CHAPTER VII
A ROMAN MEDEA
It was a moonless night.--
Deep repose was upon the seven hilled city. The sky was intensely dark,but the stars shone out full and lustrous. Venus was almost setting.Mars glowed red and fiery towards the zenith; the constellations seemedto stand out from the infinite spaces behind them. Orion glittered likea giant in golden armour; Cassiopeia shone out in her own peculiarradiance and the Pleiades in their misty brightness.
A litter, borne by four stalwart Nubians, and preceded by two torchbearers, slowly emerged from the gates of Theodora's palace and tookthe direction of the gorge which divides the Mount of Cloisters fromMount Testaccio.
Owing to the prevailing darkness which made all objects, moving andimmobile, indistinguishable, the inmates of the litter had not drawnthe curtains, so as to admit the cooling night air. There was afixedness in Theodora's look and a recklessness in her manner thatshowed anger and determination. It struck Persephone, who was seatedby her side, with a sort of terror, and for once she did not dare toaccost her mistress with her usual banter and freedom.
Theodora had spent the early hours of the evening in a half obscuredroom, whose sable hangings seemed to reflect the unrest of hersoul. She had forbidden the lamps to be lighted, brooding alone indarkness and solitude. Then she had summoned Persephone, ordered herlitter-bearers and commanded them to take her to the house of Sidonia,a woman versed in all manner of lore that shunned the light of day.
"It must be done! It shall be done!" she muttered, her white facetense, her white hands clenched.
Suddenly her hand closed round Persephone's wrist.
"She defies me, knowing herself in my power," she said. "We shall seewho shall conquer."
"The Lady Hellayne is as fearless of death, as yourself, LadyTheodora," Persephone replied. "Indeed, she seemed rather to desire it,for no woman ever faced you with such defiance as did she when you putbefore her the fatal choice."
Theodora's face shone ghostly in the nocturnal gloom.
"We shall see! She shall desire death a thousand fold ere she quits theabode I have assigned to her. God! Not even Roxana had dared to say tome what this one did."
"Nor would her shafts have struck so deep a wound," Persephoneinterposed with studied insolence.
Theodora's grip tightened round the girl's wrist.
"You admire the Lady Hellayne?" she said softly, but there was a gleamin her eyes like liquid fire.
"As one brave woman admires another!" Persephone replied fearlessly,turning her beautiful face to the speaker.
"You may require all your courage some day to face another task,"Theodora replied. "Beware, lest you tempt me to do what I might regret."
Persephone turned white. Her bosom heaved. Her eyes met Theodora's.
"I shall welcome the ordeal with all my heart!"
Theodora relapsed into silence, oppressed by dark thoughts, the memoryof unresisted temptations, a chaotic world where black unscalablerocks, like circles of the Inferno, hemmed her in on every side, whiledevils whispered into her ears the words that gave shape and substanceto her desire to destroy her rival in the love of the one man whom, inall her changeable life, she had truly desired.
"Deem you, that I have aught to fear from such as you? Deem you, thatTristan would defile his manhood with the courtesan queen of Rome?"
The words still boomed in her ears, the words and the tone in whichthey had been hurled in her face.
Even to this moment she knew not what restrained her from stranglingHellayne. It seemed to her that only in a physical encounter couldshe quench the hatred she bore this white, beautiful statue who neverraised her voice while the fire of her blue eyes seared her very soul.
A thousand frightful forms of evil, stalking shapes of death, cameand went before her imagination, which caused her to clutch first atone, then at another of the dire suggestions that came in crowds whichoverwhelmed her powers of choice. Then, like an inspiration from thevery depths of Hell, a thought flashed into her mind, and, no soonerconceived, than she determined upon its execution.
The laboratory of the woman whom Theodora was seeking on this night wasin an old house midway in the gorge. In a deep hollow, almost out ofsight, stood a square structure of stone, gloomy and forbidding, withnarrow windows and an uninviting door. Tall pines shadowed it on oneside, a small rivulet twisted itself, like a live snake, half round iton the other. A plot of green grass, ill-kept and teeming with noxiousweeds, fennel, thistle and foul stramonium, was surrounded by a roughwall of loose stone; and here lived the woman who supplied all thosewho desired her wares, and plied her nocturnal trade.
Sidonia was tall and straight, of uncertain age, though she might havebeen reckoned at forty. The whiteness of her skin was enhanced by herblue black hair and lustrous black eyes. Far from forbidding, sheexercised a sinister charm upon those who called upon her, and whovainly tried to reconcile her trade with the traces of a great beauty.Yet her thin, cruel lips never smiled, unless she had an object to gainby assuming a disguise as foreign to her as light is to an angel ofdarkness.
Hardly any known poison there was, which was not obtainable at herhands. In a sombre chest, carved with fantastic figures from Etruscandesigns, were concealed the subtle drugs, cabalistical formulas andalchemic preparations which were so greatly in demand during thoseyears of darkness.
In the most secret place of all were deposited, ready for use, a fewphials of a crystal liquid, every single drop of which contained thelife of a man, and which, administered in due proportion of time andmeasure, killed and left no trace.
Here was the sublimated dust of the deadly night-shade which kindlesthe red fires of fever and rots the roots of the tongue. Here was thefetid powder of stramonium that grips the lungs like an asthma, andquinia that shakes its victims like the cold hand of the miasma inthe Pontine Marshes. The essence of poppies, ten times sublimated, afew grains of which bring on the stupor of apoplexy, and the sardonicplant that kills its victims with the frightful laughter of madnessupon their countenance, were here. The knowledge of these and manyother cursed herbs, once known to Medea in the Colchian land, andtransplanted to Greece and Rome with the enchantments of their use, hadbeen handed down by a long succession of sorcerers and poisoners to thewoman, who seemed endowed by nature as the legitimate inheritrix ofthis lore of Hell.
At last the litter of Theodora was set down by its swarthy bearersbefore the threshold of Sidonia's house. Theodora alighted and, aftercommanding the Africans to await her return, ascended the narrow stonesteps alone and knocked at the door. After a brief wait, shufflingsteps were heard from within, and a bent, lynx-eyed individual ofOriental origin opened the door, inviting the visitor to enter. She wasushered into a dusky hallway, in which brooded strange odors, thenceinto a dimly lighted room, the laboratory of Sidonia.
Hardly had she seated herself when the woman entered and stood face toface with Theodora.
The eyes of the two women instantly met in a searching glance that tookin the whole ensemble, bearing, dress and almost the very thoughts ofeach other. In that one glance each knew and understood; each knew thatshe could trust the other, in evil, if not in good.
And there was trust between them. The evil spirits that possessed theirhearts clasped hands, and a silent league was formed in their souls erea word had been spoken.
Sidonia wore a long, purple robe, totally unadorned. The sleeves werewide, and revealed her white, bare arms. Her finely cut features werecrossed with thin lines of cruelty and cunning. No mercy was in hereyes, still less on her lips, and none in her heart, cold to everyhuman feeling.
"The Lady Theodora is fair to look upon," Sidonia broke the silence."All women admit it; all men confess it." And her gaze swept the otherwoman, who was clad in an ample black mantle which ended in a hood.
"Can you guess why I am here?" Theodora replied. "You are wise and knowa woman's desire better than she dares avow."
"Can I guess?" replied Sidonia, returnin
g Theodora's scrutiny. "Youhave many lovers, Lady Theodora, but there is one who does not returnyour passion. And, you have a rival. A woman, more potent thanyourself, has, notwithstanding your beauty, entangled the man you love,and you are here to win him back and to triumph over your rival. Is itnot so, Lady Theodora?"
"More than that," replied the other, clenching her white hands andgazing into the eyes that met her own with a look of merciless triumphat what she saw reflected therein. "It is all that--and more--"
Sidonia met her eager gaze.
"You would kill your rival!" she said with a smile upon her lips."There is death in your eyes--in your voice--in your heart! Youwould kill the woman. It is good in the eyes of a woman to kill herrival--and women like you are rare!"
"Your reward shall be great," Theodora said with an inquisitive glanceat the woman who had read her inmost thoughts.
"To kill woman or man were a pleasure even without the profit," repliedSidonia, darkly. "I come from a race, ancient and terrible as theCaesars, and I hate the puny rabble. I have my own joy in making my handfelt in a world I hate and which hates me!"
She held out her hands, as if the ends of her fingers were tricklingpoison.
"Death drops on whomsoever I send it," she continued, "subtly,secretly. The very spirits of air cannot trace whence it comes."
"I know you are the possessor of terrible secrets," Theodora replied,fascinated beyond all her experiences with the woman and her trade.
"Such secrets never die," said the poisoner. "Few men, still fewerwomen, are there who would not listen at the door of Hell to learnthem. Let me see your hand!"
Theodora complied with her abrupt demand and laid her beautiful whitehand into the no less beautiful one of the woman before her.
Her touch, though the hand was cool, seemed to burn, but Theodora'stouch affected the other woman likewise for she said:
"There is evil enough in the palm of your hand to destroy theworld! We are well met, you and I. You are worthy of my confidence.These fingers would pick the fruit off the forbidden tree, for mento eat and die! Lady Theodora--I may some day teach you the greatsecret--meanwhile I will show you that I possess it!"
With these words she walked to the chest, took from it an ebony casketand laid it upon the table.
"There is death enough in this casket," she said, "to kill every manand woman in Rome!"
Theodora fastened her gaze upon it, as if she would have drawn out thesecret of its contents by the very magnetism of her eyes. For, evenwhile Sidonia was speaking, a thought flashed through her visitor'smind--a thought which almost made her forget the purpose on which shehad come. She laid her hands upon it caressingly, trembling, eager tosee its contents.
"Open it!" said Sidonia. "Touch the spring and look!"
Theodora touched the little spring. The lid flew back and there flashedfrom it a light which for a moment dazzled her by its very brilliancy.She thrust the cabinet from her in alarm, imagining she inhaled theodor of some deadly perfume.
"Its glitter terrifies me!" she said. "Its odor sickens."
"Your conscience frightens you," sneered Sidonia.
Theodora rose to her feet, her face pale, her eyes alight with astrange fire.
"This to me?" she flashed.
For a moment the two women faced each other in a white silence.
A strange smile played upon Sidonia's lips.
"The Aqua Tofana in the hands of a coward is a gift as fatal to itspossessor as to its victim!"
"You are brave to speak such words to Theodora!"
Sidonia gave her an inscrutable glance.
"Why should I fear you? Even without these,--woman to woman," shereplied, as she drew the casket to herself and took out a phial, giltand chased with strange symbols.
Sidonia took it up and immediately the liquid was filled with a millionsparks of fire. It was the Aqua Tofana, undiluted, instantaneous in itseffect, and not medicable by antidotes. Once administered there wasno more hope for its victim than for the souls of the damned who havereceived the final judgment. One drop of the sparkling water upon thetongue of a Titan would blast him like Jove's thunderbolt, shrivel himup to a black, unsightly cinder.
This terrible water was rarely used alone by the poisoners, but itformed the basis of a hundred slower potions which ambition, fear orhypocrisy, mingled with the element of time, and colored with thevarious hues and aspects of natural disease.
Theodora had again taken her seat and leaned towards Sidonia,supporting her chin in the palm of her hands, as she bent eagerly overthe table, drinking in every word as the hot sand of the desert drinksin the water that falls upon it.
"What is that?" she pointed to a phial, white as milk and seeminglyharmless, and while she questioned, her busy brain worked with feverishactivity. The Aqua Tofana she had used when she struck down Roxana andher too talkative lover on the night of the feast in her garden. Butnow she required a different concoction to complete the vengeance onher rival.
"This is called Lac Misericordiae," replied Sidonia. "It brings onpainless consumption and decay! It eats the life out of man or woman,while the moon empties and fills. The strong man becomes a skeleton.Blooming maidens sink to their graves blighted and bloodless. Neithersaint or sacrament can arrest its doom. This phial"--and she tookanother from the cabinet, replacing the first--"contains innumerablegriefs that wait upon the pillows of rejected and heartbroken lovers,and the wisest mediciner is mocked by the lying appearances of diseasethat defy his skill and make a mock of his wisdom."
There was a moment's silence. At last Theodora spoke.
"Have you nothing that will cause fear--dread--madness--ere it strikesthe victim dumb forever more? Something that produces in the brainthose dreadful visions--horrid shapes--peopling its chambers wherereason once held sway?"
For a moment Sidonia and Theodora held each other's gaze, as if eachwere wondering at the wickedness of the other.
"This," Sidonia said at last, taking out a curiously twisted bottle,containing a clear crimson liquid and sealed with the mystic Pentagon,"contains the quintessence of mandrakes, distilled in the alembic, whenScorpio rules the hour. It will produce what you desire."
"How much of it is required to do this thing?"
"Three drops. Within six hours the unfailing result will appear."
"Give it to me!"
"You possess rare ingenuity, Lady Theodora," said Sidonia, placing herhand in that of her caller. "If Satan prompts you not, it is because hecan teach you nothing, either in love or stratagem."
She shut up her infernal casket, leaving the phial of distilledmandrakes, shining like a ruby in the lamp light, upon the table. Byits side lay a bag of gold.
Theodora arose. The eyes of the two women flashed in lurid sympathy asthey parted, and Sidonia accompanied her visitor to the door.
As she did so a heavy curtain in the background parted and the whiteface of Basil peered into the empty room.
After a brief interval Sidonia returned.
Her face had again assumed its forbidding aspect as, removing thephials and seemingly addressing no one, she said:
"We are alone now!"
At the next moment Basil stood in the chamber. His eyes burned with afeverish lustre, and there was a horror in his countenance which hestrove in vain to conceal.
"This must not be," he said hoarsely. "Why did you give her thisdevil's brew?"
And staggering up to the table he gripped the soft white wrist of thewoman with fingers of steel.
Sidonia's eyes narrowed as she gazed into those of the man.
"Do you love that one, too?" she said, wrenching herself free. "Or haveyou lied to her as you have lied to me?"
"Your voice sounds like the cry from a dark gallery that leads toHell," Basil replied. "You, alone, have I loved all these years, andfor your fell beauty have I risked all I have done and am about to do!"
"Fear speaks in your voice," Sidonia replied with a cruel smile uponher lips. "You are in my power, else ha
d you long ago consigned me to aplace whence there is no return. With me the secret of another's deathwould go to the grave."
"Nay, you do not understand!" Basil interposed. "The woman who hasaroused Theodora's maddened jealousy is nothing to me. But I have otherplans concerning her--she must be saved!"
"Other plans?" replied Sidonia darkly. "What other plans? What sort ofwoman is she who can arouse the jealousy of Theodora?"
"White and cold as the snows of the North."
"A stranger in Rome?"
"The wife of one whose days are numbered, if I rightly read the oracle."
"What is this plan?" Sidonia insisted.
"She is to be delivered to Hassan Abdullah, as reward for his aid inthe great stroke that is about to fall."
In the distance whimpered a bell.
"And, when the hour tolls--the hour of which you have so oftenprated--when you sit in the high seat of the Senator of Rome--wherethen will I be, who have watched your power grow and have aided it inits upward flight?"
Basil's face lighted up with the fires within.
"Where else but by my side? Who dares defy us and the realms of theUnderworld?"
"Who, indeed?" Sidonia replied with a dark, inscrutable glance intoBasil's face. "Perchance I should not love you as I do were you not asevil as you are good to look upon! I love you, even though I know yourlying lips have professed love to many others, even though I know thatTheodora has kindled in you all the evil passions of your soul. Bewarehow you play with me!"
She threw back her wide sleeves and two dazzling white arms encircledBasil's neck.
"Await me yonder," she then turned to her visitor, pointing to achamber situated beyond the curtain. "We will talk this matter over!"
Basil retired and Sidonia busied herself, replacing the differentphials in the ebony chest.
After having assured herself that everything was in its place, shepicked up the lamp and disappeared behind the curtain in the background.
Deep midnight silence reigned in the gorge of Mount Aventine.