CHAPTER 7.
THE BED-CHAMBER.
It is now time to resume our chronicle of the eventful night whichmarked the destruction of Antonina's lute and the conspiracy againstAntonina's honour.
The gates of Vetranio's palace were closed, and the noises in it wereall hushed; the banquet was over, the triumph of the Nightingale Saucehad been achieved, and the daybreak was already glimmering in theeastern sky, when the senator's favoured servant, the freedman Carrio,drew back the shutter of the porter's lodge, where he had been dozingsince the conclusion of the feast, and looked out lazily into thestreet. The dull, faint light of dawn was now strengthening slowlyover the lonely roadway and on the walls of the lofty houses. Of thegroups of idlers of the lowest class who had assembled during theevening in the street to snuff the fragrant odours which steamed afarfrom Vetranio's kitchens, not one remained; men, women, and childrenhad long since departed to seek shelter wherever they could find it,and to fatten their lean bodies on what had been charitable bestowed onthem of the coarser relics of the banquet. The mysterious solitude andtranquility of daybreak in a great city prevailed over all things.Nothing impressed, however, by the peculiar and solemn attraction ofthe scene at this moment, the freedman apostrophised the fresh morningair, as it blew over him, in strong terms of disgust, and even venturedin lowered tones to rail against his master's uncomfortable fancy forbeing awakened after a feast at the approach of dawn. Far too wellaware, nevertheless, of the necessity of yielding the most implicitobedience to the commands he had received to resign himself any longerto the pleasant temptations of repose, Carrio, after yawning, rubbinghis eyes, and indulging for a few moments more in the luxury ofcomplaint, set forth in earnest to follow the corridors leading to theinterior of the palace, and to awaken Vetranio without further delay.
He had not advanced more than a few steps when a proclamation, writtenin letters of gold on a blue-coloured board, and hung against the wallat his side, attracted his attention. This public notice, whichdelayed his progress at the very outset, and which was intended for thespecial edification of all the inhabitants of Rome, was thusexpressed:--
'ON THIS DAY, AND FOR TEN DAYS FOLLOWING, THE AFFAIRS OF OUR PATRONOBLIGE HIM TO BE ABSENT FROM ROME.'
Here the proclamation ended, without descending to particulars. It hadbeen put forth, in accordance with the easy fashion of the age, toanswer at once all applications at Vetranio's palace during thesenator's absence. Although the colouring of the board, the writing ofthe letters, and the composition of the sentence were the work of hisown ingenuity, the worthy Carrio could not prevail upon himself to passthe proclamation without contemplating its magnificence anew. For sometime he stood regarding it with the same expression of lofty andcomplacent approbation which we see in these modern days illuminatingthe countenance of a connoisseur before one of his own old pictureswhich he has bought as a great bargain, or dawning over the blandfeatures of a linen-draper as he surveys from the pavement hismorning's arrangement of the window of the shop. All things, however,have their limits, even a man's approval of an effort of his own skill.Accordingly, after a prolonged review of the proclamation, some faintideas of the necessity of immediately obeying his master's commandsrevived in the mind of the judicious Carrio, and counselled him to turnhis steps at once in the direction of the palace sleeping apartments.
Greatly wondering what new caprice had induced the senator tocontemplate leaving Rome at the dawn of day--for Vetranio had divulgedto no one the object of his departure--the freedman cautiously enteredhis master's bed-chamber. He drew aside the ample silken curtainssuspended around and over the sleeping couch, from the hands of Gracesand Cupids sculptured in marble; but the statues surrounded an emptybed. Vetranio was not there. Carrio next entered the bathroom; theperfumed water was steaming in its long marble basin, and the softwrapping-cloths lay ready for use; the attendant slave, with hisinstruments of ablution, waited, half asleep, in his accustomed place;but here also no signs of the master's presence appeared. Somewhatperplexed, the freedman examined several other apartments. He foundguests, dancing girls, parasites, poets, painters--a motleycrew--occupying every kind of dormitory, and all peacefully engaged insleeping off the effects of the wine they had drunk at the banquet; butthe great object of his search still eluded him as before. At last itoccurred to him that the senator, in an excess of convivial enthusiasmand jovial hospitality, might yet be detaining some favoured guest atthe table of the feast.
Pausing, therefore, at some carved doors which stood ajar at oneextremity of a spacious hall, he pushed them open, and hurriedlyentered the banqueting-room beyond.
A soft, dim, luxurious light reigned over this apartment, which nowpresented, as far as the eye could discern, an aspect of confusion thatwas at once graceful and picturesque. Of the various lamps, of everyvariety of pattern, hanging from the ceiling, but few remained alight.From those, however, which were still unextinguished there shone a mildbrightness, admirably adapted to display the objects immediately aroundthem. The golden garlands and the alabaster pots of sweet ointmentwhich had been suspended before the guests during the banquet, stillhung from the painted ceiling. On the massive table, composed partlyof ebony and partly of silver, yet lay, in the wildest confusion,fragments of gastronomic delicacies, grotesque dinner services, vasesof flowers, musical instruments, and crystal dice; while towering overall rose the glittering dish which had contained the nightingalesconsumed by the feasters, with the four golden Cupids which had spoutedover them that illustrious invention--the Nightingale Sauce. Aroundthe couches, of violet and rose colour, ranged along the table, theperfumed and gaily-tinted powders that had been strewn in patterns overthe marble floor were perceptible for a few yards; but beyond thispoint nothing more was plainly distinguishable. The eye roved down thesides of the glorious chamber, catching dim glimpses of gorgeousdraperies, crowded statues, and marble columns, but discerning nothingaccurately, until it reached the half-opened windows, and rested uponthe fresh dewy verdure now faintly visible in the shady gardenswithout. There--waving in the morning breezes, charged on every leafwith their burden of pure and welcome moisture--rose the loftypine-trees, basking in the recurrence of the new day's beautiful andundying youth, and rising in reproving contrast before the exhaustedallurements of luxury and the perverted creations of art which burdenedthe tables of the hall within.
After a hasty survey of the apartment, the freedman appeared to be onthe point of quitting it in despair, when the noise of a falling dish,followed by several partly suppressed and wholly confused exclamationsof affright, caught his ear. He once more approached thebanqueting-table, retrimmed a lamp that hung near him, and taking it inhis hand, passed to the side of the room whence the disturbanceproceeded. A hideous little negro, staring in ludicrous terror at asilver oven, half filled with bread, which had just fallen beside him,was the first object he discovered. A few paces beyond the negroreposed a beautiful boy, crowned with vine leaves and ivy, stillsleeping by the side of his lyre; and farther yet, stretched in anuneasy slumber on a silken couch, lay the identical object of thefreedman's search--the illustrious author of the Nightingale Sauce.
Immediately above the sleeping senator hung his portrait, in which hewas modestly represented as rising by the assistance of Minerva to thetop of Parnassus, the nine Muses standing round him rejoicing. At hisfeet reposed a magnificent white cat, whose head rested in all theluxurious laziness of satiety on the edge of a golden saucer halffilled with dormice stewed in milk. The most indubitable evidences ofthe night's debauch appeared in Vetranio's disordered dress and flushedcountenance as the freedman regarded him. For some minutes the worthyCarrio stood uncertain whether to awaken his master or not, decidingfinally, however, on obeying the commands he had received, anddisturbing the slumbers of the wearied voluptuary before him. To effectthis purpose, it was necessary to call in the aid of the singing-boy;for, by a refinement of luxury, Vetranio had forbidden his attendantsto awaken him by any other method
than the agency of musical sounds.
With some difficulty the boy was sufficiently aroused to comprehend theservice that was required of him. For a short time the notes of thelyre sounded in vain. At last, when the melody took a louder and moremartial character, the sleeping patrician slowly opened his eyes andstared vacantly around him.
'My respected patron,' said the polite Carrio in apologetic tones,'commanded that I should awaken him with the dawn; the daybreak hasalready appeared.'
When the freedman had ceased speaking, Vetranio sat up on the couch,called for a basin of water, dipped his fingers in the refreshingliquid, dried them abstractedly on the long silky curls of thesinging-boy who stood beside him, gazed about him once more, repeatedinterrogatively the word 'daybreak', and sunk gently back upon hiscouch. We are grieved to confess it--but the author of the NightingaleSauce was moderately inebriated.
A short pause followed, during which the freedman and the singing-boystared upon each other in mutual perplexity. At length the one resumedhis address of apology, and the other resumed his efforts on the lyre.Once more, after an interval, the eyes of Vetranio lazily unclosed, andthis time he began to speak; but his thoughts--if thoughts they couldbe called--were as yet wholly occupied by the 'table-talk' at the pastnight's banquet.
'The ancient Egyptians--oh, sprightly and enchanting Camilla--were awise nation!' murmured the senator drowsily. 'I am myself descendedfrom the ancient Egyptians; and, therefore, I hold in high venerationthat cat in your lap, and all cats besides. Herodotus--an historianwhose works I feel a certain gratification in publicly mentioning asgood--informs us, that when a cat died in the dwelling of an ancientEgyptian, the owner shaved his eyebrows as a mark of grief, embalmedthe defunct animal in a consecrated house, and carried it to beinterred in a considerable city of Lower Egypt, called 'Bubastis'--anEgyptian word which I have discovered to mean The Sepulchre of all theCats; whence it is scarcely erroneous to infer--'
At this point the speaker's power of recollection and articulationsuddenly failed him, and Carrio--who had listened with perfect gravityto his master's oration upon cats--took immediate advantage of theopportunity now afforded him to speak again.
'The equipage which my patron was pleased to command to carry him toAricia,' said he, with a strong emphasis on the last word, 'now standsin readiness at the private gate of the palace gardens.'
As he heard the word 'Aricia', the senator's powers of recollection andperception seemed suddenly to return to him. Among that high order ofdrinkers who can imbibe to the point of perfect enjoyment, and stopshort scientifically before the point of perfect oblivion, Vetraniooccupied an exalted rank. The wine he had swallowed during the nighthad disordered his memory and slightly troubled his self-possession,but had not deprived him of his understanding. There was nothingplebeian even in his debauchery; there was an art and a refinement inhis very excesses.
'Aricia--Aricia!' he repeated to himself, 'ah! the villa that Julialent to me at Ravenna! The pleasures of the table must have obscuredfor a moment the image of my beautiful pupil of other days, which nowrevives before me again as Love resumes the dominion that Bacchususurped! My excellent Carrio,' he continued, speaking to the freedman,'you have done perfectly right in awakening me; delay not a moment morein ordering my bath to be prepared, or my man-monster Ulpius, the kingof conspirators and high priest of all that is mysterious, will waitfor me in vain! And you, Glyco,' he pursued, when Carrio had departed,addressing the singing-boy, 'array yourself for a journey, and waitwith my equipage at the garden-gate. I shall require you to accompanyme in my expedition to Aricia. But first, oh! gifted and valuedsongster, let me reward you for the harmonious symphony that has justawakened me. Of what rank of my musicians are you at present, Glyco?'
'Of the fifth,' replied the boy.
'Were you bought, or born in my house?' asked Vetranio.
'Neither; but bequeathed to you by Geta's testament,' rejoined thegratified Glyco.
'I advance you,' continued Vetranio, 'to the privileges and the pay ofthe first rank of my musicians; and I give you, as a proof of mycontinued favour, this ring. In return for these obligations, I desireto keep secret whatever concerns my approaching expedition; to employyour softest music in soothing the ear of a young girl who willaccompany us--in calming her terrors if she is afraid, in drying hertears if she weeps; and finally, to exercise your voice and your luteincessantly in uniting the name 'Antonina' to the sweetest harmonies ofsound that your imagination can suggest.'
Pronouncing these words with an easy and benevolent smile, and lookinground complacently on the display of luxurious confusion about him,Vetranio retired to the bath that was to prepare him for hisapproaching triumph.
Meanwhile a scene of a very different nature was proceeding without, atNumerian's garden-gate. Here were no singing-boys, no freedmen, noprofusion of rich treasures--here appeared only the solitary anddeformed figure of Ulpius, half hidden among surrounding trees, whilehe waited at his appointed post. As time wore on, and still Vetraniodid not appear, the Pagan's self-possession began to desert him. Hemoved restlessly backwards and forwards over the soft dewy grass,sometimes in low tones calling upon his gods to hasten the tardyfootsteps of the libertine patrician, who was to be made the instrumentof restoring to the temples the worship of other days--sometimescursing the reckless delay of the senator, or exulting in the treacheryby which he madly believed his ambition was at last to be fulfilled;but still, whatever his words or thoughts, wrought up to the same pitchof fierce, fanatic enthusiasm which had strengthened him for thedefence of his idols at Alexandria, and had nerved him against thetorment and misery of years in his slavery in the copper mines of Spain.
The precious moments were speeding irrevocably onwards. His impatiencewas rapidly changing to rage and despair as he strained his eyes forthe last time in the direction of the palace gardens, and now at lengthdiscerned a white robe among the distant trees. Vetranio was rapidlyapproaching him.
Restored by his bath, no effect of the night's festivity but itsexhilaration remained in the senator's brain. But for a slightuncertainty in his gait, and an unusual vacancy in his smile, theelegant gastronome might now have appeared to the closest observerguiltless of the influence of intoxicating drinks. He advanced,radiant with exultation, prepared for conquest, to the place whereUlpius awaited him, and was about to address the Pagan with thatsatirical familiarity so fashionable among the nobles of Rome in theircommunications with the people, when the object of his intendedpleasantries sternly interrupted him, saying, in tones more of commandthan of advice, 'Be silent! If you would succeed in your purpose,follow me without uttering a word!'
There was something so fierce and determined in the tones of the oldman's voice--low, tremulous, and husky though they were--as he utteredthose words, that the bold, confident senator instinctively held hispeace as he followed his stern guide into Numerian's house. Avoidingthe regular entrance, which at that early hour of the morning wasnecessarily closed, Ulpius conducted the patrician through a smallwicket into the subterranean apartment, or rather outhouse, which washis customary, though comfortless, retreat in his leisure hours, andwhich was hardly ever entered by the other members of the Christian'shousehold.
From the low, arched brick ceiling of this place hung an earthenwarelamp, whose light, small and tremulous, left all the corners of theapartment in perfect obscurity. The thick buttresses that projectedinwards from the walls, made visible by their prominence, displayed ontheir surfaces rude representations of idols and temples drawn inchalk, and covered with strange, mysterious hieroglyphics. On a blockof stone which served as a table lay some fragments of small statues,which Vetranio recognised as having belonged to the old, accreditedrepresentations of Pagan idols. Over the sides of the table itselfwere scrawled in Latin characters these two words, 'Serapis','Macrinus'; and about its base lay some pieces of torn, soiled linen,which still retained enough of their former character, both in shape,size, and colour, to convince Vetr
anio that they had once served as thevestments of a Pagan priest. Further than this the senator'sobservation did not carry him, for the close, almost mephiticatmosphere of the place already began to affect him unfavourably. Hefelt a suffocating sensation in his throat and a dizziness in his head.The restorative influence of his recent bath declined rapidly. Thefumes of the wine he had drunk in the night, far from having been, ashe imagined, permanently dispersed, again mounted to his head. He wasobliged to lean against the stone table to preserved his equilibrium ashe faintly desired the Pagan to shorten their sojourn in his miserableretreat.
Without even noticing the request, Ulpius hurriedly proceeded to erasethe drawings on the buttresses and the inscriptions on the table. Thencollecting the fragments of statues and the pieces of linen, hedeposited them in a hiding-place in the corner of the apartment. Thisdone, he returned to the stone against which Vetranio supportedhimself, and for a few minutes silently regarded the senator with afirm, earnest, and penetrating gaze.
A dark suspicion that he had betrayed himself into the hands of avillain, who was then plotting some atrocious project connected withhis safety or honour, began to rise on the senator's bewildered brainas he unwillingly submitted to the penetrating examination of thePagan's glance. At that moment, however, the withered lips of the oldman slowly parted, and he began to speak. Whether as he looked onVetranio's disturbed countenance, and marked his unsteady gait, theheart of Ulpius, for the first time since his introduction to thesenator, misgave him when he thought of their monstrous engagement; orwhether the near approach of the moment that was henceforth, as hewildly imagined, to fix Vetranio as his assistant and ally, sopowerfully affected his mind that it instinctively sought to vent itsagitation through the natural medium of words, it is useless toinquire. Whatever his motives for speech, the impressive earnestnessof his manner gave evidence of the depth and intensity of his emotionsas he addressed the senator thus:--
'I have submitted to servitude in a Christian's house, I have sufferedthe contamination of a Christian's prayers, to gain the use of yourpower and station when the time to employ them should arrive. The hourhas now come when my part of the conditions of our engagement is to beperformed; the hour will yet come when your part shall be exacted fromyou in turn! Do you wonder at what I have done and what I will do? Doyou marvel that a household drudge should speak thus to a nobleman ofRome? Are you astonished that I risk so much as to venture onenlisting you--by the sacrifice of the girl who now slumbers above--inthe cause whose end is the restoration of our fathers' gods, and inwhose service I have suffered and grown old? Listen, and you shallhear from what I have fallen--you shall know what I once was!'
'I adjure you by all the gods and goddesses of our ancient worship, letme hear you where I can breathe--in the garden, on the housetop,anywhere but in this dungeon!' murmured the senator in entreatingaccents.
'My birth, my parents, my education, my ancient abode--these I will notdisclose,' interrupted the Pagan, raising one arm authoritatively, asif to obstruct Vetranio from approaching the door. 'I have sworn by mygods, that until the day of restitution these secrets of my past lifeshall remain unrevealed to strangers' ears. Unknown I entered Rome,and unknown I will labour in Rome until the projects I have lived forare crowned with success! It is enough that I confess to you that withthose sacred images whose fragments you have just beheld, I was oncelodged; that those sacred vestments whose remains you discerned at yourfeet, I once wore. To attain the glories of the priesthood there wasnothing that I did not resign, to preserve them there was nothing I didnot perform, to recover them there is nothing that I will not attempt!I was once illustrious, prosperous, beloved; of my glory, my happiness,my popularity, the Christians have robbed me, and I will yet live torequite it heavily at their hands! I had a guardian who loved me in myyouth; the Christians murdered him! A temple was under the rule of mymanhood; the Christians destroyed it! The people of a whole nationonce listened to my voice; the Christians have dispersed them! Thewise, the great, the beautiful, the good, were once devoted to me; theChristians have made me a stranger at their doors, and outcast of theiraffections and thoughts! For all this shall I take no vengeance? ShallI not plot to rebuild my ruined temple, and win back, in my age, thehonours that adorned me in my youth?'
'Assuredly!--at once--without delay!' stammered Vetranio, returning thestern and inquiring gaze of the Pagan with a bewildered, uneasy stare.
'To mount over the bodies of the Christian slain,' continued the oldman, his sinister eyes dilating in anticipated triumph as he whisperedclose at the senator's ear, 'to rebuild the altars that the Christianshave overthrown, is the ambition that has made light to me thesufferings of my whole life. I have battled, and it has sustained mein the midst of carnage; I have wandered, and it has been my home inthe desert; I have failed, and it has supported me; I have beenthreatened with death, and it has preserved me from fear; I have beencast into slavery, and it has made my fetters light. You see me now,old, degraded, lonely--believe that I long neither for wife, children,tranquility, nor possessions; that I desire no companion but mycherished and exalted purpose! Remember, then, in the hour ofperformance the promise you have now made to aid me in the achievementof that purpose! Remember that you are a Pagan yourself! Feast,laugh, carouse with your compeers; be still the airy jester, the gaycompanion; but never forget the end to which you are vowed--the destinyof glory that the restoration of our deities has in store for us both!'
He ceased. Though his voice, while he spoke, never rose beyond ahoarse, monotonous, half-whispering tone, all the ferocity of hisabused and degraded nature was for the instant thoroughly aroused byhis recapitulation of his wrongs. Had Vetranio at this moment shownany symptoms of indecision, or spoken any words of discouragement, hewould have murdered him on the spot where they stood. Every feature inthe Pagan's seared and livid countenance expressed the stormy emotionsthat were rushing over his heart as he now confronted his bewilderedyet attentive listener. His firm, menacing position; his poor andscanty garments; his wild, shaggy hair; his crooked, distorted form;his stern, solemn, unwavering gaze--opposed as they were (under thefitful illumination of the expiring lamp and the advancing daylight) tothe unsteady gait, the vacant countenance, the rich robes, the youthfulgrace of form and delicacy of feature of the object of his steadycontemplation, made so wild and strange a contrast between hispatrician ally and himself that they scarcely looked like beings of thesame race. Nothing could be more immense than the difference, more wildthan the incongruity between them. It was sickness hand-in-hand withhealth; pain marshalled face to face with enjoyment; darkness ranged inmonstrous discordance by the very side of light.
The next instant--just as the astonished senator was endeavouring toframe a suitable answer to the solemn adjuration that had beenaddressed to him--Ulpius seized his arm, and opening a door at theinner extremity of the apartment, led him up some stairs that conductedto the interior of the house.
They passed the hall, on the floor of which still lay the fragments ofthe broken lute, dimly distinguishable in the soft light of daybreak;and ascending another staircase, paused at a little door at the top,which Ulpius cautiously opened, and in a moment afterwards Vetranio wasadmitted into Antonina's bed-chamber.
The room was of no great extent; its scanty furniture was of the mostordinary description; no ornaments glittered on its walls; no frescoesadorned its ceiling; and yet there was a simple elegance in itsappearance, an unobtrusive propriety in its minutest details, whichmade it at once interesting and attractive to the eye. From the whitecurtains at the window to the vase of flowers standing by the bedside,the same natural refinement of taste appeared in the arrangement of allthat the apartment contained. No sound broke the deep silence of theplace, save the low, soft breathing, occasionally interrupted by along, trembling sigh, of its sleeping occupant. The sole light in theroom consisted of a little lamp, so placed in the middle of the flowersround the sides of the vase that no extended or steady ill
umination wascast upon any object. There was something in the decent propriety ofall that was visible in the bed-chamber; in the soft obscurity of itsatmosphere; in the gentle and musical sound that alone interrupted itsmagical stillness, impressive enough, it might have been imagined, tohave awakened some hesitation in the bosom of the boldest libertine erehe deliberately proceeded to intrude on the unprotected slumbers of itsoccupant. No such feeling of indecision, however, troubled thethoughts of Vetranio as he cast a rapid glance round the apartmentwhich he had ventured so treacherously to invade. The fumes of thewine he had imbibed at the banquet had been so thoroughly resuscitatedby the oppressive atmosphere of the subterranean retreat he had justquitted, as to have left him nothing of his more refined nature. Allthat was honourable or intellectual in his character had now completelyceded to all that was base and animal. He looked round, and perceivingthat Ulpius had silently quitted him, softly closed the door. Thenadvancing to the bedside with the utmost caution compatible with theinvoluntary unsteadiness of an intoxicated man, he took the lamp fromthe vase in which it was half concealed, and earnestly surveyed by itslight the figure of the sleeping girl.
The head of Antonina was thrown back and rested rather over than on herpillow. Her light linen dress had become so disordered during thenight that it displayed her throat and part of her bosom, in all thedawning beauties of their youthful formation, to the gaze of thelicentious Roman. One hand half supported her head, and was almostentirely hidden in the locks of her long black hair, which had escapedfrom the white cincture intended to confine it, and now streamed overthe pillow in dazzling contrast to the light bed-furniture around it.The other hand held tightly clasped to her bosom the precious fragmentof her broken lute. The deep repose expressed in her position had notthoroughly communicated itself to her face. Now and then her slightlyparted lips moved and trembled, and ever and anon a change, so faintand fugitive that it was hardly perceptible, appeared in hercomplexion, breathing on the soft olive that was its natural hue, thelight rosy flush which the emotions of the past night had impressed onit ere she slept. Her position, in its voluptuous negligence, seemedthe very type of Oriental loveliness; while her face, calm andsorrowful in its expression, displayed the more refined and sobergraces of the European model. And thus these two characteristics oftwo different orders of beauty, appearing conjointly under one form,produced a whole so various and yet so harmonious, so impressive andyet so attractive, that the senator, as he bent over the couch, thoughthe warm, soft breath of the young girl played on his cheeks and wavedthe tips of his perfumed locks, could hardly imagine that the scenebefore him was more than a bright, delusive dream.
While Vetranio was yet absorbed in admiration of her charms, Antonina'sform slightly moved, as if agitated by the influence of a passingdream. The change thus accomplished in her position broke the spellthat its former stillness and beauty had unconsciously wrought torestrain the unhallowed ardour of the profligate Roman. He now passedhis arm round her warm, slender figure, and gently raising her till herhead rested on his shoulder as he sat by the bed, imprinted kiss afterkiss on the pure lips that sleep had innocently abandoned to him.
As he had foreseen, Antonina instantly awoke, but, to his unmeasuredastonishment, neither started nor shrieked. The moment she had openedher eyes she had recognised the person of Vetranio; and thatoverwhelming terror which suspends in its victims the use of everyfaculty, whether of the body or the mind, had immediately possesseditself of her heart. Too innocent to imagine the real motive thatprompted the senator's intrusion on her slumbers, where others of hersex would have foreboded dishonour, she feared death. All her father'svague denunciations against the enormities of the nobles of Rome rushedin an instant over her mind, and her childish imagination picturedVetranio as armed with some terrible and mysterious vengeance to bewreaked on her for having avoided all communication with him as soon asshe had gained possession of her lute. Prostrate beneath thepetrifying influence of her fears, motionless and powerless before himas its prey before the serpent, she made no effort to move or speak;but looked up steadfastly into the senator's face, her large eyes fixedand dilated in a gaze of overpowering terror.
Intoxicated though he was, the affrighted expression of the poor girl'spale, rigid countenance did not escape Vetranio's notice; and he taxedhis bewildered brain for such soothing and reassuring expressions aswould enable him to introduce his profligate proposals with some chancethat they would be listened to and understood.
'Dearest pupil! Most beautiful of Roman maidens,' he began in thehusky, monotonous tones of inebriety, 'abandon your fears! I comehither, wafted by the breath of love, to restore the worship of the--Iwould say to bear you on my bosom to a villa--the name of which has forthe moment escaped my remembrance. You cannot have forgotten that itwas I who taught you to compose the Nightingale Sauce--or, no--let merather say to play upon the lute. Love, music, pleasure, all await youin the arms of your attached Vetranio. Your eloquent silence speaksencouragement to my heart. Beloved Anto--'
Here the senator suddenly paused; for the eyes of the girl, which hadhitherto been fixed on him with the same expression of blank dismaythat had characterised them from the first, slowly moved in thedirection of the door. The instant afterwards a slight noise caughtVetranio's ear, and Antonina shuddered so violently as he pressed herto his side that he felt it through his whole frame. Slowly andunwillingly he withdrew his gaze from the pale yet lovely countenanceon which it had been fixed, and looked up.
At the open door, pale, silent, motionless, stood the master of thehouse.
Incapable, from the confusion of his ideas, of any other feeling thanthe animal instinct of self-defence, Vetranio no sooner beheldNumerian's figure than he rose, and drawing a small dagger from hisbosom, attempted to advance on the intruder. He found himself,however, restrained by Antonina, who had fallen on her knees beforehim, and grasped his robe with a strength which seemed utterlyincompatible with the slenderness of her form and the feebleness of hersex and age.
The first voice that broke the silence which ensued was Numerian's. Headvanced, his face ghastly with anguish, his lip quivering withsuppressed emotions, to the senator's side, and addressed him thus:--
'Put up your weapon; I come but to ask a favour at your hands.'
Vetranio mechanically obeyed him. There was something in the sterncalmness, frightful at such a moment, of the Christian's manner thatawed him in spite of himself.
'The favour I would petition for,' continued Numerian, in low, steady,bitter tones, 'is that you would remove your harlot there, to your ownabode. Here are no singing-boys, no banqueting-halls, no perfumedcouches. The retreat of a solitary old man is no place for such an oneas she. I beseech you, remove her to a more congenial home. She iswell fitted for her trade; her mother was a harlot before her!'
He laughed scornfully, and pointed, as he spoke, to the figure of theunhappy girl kneeling with outstretched arms at his feet.
'Father, father!' she cried, in accents bereft of their native softnessand melody, 'have you forgotten me?'
'I know you not!' he replied, thrusting her from him. 'Return to hisbosom; you shall never more be pressed to mine. Go to his palace; myhouse is yours no longer! You are his harlot, not my daughter! Icommand you--go!'
As he advanced towards her with fierce glance and threateningdemeanour, she suddenly rose up. Her reason seemed crushed within heras she looked with frantic earnestness from Vetranio to her father, andthen back again from her father to Vetranio. On one side she saw anenemy who had ruined her she knew not how, and who threatened her withshe knew not what; on the other, a parent who had cast her off. Forone instant she directed a final look on the room, that, sad and lonelythough it was, had still been a home to her; and then, without a wordor a sigh, she turned, and crouching like a beaten dog, fled from thehouse.
During the whole of the scene Vetranio had stood so fixed in thehelpless astonishment of intoxication as to be incapable of moving o
ruttering a word. All that took place during the short and terribleinterview between father and child utterly perplexed him. He heard noloud, violent anger on one side, no clamorous petitioning forforgiveness on the other. The stern old man whom Antonina had calledfather, and who had been pointed out to him as the most austereChristian in Rome, far from avenging his intrusion on Antonina'sslumber, had voluntarily abandoned his daughter to his licentious will.That the anger or irony of so severe a man should inspire such anaction as this, or that Numerian, like his servant, was plotting toobtain some strange mysterious favour from him by using Antonina as abribe, seemed perfectly impossible. All that passed before the senatorwas, to his bewildered imagination, thoroughly incomprehensible.Frivolous, thoughtless, profligate as he might be, his nature was notradically base, and when the scene of which he had been the astoundedwitness was abruptly terminated by the flight of Antonina, the look offrantic misery fixed on him by the unfortunate girl at the moment ofher departure, almost sobered him for the instant, as he stood beforethe now solitary father gazing vacantly around him with emotions ofuncontrollable confusion and dismay.
Meanwhile a third person was now approaching to join the two occupantsof the bedchamber abandoned by its ill-fated mistress. Although in thesubterranean retreat to which he had retired on leaving Vetranio,Ulpius had not noticed the silent entrance of the master of the house,he had heard through the open doors the sound, low though it was, ofthe Christian's voice. As he rose, suspecting all things and preparedfor every emergency, to ascend to the bedchamber, he saw, while hemounted the lowest range of stairs, a figure in white pass rapidlythrough the hall and disappear by the principal entrance of the house.He hesitated for an instant and looked after it, but the fugitivefigure had passed so swiftly in the uncertain light of early morningthat he was unable to identify it, and he determined to ascertain theprogress of events, now that Numerian must have discovered a portion atleast of the plot against his daughter and himself, by ascendingimmediately to Antonina's apartment, whatever might be the consequencesof his intrusion at such an hour on her father's wrath.
As soon as the Pagan appeared before him, a sensible change took placein Vetranio. The presence of Ulpius in the chamber was a positiverelief to the senator's perturbed faculties, after the mysterious,overpowering influence that the moral command expressed in the merepresence of the father and the master of the house, at such an hour,had exercised over them. Over Ulpius he had an absolute right, Ulpiuswas his dependant; and he determined, therefore, to extort from theservant whom he despised an explanation of the mysteries in the conductof the master whom he feared, and the daughter whom he began to doubt.
'Where is Antonina?' he cried, starting as if from a trance, andadvancing fiercely towards the treacherous Pagan. 'She has left theroom--she must have taken refuge with you.'
With a slow and penetrating gaze Ulpius looked round the apartment. Afaint agitation was perceptible in his livid countenance, but heuttered not a word.
The senator's face became pale and red with alternate emotions ofapprehension and rage. He seized the Pagan by the throat, his eyessparkled, his blood boiled, he began to suspect even then that Antoninawas lost to him for ever.
'I ask you again where is she?' he shouted in a voice of fury. 'Ifthrough this night's work she is lost or harmed, I will revenge it onyou. Is this the performance of your promise? Do you think that Iwill direct your desired restoration of the gods of old for this? Ifevil comes to Antonina through your treachery, sooner than assist inyour secret projects, I would see you and your accursed deities allburning together in the Christians' hell! Where is the girl, youslave? Villain, where was your vigilance, when you let that mansurprise us at our first interview?'
He turned towards Numerian as he spoke. Trouble and emergency gift thefaculties with a more than mortal penetration. Every word that he haduttered had eaten its burning way into the father's heart. Hours ofnarrative could not have convinced him how fatally he had beendeceived, more thoroughly than the few hasty expressions he had justheard. No word passed his lips--no action betrayed his misery. Hestood before the spoilers of his home, changed in an instant from thecourageous enthusiast to the feeble, helpless, heart-broken man.
Though all the ferocity of his old Roman blood had been roused inVetranio, as he threatened Ulpius, the father's look of cold, silent,frightful despair froze it in his young veins in an instant. His heartwas still the impressible heart of youth; and, struck for the firsttime in his life with emotions of horror and remorse, he advanced astep to offer such explanation and atonement as he best might, when thevoice of Ulpius suspended his intentions, and made him pause to listen.
'She passed me in the hall,' muttered the Pagan, doggedly. 'I did mypart in betraying her into your power--it was for you to hinder her inher flight. Why did you not strike him to the earth,' he continued,pointing with a mocking smile to Numerian, 'when he surprised you? Youare wealthy and a noble of Rome; murder would have been no crime inyou!'
'Stand back!' cried the senator, thrusting him from the position he hadhitherto occupied in the door-way. 'She may be recovered even yet!All Rome shall be searched for her!'
The next instant he disappeared from the room, and the master andservant were left together alone.
The silence that now reigned in the apartment was broken by distantsounds of uproar and confusion in the streets of the city beneath.These ominous noises had arisen with the dawn of day, but the differentemotions of the occupants of Numerian's abode had so engrossed them,that the turmoil in the outer world had passed unheeded by all. Nosooner, however, had Vetranio departed than it caught the attention ofUlpius, and he advanced to the window. What he there saw and heard wasof no ordinary importance, for it at once fixed him to the spot wherehe stood in mute and ungovernable surprise.
While Ulpius was occupied at the window, Numerian had staggered to theside of the bed which his ill-timed severity had made vacant, perhapsfor ever. The power of action, the capacity to go forth and seek hischild himself, was entirely suspended in the agony of her loss, as themiserable man fell on his knees, and in the anguish of his heartendeavoured to find solace in prayer. In the positions they severallyoccupied the servant and the master long remained--the betrayerwatching at the window, the betrayed mourning at his lost daughter'sbed--both alike silent, both alike unconscious of the lapse of time.
At length, apparently unaware at first that he was not alone in theroom, Numerian spoke. In his low, broken, tremulous accents, none ofhis adherents would have recognised the voice of the eloquentpreacher--the bold chastiser of the vices of the Church. The wholenature of the man--moral, intellectual, physical--seemed fatally andcompletely changed.
'She was innocent, she was innocent!' he whispered to himself. 'Andeven had she been guilty, was it for me to drive her from my doors! Mypart, like my Redeemer's, was to teach repentance, and to show mercy!Accursed be the pride and anger that drove justice and patience from myheart, when I beheld her, as I thought, submitting herself without astruggle or a cry, to my dishonour, and hers! Could I not haveimagined her terror, could I not have remembered her purity? Alas, mybeloved, if I myself have been the dupe of the wicked, what marvel isit that you should have been betrayed as well! And I have driven youfrom me, you, from whose mouth no word of anger ever dropped! I havethrust you from my bosom, you, who were the adornment of my age! Mydeath approaches, and you will not be by to pardon my heavy offence, toclose my weary eyes, to mourn by my solitary tomb! God--oh God! If Iam left thus lonely on the earth, thou hast punished me beyond what Ican bear!'
He paused--his emotions for the instant bereft him of speech. After aninterval, he muttered to himself in a low, moaning voice--'I called herharlot! My pure, innocent child! I called her harlot--I called herharlot!'
In a paroxysm of despair, he started up and looked distractedly aroundhim. Ulpius still stood motionless at the window. At the sight of theruthless Pagan he trembled in every limb. All those infirmiti
es of agethat had been hitherto spared him, seemed to overwhelm him in aninstant. He feebly advanced to his betrayer's side, and addressed himthus:--
'I have lodged you, taught you, cared for you; I have never intruded onyour secrets, never doubted your word, and for all this, you haverepaid me by plotting against my daughter and deceiving me! If yourend was to harm me by assailing my child's happiness and honour youhave succeeded! If you would banish me from Rome, if you would plungeme into obscurity, to serve some mysterious ambition of your own, youmay dispose of me as you will! I bow before the terrible power of yourtreachery! I will renounce whatever you command, if you will restoreme to my child! I am helpless and miserable; I have neither heart norstrength to seek her myself! You, who know all things and can dare alldangers, may restore her to pardon and bless me, if you will!Remember, whoever you really are, that you were once helpless andalone, and that you are still old, like me! Remember that I havepromised to abandon to you whatever you desire! Remember that nowoman's voice can cheer me, no woman's heart feel for me, now that I amold and lonely, but my daughter's! I have guessed from the words ofthe nobleman whom you serve, what are the designs you cherish and thefaith you profess; I will neither betray the one nor assault the other!I thought that my labours for the Church were more to me than anythingon earth, but now, that through my fault, my daughter is driven fromher father's roof, I know that she is dearer to me than the greatest ofmy designs; I must gain her pardon; I must win back her affectionbefore I die! You are powerful and can recover her! Ulpius! Ulpius!'
As he spoke, the Christian knelt at the Pagan's feet. It was terribleto see the man of affection and integrity thus humbled before the manof heartlessness and crime.
Ulpius turned to behold him, then without a word he raised him from theground, and thrusting him to the window, pointed with flashing eyes tothe wide view without.
The sun had arisen high in the heaven and beamed in dazzling brilliancyover Rome and the suburbs. A vague, fearful, mysterious desolationseemed to have suddenly overwhelmed the whole range of dwellings beyondthe walls. No sounds rose from the gardens, no population idled in thestreets. The ramparts on the other hand were crowded at every visiblepoint with people of all ranks, and the distant squares andamphitheatres of the city itself, swarmed like ant-hills to the eyewith the crowds that struggled within them. Confused cries and strangewild noises rose at all points from these masses of human beings. Thewhole of Rome seemed the prey of a vast and universal revolt.
Extraordinary and affrighting as was the scene at the moment when hebeheld it, it passed unheeded before the eyes of the scarce consciousfather. He was blind to all sights but his daughter's form, deaf toall sounds but her voice; and he murmured as he looked vacantly forthupon the wild view before him, 'Where is my child!--where is my child!'
'What is your child to me? What are the fortunes of affections of manor woman, at such an hour as this?' cried the Pagan, as he stood byNumerian, with features horribly animated by the emotions of fiercedelight and triumph that were raging within him at the prospect hebeheld. 'Dotard, look from this window! Listen to those voices! Thegods whom I serve, the god whom you and your worship would fain havedestroyed, have risen to avenge themselves at last! Behold thosesuburbs, they are left desolate! Hear those cries--they are from Romanlips! While your household's puny troubles have run their course, thiscity of apostates has been doomed! In the world's annals this morningwill never be forgotten! THE GOTHS ARE AT THE GATES OF ROME!'