Valerius. A Roman Story

  _CHAPTER VI._

  I know not, my friends, how to proceed with the narrative of whatfollowed. Thoughts, passions, fears, hopes, succeeding so rapidly, give tothat strange night, when I look back upon it through the vista of years,the likeness of some incoherent, agonizing dream. Much, without doubt, ofwhat passed within my own mind I have forgotten; but it seems to me as ifwhat I saw or heard were still present in the distinctness of reality.That chamber in the Mammertine! Its walls are before me blazing with thereflection of torch-light, and then again, all dim and shadowy--the starsshining feebly upon them from the twilight sky--every thing around lonelyand silent, except the voice of Silo's little maiden,--bewailing no doubtin her privacy the departure of Athanasia.

  Her father after a little time rejoined me. "Sir," said he, "all is nowquiet here; will you walk with me towards the Palatine, that we may atleast be near to know what is reported of their proceedings? My brotherwill stay here till we return."

  We soon had descended from the Capitoline, passed through the silentForum, and gained the brow of the opposite eminence, where, as shortlybefore at the Mammertine, all was light and tumult. Every court wasguarded with soldiery, and groups of busy men were passing continuallyabout the imperial gates and porticos. Silo led me round and round thebuildings, till we reached what seemed an abandoned wing. "Sir," said he,"you do not know more familiarly the house in which you were born andreared, than I do every corner within these wide walls. But I have notcrossed the threshold since the day Caesar died.--I was the slave ofDomitian, and he gave me my freedom.--He was kind to his household."

  We entered beneath a small portico--and Silo drew a key from his bosom. Thelock, after two or three trials, yielded to its pressure. A large emptyhall received us, the circumference of which was scarcely visible by thelight of the newly-risen moon, streaming down from a cupola.

  Another and another sombre chamber we in like manner traversed, till atlength Silo opened one so comparatively light, that I started back,apprehending we had intruded farther than he intended. A second glance,however, seemed to indicate that we were still in the region ofdesolation, for a statue lay in the midst of the floor, one of its limbssnapped over, as if it had fallen and been permitted to remain.

  "Where are we, Silo?" I whispered, "what means this unnatural light amongso many symptoms of confusion?"

  "Sir," said the freedman, "this is the place in which alone Domitian usedto eat and sleep, and walk about for the last months of his life, when hewas jealous of all men; and he contrived these walls, covered all overwith the shining Ethiopian stone, that no one might be able to approachhim without being discovered. Even when a slave entered, he would start asif every side of the chamber had been invaded by some host of men; fiftydifferent reflections of one trembling eunuch. It was, they say, behindthis shattered piece of marble that he ran when he had felt the firsttreacherous blow. Yonder in the corner is the couch he slept upon, and hehad always a dagger under his head, and he called to the little page thatwas waiting upon him to fetch it from the place; but the scabbard onlyremained; and then in came Parthenius and Claudianus, and the gladiator,and the rest, who soon finished what the cunning Stephanus had begun. Letus go on;--we have not yet reached the place to which I wished to bringyou--but it is not far off now."

  With this Silo walked to the end of the melancholy chamber, and pressingupon a secret spring, where no door was apparent, opened the way into aroom, darker and smaller than any of those through which we had come. Hethen said to me, "Now, sir, you must not venture upon one whisper more--youtouch on the very heart of Domitian's privacy. It is possible that theplace I have been leading you to may have been shut up--it may exist nolonger; but the state in which all things are found here makes me think itmore likely that Trajan has never been master of its secret. And in thatcase, we shall be able both to see and to hear, without being either seenor heard, exactly as Domitian used to do, when there was any council heldeither in the Mars or the Apollo."

  I started at the boldness of the project which now, for the first time, Iunderstood; but Silo laid his finger on his lip again,--cautiously liftedup a piece of the dark-red cloth with which this chamber was hung,--andessayed another spring in the pannelling beneath. Total darkness appearedto be beyond; but the jailer motioning to me to remain for a moment whereI was, and to keep up the hanging, glided boldly into the recess. Iwondered how he should tread so lightly, that I could not perceive theleast echo; but this no longer surprised me, when I had the sign tofollow. The floor felt beneath my foot as if it were stuffed like apillow; and, after I had dropped the hanging, every thing was totallydark, as it had at first appeared to me, except only at certain points,separate and aloft, which let in gleams of light, manifestly artificial.Silo, taking hold of me by the hand, conducted me up some steps towardsthe nearest of these tiny apertures; and, as I approached it, I hearddistinctly the voices of persons talking together in the room beyond. Idid not draw my breath, you may well believe, with much boldness; but myeye was soon fixed at one of the crevices, and, after the first dazzle wasover, I saw clearly. Silo took his station by my side, gazing throughanother of these loop-holes, which, that you may understand every thing,were evidently quite concealed among the rich carved-work of an ivorycornice.

  The chamber was lighted by three tall candelabra of silver, close besideone of which was placed a long table covered with an infinity of scrollsand tablets. One person, who had his back turned towards us, was writing,and two others, in one of whom I instantly recognized the Emperor, werewalking up and down on the other side.

  "No, Palma," said Trajan, for it was that old favourite whom headdressed--"I have made up my mind as to this matter. I shall never permitany curious inquisition as to private opinion. Every man has a right,without question, to think--to believe--exactly what pleases him; and Ishall concede as much in favour of every woman, Palma, if you will have itso. But it is totally a different affair, when the fact, no matter how, isforced upon my knowledge, that a subject, no matter who or what he be--asubject of the Roman empire, refuses to comply with the first, theelemental, and the most essential of the laws. The man--aye or thewoman--that confesses in my presence contempt for the deities whom thecommonwealth acknowledges in every step of its procedure--that person is acriminal; and I cannot dismiss him unpunished, without injuring thecommonwealth by the display of weakness in its chief. As for these poorfanatics themselves, it is the penalty of my station that I must controlmy feelings."

  "But you are satisfied, my lord," said Palma, "that these people are quiteinnocent as to Cotilius's designs; and as it was upon that suspicion theywere apprehended, perhaps it may be possible----"

  "Yes, Palma," interrupted the Prince; "quite possible and quite easy,provided they will condescend to save themselves by the most trivialacknowledgment of the sort which, I repeat to you, I do and must consideras absolutely necessary. And women too--and girls forsooth--I suppose youwould have me wait till the very urchins on the street were gathering intoknots to discuss the nature of the Gods.--Do you remember what Platosays?"--

  "No, my lord, I do not know to what you refer."

  "Why, Plato says that nobody can ever understand any thing accuratelyabout the Deity, and that, if he could, he would have no right tocommunicate his discoveries to others; the passage is in the Timaeus, andTully has translated it besides. And is it to be endured that these modestfanatics are to do every hour what the Platos and the Ciceros spoke of insuch terms as these? I think you carry your tolerance a little fartherthan might have been expected from a disciple of the Academy."

  "I despise them, my lord, as much as yourself; but, to tell you the truth,it is this young lady that moves me to speak thus--and I crave your pardon,if I have spoken with too much freedom.--Her father was one of the bestsoldiers Titus had."

  "The more is the pity, Palma. Have you ever seen the girl yourself? Didyou give orders that she should be brought hither? I have not the leastobjection that you should have
half an hour, or an hour if you will, totalk with her quietly; perhaps your eloquence may have the effect wedesire."

  "I doubt it, my lord, I greatly doubt it," he replied; "but, indeed, Iknow not whether she be yet here--Did you not send to the Mammertine?"

  The man writing at the table, to whom this interrogation was addressed,said, "I believe, sir, both this lady and the old man that was in the sameprison are now in attendance." And upon this Trajan and Palma retiredtogether towards the farther end of the apartment, where they conversedfor some minutes in a tone so low, that I could not understand any thingof what was said. Trajan at length turned from his favourite with an air,as I thought, of some little displeasure, and said aloud, coming back intothe middle of the room,--"I know it is so; but what is that to the affairin hand? I am very sorry for the Sempronii, but I doubt if even they wouldbe so unreasonable as you are."

  "Will you not see the poor girl yourself, Caesar?"

  "You do not need to be told, that my seeing her would only make it moredifficult for me to do that, which, seeing or not seeing her, I know to bemy duty. Do you accept of my proposal? Are you willing to try the effectof your own persuasion? I promise you, if you succeed, I shall rejoice notless heartily than yourself; but it is rather too much to imagine that Iam personally to interfere about such an affair as this--an affair which,the more I think of it, seems to me to be the more perfectly contemptible.Nay, do not suppose it is this poor girl I am talking of--I mean the wholeof this Jewish, this Christian affair, which does indeed appear to me tobe the most bare-faced absurdity, that ever was permitted to disturb thetranquillity of the empire. A mean and savage nation have but justsuffered the penalty of obstinacy and treachery alike unequalled, and fromthem--from the scattered embers of this extinguished fire, we are to allowa new flame to be kindled--ay, and that in the very centre of Rome. I tellyou, that if my own hand were to be scorched in the cause, I woulddisperse this combustion to the winds of heaven; I tell you, that I standhere Caesar, and that I would rather be chained to the oar, than suffer,while the power to prevent it is mine, the tiniest speck to be thrown uponthe Roman majesty. By all the Gods, Palma, it is enough to make a man sickto think of the madness that is in this world, and of the iron argumentsby which we are compelled to keep those from harming us, that at firstsight of them excite no feeling but our pity. But I am weary of these verynames of Palestine--Jew--Christian. Go to this foolish girl, and try whatyou can make of her; I give you fair warning--no breeders of youngChristians here."