CHAPTER I.
THE MEN.
But bring me to the knowledge of your chiefs. MARINO FALIERO.
Midnight was over Rome. The skies were dark and lowering, and ominous oftempest; for it was a sirocco, and the welkin was overcast with sheets ofvapory cloud, not very dense, indeed, or solid, but still sufficient tointercept the feeble twinkling of the stars, which alone held dominion inthe firmament; since the young crescent of the moon had sunk long agobeneath the veiled horizon.
The air was thick and sultry, and so unspeakably oppressive, that forabove three hours the streets had been entirely deserted. In a few housesof the higher class, lights might be seen dimly shining through thecasements of the small chambers, hard beside the doorway, appropriated tothe use of the Atriensis, or slave whose charge it was to guard theentrance of the court. But, for the most part, not a single ray cheeredthe dull murky streets, except that here and there, before the holyshrine, or vaster and more elaborate temple, of some one of Rome's hundredgods, the votive lanthorns, though shorn of half their beams by the densefog-wreaths, burnt perennial.
The period was the latter time of the republic, a few years after the felldemocratic persecutions of the plebeian Marius had drowned the mighty cityoceans-deep in patrician gore; after the awful retribution of the avengerSylla had rioted in the destruction of that guilty faction.
He who was destined one day to support the laurelled diadem of universalempire on his bald brows, stood even now among the noblest, the mostambitious, and the most famous of the state; though not as yet had heunfurled the eagle wings of conquest over the fierce barbarian hordes ofGaul and Germany, or launched his galleys on the untried waters of thegreat Western sea. A dissipated, spendthrift, and luxurious youth, devotedsolely as it would seem to the pleasures of the table, or to intrigueswith the most fair and noble of Rome's ladies, he had yet, amid thoseunworthy occupations, displayed such gleams of overmastering talent, suchwondrous energy, such deep sagacity, and above all such uncurbed thoughill-directed ambition, that the perpetual Dictator had already, yearsbefore, exclaimed with prescient wisdom,--"In yon unzoned youth I perceivethe germ of many a Marius."
At the same time, the magnificent and princely leader, who was to bethereafter his great rival, was reaping that rich crop of glory, the seedsof which had been sown already by the wronged Lucullus, in the broadkingdoms of the effeminate East.
Meanwhile, as Rome had gradually rendered herself, by the exertion ofindomitable valor, the supreme mistress of every foreign power thatbordered on the Mediterranean, wealth, avarice, and luxury, like somecontagious pestilence, had crept into the inmost vitals of thecommonwealth, until the very features, which had once made her famous, noless for her virtues than her valor, were utterly obliterated and forever.
Instead of a paternal, poor, brave, patriotic aristocracy, she had now anobility, valiant indeed and capable, but dissolute beyond the reach ofman's imagination, boundless in their expenditures, reckless as to themode of gaining wherewithal to support them, oppressive and despotical totheir inferiors, smooth-tongued and hypocritical toward each other,destitute equally of justice and compassion toward men, and of respect andpiety toward the Gods! Wealth had become the idol, the god of the wholepeople! Wealth--and no longer service, eloquence, daring, or integrity,--washeld the requisite for office. Wealth now conferred upon its owner, allmagistracies all guerdons--rank, power, command,--consulships, provinces,and armies.
The senate--once the most grave and stern and just assembly that the worldhad seen--was now, with but a few superb exceptions, a timid, faithless,and licentious oligarchy; while--name whilome so majestical and mighty!--thepeople, the great Roman people, was but a mob! a vile colluvion of theoffscourings of all climes and regions--Greeks, Syrians, Africans,Barbarians from the chilly north, and eunuchs from the vanquished Orient,enfranchised slaves, and liberated gladiators--a factious, turbulent,fierce rabble!
Such was the state of Rome, when it would seem that the Gods, wearied withthe guilt of her aggrandisement, sick of the slaughter by which she hadwon her way to empire almost universal, had judged her to destruction--hadgiven her up to perish, not by the hands of any foreign foe, but by herown; not by the wisdom, conduct, bravery of others, but by her owninsanity and crime.
But at this darkest season of the state one hope was left to Rome--onesafeguard. The united worth of Cicero and Cato! The statesmanship, theeloquence, the splendid and unequalled parts of the former; the sternself-denying virtue, the unchanged constancy, the resolute and hardintegrity of the latter; these, singular and severally, might have availedto prop a falling dynasty--united, might have preserved a world!
The night was such as has already been described: gloomy and lowering inits character, as was the aspect of the political horizon, and mostcongenial to the fearful plots, which were even now in progress againstthe lives of Rome's best citizens, against the sanctity of her most solemntemples, the safety of her domestic hearths, the majesty of her inviolablelaws, the very existence of her institutions, of her empire, of herself asone among the nations of the earth.
Most suitable, indeed, was that dim murky night, most favorable thesolitude of the deserted streets, to the measures of those parricides ofthe Republic, who lurked within her bosom, thirsty for blood, and pantingto destroy. Nor had they overlooked the opportunity. But a few daysremained before that on which the Consular elections, fixed for theeighteenth of October, were to take place in the Campus Martius--whereat,it was already understood that Sergius Cataline, frustrated the precedingyear, by the election of the great orator of Arpinum to his discomfiture,was about once more to try the fortunes of himself and of the popularfaction.
It was at this untimely hour, that a man might have been seen lurkingbeneath the shadows of an antique archway, decorated with half-obliteratedsculptures of the old Etruscan school, in one of the narrow and windingstreets which, lying parallel to the Suburra, ran up the hollow betweenthe Viminal and Quirinal hills.
He was a tall and well-framed figure, though so lean as to seem almostemaciated. His forehead was unusually high and narrow, and channelled withdeep horizontal lines of thought and passion, across which cut at rightangles the sharp furrows of a continual scowl, drawing the corners of hisheavy coal-black eyebrows into strange contiguity. Beneath these, situatedfar back in their cavernous recesses, a pair of keen restless eyes glaredout with an expression fearful to behold--a jealous, and unquiet,ever-wandering glance--so sinister, and ominous, and above all soindicative of a perturbed and anguished spirit, that it could not belooked upon without suggesting those wild tales, which speak of fiendsdwelling in the revivified and untombed carcasses of those who die inunrepented sin. His nose was keenly Roman; with a deep wrinkle seared, asit would seem, into the sallow flesh from either nostril downward. Hismouth, grimly compressed, and his jaws, for the most part, firmly clinchedtogether, spoke volumes of immutable and iron resolution; while all hisunder lip was scarred, in many places, with the trace of wounds, inflictedbeyond doubt, in some dread paroxysm, by the very teeth it covered.
The dress which this remarkable looking individual at that time wore, wasthe _penula_, as it was called; a short, loose straight-cut overcoat,reaching a little way below the knees, not fitted to the shape, but loopedby woollen frogs all down the front, with broad flaps to protect the arms,and a square cape or collar, which at the pleasure of the wearer could bedrawn up so as to conceal all the lower part of the countenance, orsuffered to fall down upon the shoulders.
This uncouth vestment, which was used only by men of the lowest order, orby others solely when engaged in long and toilsome journeys, or in coldwintry weather, was composed of a thick loose-napped frieze or serge, of adark purplish brown, with loops and _fibulae_, or frogs, of a dull dingyred.
The wearer's legs were bare down to the very feet, which were protected bycoarse shoes of heavy leather, fastened about the ancles by a thong, witha clasp of marvellously ill-cleaned brass. Upon his head he had
a_petasus_, or broad-brimmed hat of gray felt, fitting close to the skull,with a long fall behind, not very unlike in form to the south-wester of amodern seaman. This article of dress was, like the penula, althoughpeculiar to the inferior classes, oftentimes worn by men of superior rank,when journeying abroad. From these, therefore, little or no aid was givento conjecture, as to the station of the person, who now shrunk back intothe deepest gloom of the old archway, now peered out stealthily into thenight, grinding his teeth and muttering smothered imprecations againstsome one, who had failed to meet him.
The shoes, however, of rude, ill-tanned leather, of a form and manufacturewhich was peculiar to the lowest artizans or even slaves, were such as noman of ordinary standing would under any circumstances have adopted. Yetif these would have implied that the wearer was of low plebeian origin,this surmise was contradicted by several rings decked with gems of greatprice and splendor--one a large deeply-engraved signet--which weredistinctly visible by their lustre on the fingers of both his hands.
His air and carriage too were evidently in accordance with the nobility ofbirth implied by these magnificent adornments, rather than with the humblestation betokened by the rest of his attire.
His motions were quick, irritable, and incessant! His pace, as he stalkedto and fro in the narrow area of the archway, was agitated, and uneven.Now he would stride off ten or twelve steps with strange velocity, thenpause, and stand quite motionless for perhaps a minute's space, and thenagain resume his walk with slow and faltering gestures, to burst forthonce again, as at the instigation of some goading spirit, to the sameshort-lived energy and speed.
Meantime, his color went and came; he bit his lip, till the blood trickleddown his clean shorn chin; he clinched his hands, and smote them heavilytogether, and uttered in a harsh hissing whisper the most appallingimprecations--on his own head--on him who had deceived him--on Rome, and allher myriads of inhabitants--on earth, and sea, and heaven--on everythingdivine or human!
"The black plague 'light on the fat sleepy glutton!--nay, rather all thefiends and furies of deep Erebus pursue _me_!--me!--me, who was fool enoughto fancy that aught of bold design or manly daring could rouse up thedull, adipose, luxurious loiterer from his wines--his concubines--hisslumbers!--And now--the dire ones hunt him to perdition! Now, the seventhhour of night hath passed, and all await us at the house of Laeca; and thisfoul sluggard sottishly snores at home!"
While he was cursing yet, and smiting his broad chest, and gnashing histeeth in impotent malignity, suddenly a quick step became audible at adistance. The sound fell on his ear sharpened by the stimulus of fierypassions and of conscious fear, long ere it could have been perceived byany ordinary listener.
"'Tis he," he said, "'tis he at last--but no?" he continued, after a pauseof a second, during which he had stooped, and laid his ear close to theground, "no! 'tis too quick and light for the gross Cassius. By all thegods! there are two! Can he, then, have betrayed me? No! no! By heavens!he dare not!"
At the same time he started back into the darkest corner of the arch,pulled up the cape of his cassock, and slouched the wide-brimmed hat overhis anxious lineaments; then pressing his body flat against the duskywall, to which the color of his garments was in some sort assimilated, heawaited the arrival of the new-comers, perhaps hoping that if foreign tohis purpose they might pass by him in the gloom.
As the footsteps now sounded nearer, he thrust his right hand into thebosom of his cassock, and drew out a long broad two-edged dagger, orstiletto; and as he unsheathed it, "Ready!" he muttered to himself, "readyfor either fortune!"
Nearer and nearer came the footsteps, and the blent sounds of the two werenow distinctly audible--one a slow, listless tread, as of one loiteringalong, as if irresolute whether to turn back or proceed; the other a firm,rapid, and decided step.
"Ha! it is well!" resumed the listener; "Cassius it is; and with him comesCethegus, though where they have joined company I marvel."
And, as he spoke, he put his weapon back into his girdle, where it wasperfectly concealed by the folds of the penula.
"Ho!--stand!" he whispered, as the two men whose steps he had heard,entered the archway, "Stand, Friends and Brethren."
"Hail, Sergius!" replied the foremost; a tall and splendidly formed man,with a dark quick eye, and regular features, nobly chiselled and in allrespects such--had it not been for the bitter and ferocious sneer, whichcurled his haughty lip, at every word--as might be termed eminentlyhandsome.
He wore his raven hair in long and flowing curls, which hung quite downupon his shoulders--a fashion that was held in Rome to the last degreeeffeminate, indeed almost infamous--while his trim whiskers and close curlybeard reeked with the richest perfumes, impregnating the atmospherethrough which he passed with odors so strong as to be almost overpowering.
His garb was that of a patrician of the highest order; though tinctured,like the arrangement of his hair, with not a little of that soft luxurioustaste which had, of latter years, begun so generally to pervade Rome'syoung nobility. His under dress or tunic, was not of that succinct andnarrow cut, which had so well become the sturdy fathers of the newrepublic! but--beside being wrought of the finest Spanish wool of snowywhiteness, with the broad crimson facings indicative of his senatorialrank, known as the laticlave--fell in loose folds half way between his kneeand ancle.
It had sleeves, too, a thing esteemed unworthy of a man--and was fringed atthe cuffs, and round the hem, with a deep passmenting of crimson to matchthe laticlave. His toga of the thinnest and most gauzy texture, and whitereven than his tunic, flowed in a series of classical and studied draperiesquite to his heels, where like the tunic it was bordered by a broadcrimson trimming. His feet were ornamented, rather than protected, bydelicate buskins of black leather, decked with the silver _sigma_, in itsold crescent shape, the proud initial of the high term senator. A goldenbracelet, fashioned like a large serpent, exquisitely carved with horrentscales and forked tail, was twined about the wrist of his right arm, witha huge carbuncle set in the head, and two rare diamonds for eyes. A dozenrings gemmed with the clearest brilliants sparkled upon his white andtapering fingers; in which, to complete the picture, he bore ahandkerchief of fine Egyptian cambric, or Byssus as the Romans styled it,embroidered at the edges in arabesques of golden thread.
His comrade was if possible more slovenly in his attire than his friendwas luxurious and expensive. He wore no toga, and his tunic--which, withoutthe upper robe, was the accustomed dress of gladiators, slaves, and suchas were too poor to wear the full and characteristic attire of the Romancitizen--was of dark brownish woollen, threadbare, and soiled with spots ofgrease, and patched in many places. His shoes were of coarse cloutedleather, and his legs were covered up to the knees by thongs of ill-tannedcowhide rolled round them and tied at the ancles with straps of the samematerial.
"A plague on both of you!" replied the person, who had been so longawaiting them, in answer to their salutation. "Two hours have ye detainedme here; and now that ye have come, in pretty guise ye do come! Oh! by thegods! a well assorted pair. Cassius more filthy than the vilest and mostbase tatterdemalion of the stews, and with him rare Cethegus, a senator inall his bravery! Wise judgment! excellent disguises! I know not whethermost to marvel at the insane and furious temerity of this one, or at theidiotic foolery of that! Well fitted are ye both for a great purpose. Andnow--may the dark furies hunt you to perdition!--what hath delayed you?"
"Why, what a coil is here", replied the gay Cethegus, delighted evidentlyat the unsuppressed anger of his confederate in crime, and bent on goadingto yet more fiery wrath his most ungovernable temper. "Methinks, Opleasant Sergius, the moisture of this delectable night should havequenched somewhat the quick flames of your most amiable and placid humor!Keep thy hard words, I prithee, Cataline, for those who either heed ordread them. I, thou well knowest, do neither."
"Peace, peace! Cethegus; plague him no farther," interrupted Cassius, justas the fierce conspirator, exclaiming in a deep harsh whisper
, the oneword "Boy!" strode forth as if to strike him. "And thou, good Cataline,listen to reason--we have been dogged hitherward, and so came by circuitousbyeways!"
"Dogged, said ye--dogged? and by whom?--doth the slave live, who dared it?"
"By a slave, as we reckon," answered Cassius, "for he wore no toga; andhis tunic"--
"Was filthy--very filthy, by the gods!--most like thine own, good Cassius,"interposed Cethegus. "But, in good sooth, he _was_ a slave, my Sergius. Hepassed us twice, before I thought much of it. Once as we crossed thesacred way after descending from the Palatine--and once again beside theshrine of Venus in the Cyprian street. The second time he gazed into myvery eyes, until he caught my glance meeting his own, and then with aquick bounding pace he hurried onward."
"Tush!" answered Cataline, "tush! was that all? the knave was a chancenight-walker, and frightened ye! Ha! ha! by Hercules! it makes melaugh--frightened the rash and overbold Cethegus!"
"It was not all!" replied Cethegus very calmly, "it was not all, Cataline.And, but that we are joined here in a purpose so mighty that it overwhelmsall private interests, all mere considerations of the individual, you, mygood sir, should learn what it is to taunt a man with fear, who fears notanything--least of all thee! But it was not all. For as we turned from aside lane into the Wicked(1) street that scales the summit of theEsquiline, my eye caught something lurking in the dark shadow cast over anangle of the wall by a large cypress. I seized the arm of Cassius, tocheck his speech"--
"Ha! did the fat idiot speak?--what said he?" interrupted Cataline.
"Nothing," replied the other, "nothing, at least, of any moment. Well, Icaught Cassius by the arm, and was in the act of pointing, when from theshadows of the tree out sprang this self-same varlet, whereon I----".
"Rushed on him! dragged him into the light! and smote him, thus, and thus,and thus! didst thou not, excellent Cethegus?" Cataline exclaimed fiercelyin a hard stern whisper, making three lounges, while he spoke, as if witha stiletto.
"I did not any of these things," answered the other.
"And why not, I say, why not? why not?" cried Cataline with rudeimpetuosity.
"That shall I answer, when you give me time," said Cethegus, coolly."Because when I rushed forth, he fled with an exceeding rapid flight;leaped the low wall into the graveyard of the base Plebeians, and thereamong the cypresses and overthrown sepulchres escaped me for a while. Ibeat about most warily, and at length started him up again from the jawsof an obscene and broken catacomb. I gained on him at every step; heardthe quick panting of his breath; stretched out my left to grasp him, whilemy right held unsheathed and ready the good stiletto that ne'er failed me.And now--now--by the great Jove! his tunic's hem was fluttering in myclutch, when my feet tripped over a prostrate column, that I was hurledfive paces at the least in advance of the fugitive; and when I rose again,sore stunned, and bruised, and breathless, the slave had vanished."
"And where, I prithee, during this well-concerted chase, was valiantCassius?" enquired Cataline, with a hoarse sneering laugh.
"During the chase, I knew not," answered Cethegus, "but when it was over,and I did return, I found him leaning on the wall, even in the anglewhence the slave fled on our approach."
"Asleep! I warrant me--by the great gods! asleep!" exclaimed the other;"but come!--come, let us onward,--I trow we have been waited for--and as wego, tell me, I do beseech thee, what was't that Cassius said, when theslave lay beside ye?--"
"Nay, but I have forgotten--some trivial thing or other--oh! now I dobethink me, he said it was a long walk to Marcus Laeca's."
"Fool! fool! Double and treble fool! and dost thou call this nothing?Nothing to tell the loitering informer the very head and heart of ourdesign? By Erebus! but I am sick--sick of the fools, with whom I am thuswretchedly assorted! Well! well! upon your own heads be it!" and instantlyrecovering his temper he walked on with his two confederates, now in deepsilence, at a quick pace through the deserted streets towards theirperilous rendezvous.
Noiseless, with stealthy steps, they hurried onward, threading the narrowpass between the dusky hills, until they reached a dark and filthy lanewhich turning at right angles led to the broad thoroughfare of the moreshowy, though by no means less ill-famed Suburra. Into this they struckinstantly, walking in single file, and keeping as nearly as possible inthe middle of the causeway. The lane, which was composed of dwellings ofthe lowest order, tenanted by the most abject profligates, was dark asmidnight; for the tall dingy buildings absolutely intercepted every ray oflight that proceeded from the murky sky, and there was not a spark in anyof the sordid casements, nor any votive lamp in that foul alley. The onlyglimpse of casual illumination, and that too barely serving to render thedarkness and the filth perceptible, was the faint streak of lustre wherethe Suburra crossed the far extremity of the bye-path.
Scarce had they made three paces down the alley, ere the quick eye ofCataline, for ever roving in search of aught suspicious, caught the dimoutline of a human figure, stealing across this pallid gleam.
"Hist! hist!" he whiskered in stern low tones, which though inaudible atthree yards' distance completely filled the ears of him to whom they wereaddressed--"hist! hist! Cethegus; seest thou not--seest thou not there? Ifit be he, he 'scapes us not again!--out with thy weapon, man, and strike atonce, if that thou have a chance; but if not, do thou go on with Cassiusto the appointed place. Leave him to me! and say, I follow ye! See! hehath slunk into the darkness. Separate ye, and occupy the whole width ofthe street, while I dislodge him!"
And as he spoke, unsheathing his broad poignard, but holding it concealedbeneath his cassock, he strode on boldly, affecting the most perfectindifference, and even insolence of bearing.
Meanwhile the half-seen figure had entirely disappeared amid the gloom;yet had the wary eye of the conspirator, in the one momentary glance hehad obtained, been able to detect with something very near to certaintythe spot wherein the spy, if such he were, lay hidden. As he approachedthe place--whereat a heap of rubbish, the relics of a building not long agoas it would seem consumed by fire, projected far into the street--seeing nosign whatever of the man who, he was well assured, was not far distant, hepaused a little so as to suffer his companions to draw near. Then as theycame up with him, skilled in all deep and desperate wiles, he instantlycommenced a whispered conversation, a tissue of mere nonsense, with hereand there a word of seeming import clearly and audibly pronounced. Nor washis dark manoeuvre unsuccessful; for as he uttered the word "Cicero,"watching meanwhile the heap of ruins as jealously as ever tiger glared onits destined prey, he caught a tremulous outline; and in a second's space,a small round object, like a man's head, was protruded from the darkness,and brought into relief against the brighter back ground.
Then--then--with all the fury--all the lythe agile vigor, all the unrivalledspeed, and concentrated fierceness of that tremendous beast of prey, hedashed upon his victim! But at the first slight movement of his sinewyform, the dimly seen shape vanished; impetuously he rushed on among thepiles of scattered brick and rubbish, and, ere he saw the nature of theplace, plunged down a deep descent into the cellar of the ruin.
Lucky was it for Cataline, and most unfortunate for Rome, that when thebuilding fell, its fragments had choked three parts of the depth of thatsubterranean vault; so that it was but from a height of three or four feetat the utmost, that the fierce desperado was precipitated!
Still, to a man less active, the accident might have been serious, butwith instinctive promptitude, backed by a wonderful exertion of muscularagility, he writhed his body even in the act of falling so that he lightedon his feet; and, ere a second had elapsed after his fall, was extricatinghimself from the broken masses of cement and brickwork, and soon stoodunharmed, though somewhat stunned and shaken, on the very spot which hadbeen occupied scarcely a minute past by the suspected spy.
At the same point of time in which the conspirator fell, the person,whosoever he was, in pursuit of whom he had plunged so heedlessly into theruins,
darted forth from his concealment close to the body and withinarm's length of the fierce Cethegus, whose attention was for the momentdistracted from his watch by the catastrophe which had befallen hiscompanion. Dodging by a quick movement--so quick that it seemed almost theresult of instinct--so to elude the swift attempt of his enemy to arresthis progress, the spy was forced to rush almost into the arms of Cassius.
Yet this appeared not to cause him any apprehension; for he dashed boldlyon, till they were almost front to front; when, notwithstanding hisunwieldy frame and inactivity of habit, spurred into something near toenergy by the very imminence of peril, the worn-out debauchee bestirredhimself as if to seize him.
If such, however, were his intention, widely had he miscalculated his ownpowers, and fatally underrated the agility and strength of the stranger--atall, thin, wiry man, well nigh six feet in height, broad shouldered, anddeep chested, and thin flanked, and limbed like a Greek Athlete.
On he dashed!--on--right on! till they stood face to face; and then with onequick blow, into which, as it seemed, he put but little of his strength,he hurled the burly Cassius to the earth, and fled with swift andnoiseless steps into the deepest gloom. Perceiving on the instant thenecessity of apprehending this now undoubted spy, the fiery Cetheguspaused not one instant to look after his discomfited companions; butrushed away on the traces of the fugitive, who had perhaps gained, at thevery utmost, a dozen paces' start of him, in that wild midnight race--thatrace for life and death.
The slave, for such from his dark tunic he appeared to me, was evidentlyboth a swift and practised runner; and well aware how great a stake was onhis speed he now strained every muscle to escape, while scarce less fleet,and straining likewise every sinew to the utmost, Cethegus panted at hisvery heels.
Before, however, they had run sixty yards, one swifter than Cethegus tookup the race; and bruised although he was, and stunned, and almostbreathless when he started, ere he had overtaken his staunch friend, whichhe did in a space wonderfully brief, he seemed to have shaken off everyailment, and to be in the completest and most firm possession of all hiswonted energies. As he caught up Cethegus, he relaxed somewhat of hisspeed, and ran on by his side for some few yards at a sort of springytrot, speaking the while in a deep whisper,
"Hist!" he said, "hist!--I am more swift of foot than thou, and deeperwinded. Leave me to deal with this dog! Back thou, to him thou knowest of;sore is he hurt, I warrant me. Comfort him as thou best mayest, and hurrywhither we were now going. 'Tis late even now--too late, I fear me much,and doubtless we are waited for. I have the heels of this samegallowsbird, that can I see already! Leave me to deal with him, and an hetells tales on us, then call me liar!"
Already well nigh out of breath himself, while the endurance of thefugitive seemed in nowise affected, and aware of the vast superiority ofhis brother conspirator's powers to his own, Cethegus readily enoughyielded to his positive and reiterated orders, and turning hastilybackward, gathered up the bruised and groaning Cassius, and led him withall speed toward the well-known rendezvous in the house of Laeca.
Meanwhile with desperate speed that headlong race continued; the gloomyalley was passed through; the wider street into which it debouched,vanished beneath their quick beating footsteps; the dark and shadowy arch,wherein the chief conspirator had lurked, was threaded at full speed; andstill, although he toiled, till the sweat dripped from every pore likegouts of summer rain, although he plied each limb, till every over-wroughtsinew seemed to crack, the hapless fugitive could gain no ground on hisinveterate pursuer; who, cool, collected and unwearied, without one dropof perspiration on his dark sallow brow, without one panting sob in hisdeep breath, followed on at an equable and steady pace, gaining not anything, nor seeming to desire to gain any thing, while yet within theprecincts of the populous and thickly-settled city.
But now they crossed the broad Virbian street. The slave, distinctlyvisible for such, as he glanced by a brightly decorated shrine girt by somany brilliant lamps as shewed its tenant idol to have no lack ofworshippers, darted up a small street leading directly towards theEsquiline.
"Now! now!" lisped Cataline between his hard-set teeth, "now he is mine,past rescue!"
Up the dark filthy avenue they sped, the fierce pursuer now gaining on thefugitive at every bound; till, had he stretched his arm out, he might haveseized him; till his breath, hot and strong, waved the disorderedelf-locks that fell down upon the bare neck of his flying victim. And nowthe low wall of the Plebeian burying ground arose before them, shaded bymighty cypresses and overgrown with tangled ivy. At one wild bound thehunted slave leaped over it, into the trackless gloom. At one wild boundthe fierce pursuer followed him. Scarcely a yard asunder they alighted onthe rank grass of that charnel grove; and not three paces did they takemore, ere Cataline had hurled his victim to the earth, and cast himselfupon him; choking his cries for help by the compression of his sinewyfingers, which grasped with a tenacity little inferior to that of an ironvice the miserable wretch's gullet.
He snatched his poniard from his sheath, reared it on high with a wellskilled and steady hand! Down it came, noiseless and unseen. For there wasnot a ray of light to flash along its polished blade. Down it came withalmost the speed and force of the electric fluid. A deep, dull, heavysound was heard, as it was plunged into the yielding flesh, and the hotgushing blood spirted forth in a quick jet into the very face and mouth ofthe fell murderer. A terrible convulsion, a fierce writhing spasmfollowed--so strong, so muscularly powerful, that the stern gripe ofCataline was shaken from the throat of his victim, and from his dagger'shilt!
In the last agony the murdered man cast off his slayer from his breast;started erect upon his feet! tore out, from the deep wound, the fatalweapon which had made it; hurled it far--far as his remaining strengthpermitted--into the rayless night; burst forth into a wild and yelling cry,half laughter and half imprecation; fell headlong to the earth--which wasno more insensible than he, what time he struck it, to any sense of mortalpain or sorrow--and perished there alone, unpitied and unaided.
"HABET!--he hath it!" muttered Cataline, quoting the well-known expressionof the gladiatorial strife; "he hath it!--but all the plagues of Erebus,light on it--my good stiletto lies near to him in the swart darkness, totestify against me; nor by great Hecate! is there one chance to ten offinding it. Well! be it so!" he added, turning upon his heel, "be it so,for most like it hath fallen in the deep long grass, where none will everfind it; and if they do, I care not!"
And with a reckless and unmoved demeanor, well pleased with his success,and casting not one retrospective thought toward his murdered victim, notone repentant sigh upon his awful crime, he too hurried away to join hisdread associates at their appointed meeting.