisfactionis calmed and my anxiety aroused, I am determined, at all hazards, totrust myself to this man, be his motives for aiding me what they may.If my efforts at my expected interview--and I will not spare them--arerewarded with success, it will be necessary to obtain some refuge forAntonina that will neither be suspected nor searched. For such ahiding-place, nothing can be more admirably adapted than your Aricianvilla. Do you--now that you know for what use it is intended--repentof your generous disposal of it in aid of my design?'
'I am delighted to have had it to bestow on you,' replied the liberalJulia, pressing Vetranio's hand. 'Your adventure is indeed uncommon--Iburn with impatience to hear how it will end. Whatever happens, you maydepend on my secrecy and count on my assistance. But see, the sun isalready verging towards the west; and yonder comes one of your slavesto inform you, I doubt not, that your equipage is prepared. Returnwith me to the palace, and I will supply you with the letter necessaryto introduce you as master to my country abode.'
* * * * *
The worthy citizens of Ravenna assembled in the square before thepalace to behold the senator's departure, had entirely exhausted suchinnocent materials for amusement as consisted in staring at the guards,catching the clouds of gnats that hovered about their ears, andquarrelling with each other; and were now reduced to a state of verynoisy and unanimous impatience, when their discontent was suddenly andmost effectually appeased by the appearance of the travelling equipagewith Vetranio and Camilla outside the palace gates.
Uproarious shouts greeted the appearance of the senator and hismagnificent retinue; but they were increased a hundred-fold when thechief slaves, by their master's command, each scattered a handful ofsmall coin among the poorer classes of the spectators. Every man amongthat heterogeneous assemblage of rogues, fools, and idlers roared hisloudest and capered his highest, in honour of the generous patrician.Gradually and carefully the illustrious travellers moved through thecrowd around them to the city gate; and thence, amid incessant shoutsof applause, raised with imposing unanimity of lung, and wrought up tothe most distracting discordancy of noise, Vetranio and his livelycompanion departed in triumph for Rome.
* * * * *
A few days after this event the citizens were again assembled at thesame place and hour--probably to witness another patriciandeparture--when their ears were assailed by the unexpected soundproduced by the call to arms, which was followed immediately by theclosing of the city gates. They had scarcely asked each other themeaning of these unusual occurrences, when a peasant, half frantic withterror, rushed into the square, shouting out the terrible intelligencethat the Goths were in sight!
The courtiers heard the news, and starting from a luxurious repast,hurried to the palace windows to behold the portentous spectacle. Forthe remainder of the evening the banqueting tables were unapproached bythe guests.
The wretched emperor was surprised among his poultry by that dreadedintelligence. He, too, hastened to the windows, and looking forth, sawthe army of avengers passing in contempt his solitary fortress, andmoving swiftly onward towards defenceless Rome. Long after thedarkness had hidden the masses of that mighty multitude from his eyes,did he remain staring helplessly upon the fading landscape, in a stuporof astonishment and dread; and, for the first time since he hadpossessed them, his flocks of fowls were left for that night unattendedby their master's hand.