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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vergilius, by Irving Bacheller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Vergilius
+       A Tale of the Coming of Christ
+
+Author: Irving Bacheller
+
+Release Date: August 8, 2005 [EBook #16491]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VERGILIUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Vergilius
+
+A Tale of the Coming of Christ
+
+
+By
+
+Irving Bacheller
+
+
+
+
+
+Author of
+
+"Eben Holden" "D'ri and I" "Darrel of the Blessed Isles"
+
+
+
+
+
+New York and London
+
+Harper & Brothers Publishers
+
+1904
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1904, by IRVING BACHELLER.
+
+
+All rights reserved.
+
+Published August, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+Vergilius
+
+A Tale of the Coming of Christ
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+Rome had passed the summits and stood looking into the dark valley of
+fourteen hundred years.  Behind her the graves of Caesar and Sallust
+and Cicero and Catullus and Vergil and Horace; before her centuries of
+madness and treading down; round about her a multitude sickening of
+luxury, their houses filled with spoil, their mouths with folly, their
+souls with discontent; above her only mystery and silence; in her
+train, philosophers questioning if it were not better for a man had he
+never been born--deeming life a misfortune and extinction the only
+happiness; poets singing no more of "pleasantries and trifles," but
+seeking favor with poor obscenities.  Soon they were even to celebrate
+the virtue of harlots, the integrity of thieves, the tenderness of
+murderers, the justice of oppression.  Leading the caravan were types
+abhorrent and self-opposed--effeminate men, masculine women, cheerful
+cynics, infidel priests, wealthy people with no credit, patricians,
+honoring and yet despising the gods, hating and yet living on the
+populace.  Here was the spectacle of a republican empire, and an
+emperor gathering power while he affected to disdain it.
+
+The splendor of the capital had attracted from all nations the idle
+rich, gamblers, speculators, voluptuaries, profligates, intriguers,
+criminals.  To such an extreme had luxury been carried that nothing was
+too sacred, nothing too costly to be enjoyed.  Digestion had become a
+science, courtship an art, sleep a nightmare, comfort an
+accomplishment, and the very act of living an industry.  Almost one may
+say that the gods lived only in the imagination of the ignorant and the
+jests of the learned.  In a growing patriciate home had become a
+weariness, marriage a form, children a trouble, and the decline of
+motherhood an alarming fact.  Augustus tried the remedy of legislation.
+Henceforth marriage became a duty to the state.  As between men and
+women, things were near a turning-point.  Woman cannot long endure
+scorn nor the absence of veneration.  A law older than the tablets of
+stone shall be her defence.  Love is the price of motherhood.  Soon or
+late, unless it be mingled in some degree with her passion, the
+wonderful gift is withdrawn and men cease to be born of her.  Slowly,
+both the bitterness and the understanding of its loss turn the world to
+virtue.  A new and lofty sentiment was appearing.  Woman, weary of her
+part in the human comedy, had begun to inspire a love sublime as the
+miracle in which she is born to act.
+
+Happily, there were good people in Rome, even noble families, with whom
+sacrifice had still a sacred power, and who practised the four virtues
+of honor, bravery, wisdom, and temperance.  In rural Latium, rich and
+poor clung to the old faith, and everywhere a plebeian feared alike the
+assessor and the gods, and sacrificed to both.
+
+It is no wonder the gods were falling when even Jupiter had been
+outdone by a modest man who dwelt on the Palatine.  One might have seen
+him there any day--a rather delicate figure with shiny blue eyes and
+hair now turning gray.  He flung his lightning with unerring aim across
+the great purple sea into Arabia, Africa, and Spain, and northward to
+the German Ocean and eastward to the land of the Goths.  The genius of
+this remarkable man had outdone the imagination of priest and poet.  A
+genius for organization, like that of his illustrious uncle, gave to
+Augustus a power greater than human hands had yet wielded.
+
+A bit of gossip had travelled far and excited his curiosity.  It spoke
+of a new king, with power above that of men, who was to conquer the
+world.  Sayings of certain learned men came out of Judea into the land
+of lost hope.  They told of the king of promise--that he would bring to
+men the gift of immortal life, that the heavens would declare his
+authority.  Superstitious to the blood and bone, not a few were
+thrilled by the message.
+
+The minds of thinking men were sad, fearful, and beset with curiosity.
+"If there be no gods," they were wont to ask, "have we any hope and
+responsibility?"  They studied the philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Zeno,
+Epicurus, and were unsatisfied.
+
+The nations were at peace, but not the souls of men.  A universal and
+mighty war of the spirit was near at hand.  The skirmishers were
+busy--patrician and plebeian, master and slave, oppressor and
+oppressed.  Soon all were to see the line of battle, the immortal
+captains, the children of darkness, the children of light, the
+beginning of a great revolution.
+
+Rome was like a weary child whose toys are gods and men, and who, being
+weary of them, has yet a curiosity in their destruction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+Those days it was near twelve o'clock by the great dial of history.
+One day, about mid-afternoon, the old capital lay glowing in the
+sunlight.  Its hills were white with marble and green with gardens, and
+traced and spotted and flecked with gold; its thoroughfares were bright
+with color--white, purple, yellow, scarlet--like a field of roses and
+amarantus.
+
+The fashionable day had begun; knight and lady were now making and
+receiving visits.
+
+Five litters and some forty slaves, who bore and followed them, were
+waiting in the court of the palace of the Lady Lucia.  Beyond the walls
+of white marble a noble company was gathered that summer day.  There
+were the hostess and her daughter; three young noblemen, the purple
+stripes on each angusticlave telling of knightly rank; a Jewish prince
+in purple and gold; an old philosopher, and a poet who had been reading
+love lines.  It was the age of pagan chivalry, and one might imperil
+his future with poor wit or a faulty epigram.  Those older men had long
+held the floor, and their hostess, seeking to rally the young knights,
+challenged their skill in courtly compliment.
+
+"O men, who have forgotten the love of women these days, look at her!"
+
+So spoke the Lady Lucia--she that was widow of the Praefect Publius,
+who fell with half his cohort in the desert wars.
+
+She had risen from a chair of ebony enriched by cunning Etruscan
+art--four mounted knights charging across its heavy back in armor of
+wrought gold.  She stopped, facing the company, between two columns of
+white marble beautifully sculptured.  Upon each a vine rose, limberly
+and with soft leaves in the stone, from base to capital.  Her daughter
+stood in the midst of a group of maids who were dressing her hair.
+
+"Arria, will you come to me?" said the Lady Lucia.
+
+The girl came quickly--a dainty creature of sixteen, her dark hair
+waving, under jewelled fillets, to a knot behind.  From below the knot
+a row of curls fell upon the folds of her outer tunic.  It was a filmy,
+transparent thing--this garment--through which one could see the white
+of arm and breast and the purple fillets on her legs.
+
+"She is indeed beautiful in the yellow tunic.  I should think that
+scarlet rug had caught fire and wrapped her in its flame," said the
+poet Ovid.
+
+"Nay, her heart is afire, and its light hath the color of roses," said
+an old philosopher who sat by.  "Can you not see it shining through her
+cheeks?"
+
+"Young sirs," said the Lady Lucia, with a happy smile, as she raised
+her daughter's hand, "now for your offers."
+
+It was a merry challenge, and shows how lightly they treated a sacred
+theme those days.
+
+First rose the grave senator, Aulus Valerius Maro by name.
+
+"Madame," said he, stepping forward and bowing low, "I offer my heart
+and my fortune, and the strength of my arms and the fleetness of my
+feet and the fair renown of my fathers."
+
+The Lady Lucia turned to her daughter with a look of inquiry.
+
+"Brave words are not enough," said the fair Roman maiden, smiling, as
+her eyes fell.
+
+Then came the effeminate Gracus, in head-dress and neckerchief, frilled
+robe and lady's sandals.  He was of great sires who had borne the Roman
+eagles into Gaul.
+
+"Good lady," said he, "I would give my life."
+
+"And had I more provocation," said Arria, raising a jewelled bodkin, "I
+would take it."
+
+Now the splendid Antipater, son of Herod the Great, was up and
+speaking.  "I offer," said he, "my heart and wealth and half my hopes,
+and the jewels of my mother, and a palace in the beautiful city of
+Jerusalem."
+
+"And a pretty funeral," the girl remarked, thoughtfully.  "Jerusalem is
+half-way to Hades."
+
+The Roman matron turned, and put her arm around the waist of the girl
+and drew her close.  A young man rose from his chair and approached
+them.  He was Vergilius, son of Varro, and of equestrian knighthood.
+His full name was Quintus Vergilius Varro, but all knew the youth by
+his nomen.  Tall and erect, with curly blond locks and blue eyes and
+lips delicately curved, there was in that hall no ancestral mask or
+statue so nobly favored.  He had been taught by an old philosopher to
+value truth as the better part of honor--a view not common then, but
+therein was a new light, spreading mysteriously.
+
+"Dear Lady Lucia," said he, "I cannot amuse you with idle words.  I
+fear to speak, and yet silence would serve me ill.  I offer not the
+strength of my arms nor the fleetness of my feet, for they may fail me
+tomorrow; nor my courage, for that has never been tried; nor the renown
+of my fathers, for that is not mine to give; nor my life, for that
+belongs to my country; nor my fortune, for I should blush to offer what
+may be used to buy cattle.  I would give a thing greater and more
+lasting than all of these.  It is my love."
+
+The girl turned half away, blushing pink.  All had flung off the mask
+of comedy and now wore a look of surprise.
+
+"By my faith!" said the poet, "this young knight meant his words."
+
+"A man of sincerity, upon my soul!" said the old philosopher.  "I have
+put my hope in him, and so shall Rome.  A lucky girl is she, for has he
+not riches, talent, honor, temperance, courage, and the beauty of a
+god?  And was I not his teacher?"
+
+"My brave Vergilius," the matron answered, "you are like the knights of
+old I have heard my father tell of.  They had such a way with
+them--never a smile and a melancholy look in their faces when they
+spoke of love.  I give you the crown of gallantry, and, if she be
+willing, you shall walk with her in the garden.  That is your reward."
+
+Vergilius, advancing, took the girl's hand and kissed it.
+
+"Will you go with me?" said he.
+
+"On one condition," she answered, looking down at the folds of her
+tunic.
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"That you will entertain me with philosophy and the poets," she
+answered, with a smile.
+
+"And with no talk of love," the matron added, as Arria took his arm.
+
+They walked through the long hall of the palace, over soft rugs and
+great mosaics, and between walls aglow with tints of sky and garden.
+These two bore with them a tender feeling as they passed the figures of
+embattled horse and host in carven wood, and mural painting and colored
+mosaic and wrought metal--symbols of the martial spirit of the empire
+now oddly in contrast with their own.  They came out upon a peristyle
+overlooking an ample garden wherein were vines, flowers, and fruit
+trees.
+
+"You have a way of words," said she.  "It is almost possible to believe
+you."
+
+He stopped and for a long moment looked into her eyes.  "I love you,
+sweet girl," he said, softly; "I love you.  As I live, I speak the
+truth."
+
+"And you a man!" she exclaimed, incredulously.
+
+"Ay, strange as it may be, a Roman."
+
+"My mother has told me," said she, looking down at her sandal, "that
+when a man speaks, it is well to listen but never to believe."
+
+"They are not easy to understand--these men and women," said he,
+thoughtfully.  "Sometimes I think they would be nobler if they were
+dumb as dogs.  Albeit I suppose they would find a new way of lying.
+But, O sweet sister of Appius, try to believe me, though you believe no
+other, and I--I shall believe you always."
+
+"You had better not," said she, with a merry glance.
+
+"I must."
+
+"But you will doubt me soon, for I shall say that I do not love you."
+
+For a little he knew not how to answer.  She turned away, looking off
+at the Capitoline, where the toil and art of earth had wrought to show
+the splendor of heaven.  Its beautiful, barbaric temples were glowing
+in the sunlight.
+
+"Life would be too serious if there were no dissimulation."  She looked
+up at him as she spoke, and he saw a little quiver in her curved lips.
+
+"That bow of your lips--I should think it fashioned by Praxiteles--and
+it is for the arrows of truth."
+
+"But a girl--she must deceive a little."
+
+They were now among the vines.
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"Stupid fellow!" said she, in a whisper, as she turned, looking up at
+him.  "Son of Varo, lovers are not ever to be trusted.  Shall I tell
+you a story?  One day I was in the Via Sacra and a young man caught and
+held me for a moment and tried to touch my lips--that boy, Antipater, a
+good-looking wretch!"
+
+She gave her shoulders a little shrug and drew her robe closer.  "He
+had come out of the Basilica Julia, and I am sure he had been
+over-drinking.  I cried 'Help!' and quickly a man came and stood
+between us; and oh! young sir, as I live, it was our great father
+Augustus, and Antipater knelt before him.
+
+"'Young man,' said the father--and his eyes shone--'rise and look
+yonder.  Do you see the citadel?  Under its marble floor there is a
+grave.  It is that of one who kissed a vestal and was buried alive.
+There are sacred people in Rome, and among them is this daughter of my
+beloved Publius.  Go you to your palace, son of Herod, and, hereafter,
+forget not that you are in Rome.'
+
+"He was angry, and I, so frightened!  Then he took me home and said he
+would be my father, and that in good time he would choose a husband for
+me."
+
+"The gods grant that he choose me."
+
+"The gods forbid it, son of Varro."
+
+"And why?"
+
+Slowly and with assumed severity she spoke.
+"Because--I--do--not--love--you."
+
+"Cruel one!" said he, turning and biting his lips.  "Your words are as
+the blow of the pilum."
+
+"Have they indeed wounded you?"  She touched his hand with a look of
+sympathy.
+
+"They have made me sick at heart."
+
+"Then would I not believe them," said she, tenderly, slipping her
+slender fingers into his.
+
+He pressed her hand.  "And do you, then, love me?"
+
+"No--I--do--not--love--you."
+
+"You are a strange people--you maidens of the capital," said he, taking
+her hand in both of his.  "Rome has conquered everything save its
+women."
+
+She parted her tunic and stood looking down at her white bosom, and
+with her delicate fingers brushed off a bit of dust which had fallen
+from the vine above them.
+
+"I do think much of love," said she, thoughtfully, still looking down
+at her breast.
+
+"And of me," he insisted.
+
+"Nay, not of you," she answered, without delay.
+
+"I shall know," said he, wistfully, "for I shall consult the fates.  I
+have here a sacred coin.  An old dame found it when she was digging in
+the side of Soracte.  See, it has on its face the head of Apollo, and
+opposite is an arrow in a death-hand.  And the hag had an odd dream of
+this coin, so she told me--that it fell out of the sky, and was,
+indeed, from the treasury of the gods, and had in it a wonderful power
+in all mysteries.  And one might tell by tossing it in the air and
+noting its fall, if he were loved or hated by the first one he should
+see after learning its answer.  I have never known it to fail.  If the
+head is up you love me," said he, tossing the disk of metal.
+
+It fell and lay at his feet.
+
+"The head!" he exclaimed, with joy.
+
+"Is it really blest of the gods?" she inquired, eagerly, her cheeks
+aflame.  "Is it indeed blest?"
+
+"So said the woman who gave it me."
+
+"Now I shall toss it," said she, taking the coin.
+
+"Ah! you would know if I love you," he answered.
+
+The coin leaped high and fell and rolled along the marble walk.  Both
+followed eagerly, he leading, and, as it stopped, he quickly covered
+the bit of metal with his hand.
+
+"Let me see!" said she, her hand upon his wrist.
+
+"Do not look."
+
+"Let me see it!" she insisted.
+
+"Sweet sister of Appius, I beg of you, here on my knees, do not look at
+the coin!  I will give you the white steeds from Cappadocia, but do not
+look."
+
+"Let me see it, I say, son of Varro!"  She was tugging at his wrist,
+and now, indeed, there was a pretty pleading in her voice.  The words
+were to him as pearls strung on a silken thread.
+
+"Wait a little."
+
+"I shall not wait."
+
+"Sweet flower of Rome," said he, looking into her eyes, "I know that
+you are mine now!  Your voice--it is like the love-call of the robin!"
+
+"Stubborn boy!  Do you think I care for you?"  She stopped and looked
+into his eyes.
+
+"Else why should you wish to see the coin?" said he.  "But, look!  Upon
+my soul it is false!"  A little silence followed.
+
+"'Tis false!" he repeated.  "I swear the coin lies, for I do love you,
+dearly."
+
+"It does not lie," she whispered.
+
+He put his arm about her.
+
+"And I know," he answered, "why you think it cannot lie.  It said,
+before, that you love me, and it was right."
+
+She thrust him away gently, and, rising, as if stricken with sudden
+fear of him, ran a few paces up the walk.  She turned quickly, and
+looked back at him as he approached.  Her face had grown pale.
+
+"I--I shall never speak with you again," she whispered.
+
+"Oh, have mercy upon me, beautiful sister of Appius!" said the young
+knight, and there was a note of despair in his voice.  "Have mercy upon
+me!"
+
+"Young sir," said she, retreating slowly, as he advanced, "I do not
+love you--I do not love you."
+
+She turned quickly, and ran to the peristyle, and, stopping not to
+glance back at him, entered the great marble home of her fathers.
+
+He stood a moment looking at the sun-glow behind roof and dome and
+tower.  A bridge of light, spanning the hollow of the city, had laid
+its golden timbers from hill to hill; and for a little the young man
+felt as if he were drowning in the shadows under it.  He turned
+presently and hurried into the palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+"He is more honored than Jupiter these days," the philosopher was
+saying as Vergilius re-entered.
+
+"Who?" inquired the young man.
+
+"Who else but Caesar, and it is well.  The gods--who are they?"
+
+"The adopted children of Vergil and Homer," said Appius, brother of
+Arria, who had just returned from the baths.
+
+"But our great father Augustus--who can doubt that he deserves our
+worship?" said the philosopher, a subtle irony in his voice.  It was
+this learned man who had long been the instructor of Vergilius.
+
+"Who, indeed?" was the remark of another.
+
+"But these gods!"
+
+"At least they are not likely to cut off one's head," said Aulus.
+
+"Speak not lightly of the gods," said Vergilius.  "They are still a
+power with the people, and the people have great need of them.  What
+shall become of Rome when the gods fall?"
+
+"It shall sicken," said the philosopher, with a lift of his hand.  "You
+that are young may live to see the end.  It shall be like the opening
+of the underworld.  Our republic is false, our gods are false, and,
+indeed, I know but one truth."
+
+"And what may it be?" said another.
+
+"We are all liars," he quickly answered.
+
+"O tempora!" said the Lady Lucia.  "It is an evil day, especially among
+men.  When Quinta Claudia went with her noble sisters to meet the
+Idaean mother at Terracina they were able to find in Rome one virtuous
+man to escort them.  But that was more than two hundred years ago."
+
+"If one were to find him now, and he were to go," said the philosopher,
+"by the gods above us!  I fear he would return a sad rake indeed."
+
+"'Tis not a pleasant theme," said the Lady Lucia, by way of introducing
+another.
+
+"The dear old girl!" said young Gracus, in a low tone, as he turned to
+the senator.  "Her hair is a lie, her complexion is a lie, her lips are
+a lie."
+
+"And her life is a lie," said the other.
+
+"You enjoyed your walk?" asked the mother of Arria, addressing
+Vergilius.
+
+"The walk was a delight to me and its end a sorrow," he answered.
+
+"And you obeyed me?"
+
+"To the letter."  It is true, he thought, we are a generation of liars,
+but how may one help it?  Then, quickly, a way seemed to suggest
+itself, and he added: "Madame, forgive me.  I do now remember we had a
+word or two about love; but, you see, I was telling the legend of this
+coin.  It has the power to show one if he be loved."
+
+"By tossing?"
+
+"By tossing.  Head, yes; the reverse, no."
+
+"Let me try."  She flung it to the oaken beams and it fell on the great
+rug beside her.
+
+"Madame, the hand is up," said Vergilius.  "I fear it is not
+infallible."
+
+"Let me see," she answered, stooping gravely to survey the coin.
+Something passed between her and her pleasure, and for one second a
+shadow wavered across her face.
+
+"It is Death's hand, of course," she remarked, sadly.  "Love is for the
+young and death is for the old."
+
+"Old, madame!  Why, your cheeks have roses in them."
+
+"Good youth, you are too frank," said she, with a quick glance about
+her.  "Did the coin say that she loved you?"
+
+"It did."
+
+"And what did she say?"
+
+The young man hesitated.
+
+"Come, you innocent!  Of course, I knew that you would talk of nothing
+but love.  What said she?"
+
+"That she does not love me; but I am sure it is mere coquetry."
+
+"Dear youth!  You have a cunning eye.  This very day speak, my brave
+Vergilius--speak to her brother Appius.  To-night take him to dine with
+you."
+
+"I had so planned."
+
+A gong of silver rang in the palace halls.  It was the signal to
+prepare for dinner, and the guests made their farewells.  Soon Appius
+and the young lover walked side by side in the direction of the
+Palatine.
+
+"And what have you been doing?" the former inquired, presently.
+
+"Only dreaming."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of love and happiness, and your sister."
+
+"My sister?"
+
+"Yes; I love her and wish to make her my wife."
+
+"You have wealth and birth and wit and good prospects.  I can see no
+objection to you.  But love--love is a thing for women to talk about."
+
+"You are wrong, Appius.  I can feel it in my soul.  And, believe me, I
+am no longer in Rome.  I have found the gateway of a better world--like
+that heaven they speak of in the Trastevere--full of peace and beauty."
+
+"You have, indeed, been dreaming," said the other.  "But, Vergilius,
+there is one higher than I who shall choose her husband--the imperator.
+Does he know you?"
+
+"I have met him, of course, but do much fear he would not remember me."
+
+"We may know shortly.  Every seventh day this year he has sat, like a
+beggar, at his gate asking for alms.  To-day we shall see him there."
+
+"It is an odd whim."
+
+"Hush! you know the people as well as I, and he must please them," the
+other whispered.  "He must conceal his power if he would live out his
+time.  I will present you, and perhaps he may be gracious--ay, may even
+bid you to his banquet."
+
+"A modest home," said young Vergilius.
+
+Now they were nearing the palace of that mild and quiet gentleman whose
+name and title--Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus--had terrified
+the world; whose delicate hands flung the levin of his power to the far
+boundaries of India and upper Gaul, to the distant shores of Spain and
+Africa, and into deserts beyond the Euphrates.
+
+"Many a poor patrician has better furniture and more servants and a
+nobler palace," said Appius.  "Rather plain wood, divans out of
+fashion, rugs o'erworn; but you have seen them.  He alone can afford
+that kind of thing."
+
+"He has a fondness for old things."
+
+"But not for old women, my dear fellow."
+
+"Indeed!  And he is himself sixty-one."
+
+"Hist--the imperator!  There, by the gate yonder."
+
+An erect figure of a man rather above medium height, in a coarse, gray
+toga, stood by one of the white columns.  Three Moorish children were
+playing about his knees, and a senator was talking with him.
+
+"My public services are familiar to you," said the senator, as the
+young knights waited some twenty paces off.  "A gift of two hundred
+thousand denarii would be fitting, and, if you will permit me to say
+so, it would delight the populace.  Indeed, 'tis generally believed you
+have already given me a large sum."
+
+"But see that you do not believe it," blandly spake the strange
+emperor, for albeit Rome was then a republic in name it was an empire
+in fact, and Augustus, wielding the power of an emperor, refused the
+title.  Turning, he began to play with the children.
+
+"Great and beloved father!  I hope, at least, you will consider my
+prayer."
+
+"Good senator, I have considered.  You ask for two hundred thousand
+denarii.  I can give you only the opportunity of earning them.  As to
+myself, I am poor.  Look at me.  Even my time belongs to the people.
+and it is passing, my dear senator--it is passing."
+
+The importunate man saw the subtle meaning in these words and went his
+way.
+
+The emperor sat down, a child upon each knee, as the young men
+approached him.  His head was bare and his fair, curly locks, growing
+low upon his forehead, were now touched with gray.  He looked up at the
+two, his eyes blue, brilliant, piercing.
+
+"My beloved Appius," said he, in a gentle tone, as he rose.  "And
+this--let me think--ah, it is Vergilius, the son of Varro."
+
+"It is wonderful you should remember me," said Vergilius.
+
+"Wonderful?  No.  I could tell your age, your misdeeds, your virtues,
+and how often you failed to answer the roll-calls in Cappadocia.  Well,
+I dare say they were pretty girls.  But I forget; I am to-day seeking
+alms, my good children, for the poor of Rome.  I am as ten thousand of
+the hungry standing before you here and asking for bread.  In their
+name I shall receive, thankfully, what you may bestow."
+
+Appius gave a handful of coins; Vergilius emptied his purse.
+
+"'Tis not enough," said the latter.  "Your words have touched me.
+To-night I shall send five thousand denarii to your palace."
+
+"Well given, noble youth!  It is generous.  I like it in you.  Say that
+I may have you to feast with me the first day before the ides--both of
+you.  Say that I may have you."
+
+"We humbly wait your commands," said Vergilius, kissing his hand.
+
+"Now tell me, handsome son of Varro, have you found no pretty girl to
+your liking?  Know you not, boy, 'tis time you married?"  He held the
+hand of the young knight and spoke kindly, his cunning eyes aglow, and
+smiled upon him, showing his teeth, set well apart.
+
+"Such an one I have found, good sire.  Under the great purple dome
+there is none more beautiful, and with your favor and that of the gods
+I hope to make her my wife."
+
+"Ah, then, I know her?"
+
+"It is Arria, sister of Appius."
+
+"And daughter of my beloved prefect.  You are ambitious, my good youth."
+
+The emperor stood a moment, looking downward thoughtfully.  He felt his
+retreating chin.  His smooth-shaven face, broad from bone to bone above
+the cheeks, quickly grew stern.  His mind, which had the world for its
+toy and which planned the building or the treading down of empires, had
+turned its thought upon that little kingdom in the heart of the boy.
+And he was thinking whether it should stand or fall.
+
+"It may be impossible," said he, turning to the young man.  "Say no
+more to her until--until I have thought of it."
+
+And Appius observed, as he went away with his friend: "You will be a
+statesman, my dear Vergilius; you gave him just the right dose of
+religion, flattery, and silver."
+
+"I must succeed or I shall have no heart to live," said the other,
+soberly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+That evening Vergilius went to feast with the young Herodian prince,
+Antipater of Judea.  The son of Herod was then a tall, swarthy, robust
+young man, who had come to see life in Rome and to finish his
+education.  He would inherit the crown--so said they who knew anything
+of Herodian politics; but he was a Jew, and deep in the red intrigue of
+his father's house.  So, therefore, he was regarded in Rome with more
+curiosity than respect.  Augustus himself had said that he would rather
+be the swine of Herod than Herod's son, and he might have added that he
+would rather be the swine of Antipater than his father.  But that was
+before Augustus had learned that even his own household was unworthy of
+full confidence.
+
+Antipater had brought many slaves to Rome, and some of the noblest
+horses in the empire.  He had hired a palace and built a lion-house,
+where, before intimates, he was wont to display his courage and his
+skill.  It had a small arena and was in the midst of a great garden.
+There he kept a lion from northern Africa, a tiger, and a black leopard
+from the Himalayas.  He was training for the Herodian prize at the
+Jewish amphitheatre in Caesarea.  These great, stealthy cats in his
+garden typified the passions of his heart.  If he had only fought these
+latter as he fought the beasts he might have had a better place in
+history.
+
+Antipater had conceived a great liking for the sister of Appius.  Her
+beauty had roused in him the great cats of passion now stalking their
+prey.  He had sworn to his intimates that no other man should marry
+her.  His gallantry was unwelcome, he knew that, and Appius had assured
+him that a marriage was impossible; but the wild heart of the Idumean
+held to its purpose.  And now its hidden eyes were gazing, catlike, on
+Vergilius, the cause of its difficulty.  In Judea he would have known
+how to act, but in Rome he pondered.
+
+It had been a stormy day in the palace of Antipater.  He had crucified
+a slave for disobedience and run a lance through one of his best horses
+for no reason.  He came out of his bath a little before the hour of his
+banquet, and two slaves, trembling with fear, followed him to his
+chamber.  They put his tunic on him, and his sandals, and wound the
+fillets that held them in place.  One of the slaves began brushing the
+dark hair of his master while the other was rubbing a precious ointment
+on his face and arms.
+
+"Fool!" he shouted.  "Have I not told you never to bear upon my head?"
+
+He jumped to his feet, black eyes flashing under heavy brows, and,
+seizing a lance, broke the slave's arm with a blow and drove him out of
+the chamber.  A few minutes later, in a robe of white silk and a yellow
+girdle, he came into his banquet-hall with politeness, dovelike,
+worshipful, and caressing.
+
+"Noble son of Varro!" said he, smiling graciously, "it is a joy to see
+you.  And you, brave Gracus; and you, Aulus, child of Destiny; and you,
+my learned Manius; and you, Carus, favored of the Muses: I do thank you
+all for this honor."
+
+It was a brilliant company--gay youths all, who could tell the new
+stories and loved to sit late with their wine.  As they waited for
+dinner many tempting dishes were passed among them.  There were
+oysters, mussels, spondyli, fieldfares with asparagus, roe-ribs,
+sea-nettles, and purple shellfish.  When they came to their couches,
+the dinner-table was covered with rare and costly things.  On platters
+of silver and gold one might have seen tunny fishes from Chalcedon,
+murcenas from the Straits of Gades, peacocks from Samos, grouse from
+Phrygia, cranes from Melos.  Slaves were kept busy bringing boar's head
+and sow's udder and roasted fowls, and fish pasties, and boiled teals.
+Other slaves kept the goblets full of old wine.  Soon the banquet had
+become a revel of song and laughter.  Suddenly Antipater raised a calix
+high above his head.
+
+"My noble friends," he shouted, "I bid you drink with me to Arria,
+sister of Appius, and fairest daughter of Rome--"
+
+Vergilius had quickly risen to his feet.  "Son of Herod," said he, with
+dignity, "I am in your palace and have tasted of your meat, and am
+therefore sacred.  You make your wine bitter when you mingle it with
+the name of one so pure.  Good women were better forgotten at a
+midnight revel."
+
+A moment of silence followed.
+
+"My intention was pure as she," Antipater answered, craftily.  "Be not
+so jealous, my noble friend.  I esteem her as the best and loveliest of
+women."
+
+"Nay, not the loveliest," said the young Manius, an assessor in Judea.
+"I sing the praise of Salome, sister of our noble prince.  Of all the
+forms in flesh and marble none compare with this beautiful daughter of
+the great king."
+
+"May fairest women be for the best men," said Antipater, drinking his
+wine.
+
+In a dim light along the farther side of the dining-hall was a row of
+figures, some draped, some nude, and all having the look of old marble.
+Two lay in voluptuous attitudes, one sat on a bank of flowers, and
+others stood upon pedestals.
+
+There were all the varying forms of Venus represented in living flesh.
+None, save Antipater and the slaves around him, knew that under each
+bosom was a fearful and palpitating heart.  They were beautiful
+slave-girls captured on the frontiers of Judea.  In spite of aching
+sinew and muscle, they had to stand like stone to escape the
+observation of evil eyes.  There was a cruelty behind that stony
+stillness of the maidens, equal, it would seem, to the worst in Hades.
+
+Slaves kept the wine foaming in every goblet, and fought and danced and
+wrestled for the pleasing of that merry company, and the hours wore
+away.  Suddenly the sound of a lyre hushed the revels.  All heard the
+voice of a maiden singing, and turned to see whence it came.  A sweet
+voice it was, trembling in tones that told of ancient wrong, in words
+full of a new hope.  Had life and song come to one of those white
+marbles yonder?  Voice and word touched the heart of Vergilius--he knew
+not why; and this in part is the chant that stopped the revels of
+Antipater:
+
+
+  "Lift up my soul; let me not be ashamed---I trust
+      in Thee, God of my fathers;
+  Send, quickly send, the new king whose arrows
+      shall fly as the lightning,
+  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
+      low and the wicked to tremble.
+  Soon let me hear the great song that shall sound
+      in the deep of the heavens;
+  Show me the lantern of light hanging low in
+      the deep of the heavens."
+
+
+The voice of the singer grew faint and the lyre dropped from her hands.
+They could see her reeling, and suddenly she fell headlong to the rug
+beneath her pedestal.  Antipater rose quickly with angry eyes.
+
+"The accursed girl!" said he.  "A Galilean slave of my father.  She is
+forever chanting of a new king."
+
+Hot with anger and flushed with wine, he ran, cursing, and kicked the
+shapely form that lay fainting at the foot of its pedestal.
+
+"Fool!" he shouted.  "Know you not that I only am your king?  You shall
+be punished; you shall enter the cage of the leopard."
+
+He went no further.  Vergilius had rushed upon him and flung him to the
+floor.  Antipater rose quickly and approached the young Roman, a devil
+in his eyes.  Vergilius had a look of wonder and self-reproach.
+
+"What have I done?" said he, facing the Jew.  "Son of Herod, forgive
+me.  She is your slave, and I--I am no longer master of myself.  I
+doubt not some strange god is working in me, for I seem to be
+weak-hearted and cannot bear to see you kick her."
+
+The declaration was greeted with loud laughter.  Antipater stood
+muttering as he shook the skirt of his toga.
+
+"'Tis odd, my goodfellows," said Vergilius, "but the other day I saw a
+man scourging his lady's-maid.  Mother of the gods!  I felt as if the
+blows were falling on my own back, and out went my hand upon his arm
+and I begged him--I begged him to spare the girl."
+
+All laughed again.
+
+"You should have a doll and long hair," said Antipater, in a tone of
+contempt.
+
+The proud son of Varro stood waiting as the others laughed, his brows
+and chin lifting a bit with anger.  When silence came he spoke slowly,
+looking from face to face:
+
+"If any here dare to question my courage, within a moment it shall be
+proved upon him."
+
+None spoke or moved for a breath.  Antipater answered, presently:
+
+"I doubt not your courage, noble Vergilius, but if you will have it
+tried I can show you a better way, and one that will spare your
+friends.  Come, all of you."
+
+As they were rising, the young Gracus remarked: "By Apollo!  I have not
+taken my emetic."
+
+"To forget that is to know sorrow," said another.
+
+Slaves brought their outer robes and they followed the young prince.
+He led them, between vines and fruit trees and beds of martagon and
+mirasolus, to the lion-house in his garden.  Vergilius now understood
+the test of courage to be put upon him.  The great beasts were asleep
+in their cages, and Antipater prodded them with a lance.  A thunder in
+their throats seemed to fill the air and shake the flames in the
+lampadaria.  With sword and lance Antipater entered the arena, a space
+barred high, about thirty feet square, upon which all the cages opened.
+
+"The tiger!" he commanded.
+
+Keepers lifted a metal gate, and the huge cat leaped away from their
+lances, backed snarling to the end of his cage, and with a slow,
+creeping movement put his head and fore-paws into the arena; then a
+swift step or two, a lowering of the great head, and side-long he
+stood, with eyes aglow and fangs uncovered, a low mutter in his mouth,
+like the roar of a mighty harp-string.  Some fifteen feet away stood
+the son of Herod, his lance poised.
+
+"Never strike while your beast has a foot to the ground," said he,
+keeping his gaze on the face of the tiger.  "He will be quick to move
+and parry.  Wait until he is in the air, and then thrust your lance."
+
+He made a feint with his weapon; the tiger darted half his length
+aside, with a great, bursting roar, and, crouching low, stealthily felt
+the ground beneath him.
+
+"Watch him now," said the tall Antipater.  "He will leap soon."
+
+Again he drove him forward, and then the beast turned, facing his
+tormentor, and crouched low.  There, in a huge setting of bone and
+muscle strangely fitted to its fierceness, with eyes of fire and feet
+of deadly stealth, its back arched like a drawn bow, the wild heart of
+the son of Herod seemed to be facing him.
+
+"Look!" a slave shouted.  "He has bent his bow."
+
+The haired lip of the beast quivered; great cords of muscle were drawn
+tense.  Like a flash the bow sprang and the columns of bone beneath him
+lifted, flinging his long, striped body in the air.  With cat-like
+swiftness Antipater stepped aside, and while the huge beast was in
+mid-air, thrust the lance into his heart.  He bore with all his
+strength and rushed away, seizing an other weapon.  The big cat fell
+and rose and struck at the clinging lance, and stood a second flooding
+the floor with blood.  Then down he went shuddering to his death.  The
+young men shouted loud their applause in honor of Herod's son.  While
+the beast was dying slaves came and sanded the floor.  Then, presently,
+they swept up the red sand, and tying a rope to the legs of the limp
+tiger, dragged him away.  They had done this kind of work before, and
+each knew his part.  Presently Antipater called two of them.
+
+"Bring that girl Cyran--she that chants of her new king," said he, as
+they ran to do his bidding.
+
+"Noble prince, the strange god is again at work in me," said Vergilius,
+with rising ire.  "I could not bear to see you put her with the
+leopard; I should rather face him myself."
+
+"You!" said the other, tauntingly, and with a shrewd purpose.  The
+youths turned to see if Vergilius would really accept the challenge.
+No man had ever faced a black leopard at close quarters without
+suffering death or injury.
+
+"I," said Vergilius, promptly.  "If it is amusement you desire, I can
+supply it as well as she.  Surely I have more blood in me.  If you wish
+only to feed the leopard--will I not make a better feast?"
+
+A sound hushed them.  It was the slave-girl, singing as she came near:
+
+
+  "Send, quickly send, the new king whose arrows
+      shall fly as the lightning,
+  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
+      low and the wicked to tremble.
+  Soon let me hear the great song that shall sound
+      in the deep of the heavens;
+  Show me the lantern of light hanging low in
+      the deep of the heavens."
+
+
+She was fair to look upon as she came, led by the carnifex, her form,
+draped in soft, transparent linen, like that of a goddess in its
+outline, her face lighted even with that light of which she sang.
+
+"The girl against a hundred denarii that you cannot live an hour in the
+arena with him," said Antipater, hotly.
+
+"I accept the wager," Vergilius calmly answered, laying off his robe
+and seizing a lance.  He entered the arena and closed its gate behind
+him.  "Drive the beast in upon me, son of Herod; and you, Gracus, be
+ready to hand me another lance."
+
+The black leopard spat fiercely and struck at the points that were put
+upon it, the deep rumble in its throat swelling into loud crescendos.
+Of a sudden it bounded through the gateway and stood a moment, baring
+great fangs.  The animal threatened with long hisses.  Vergilius held
+its eye, his lance raised.  The hissing ceased, the growl diminished,
+the stealthy paws moved slowly.  Soon it rolled upon its side, purring,
+and seemed to caress the floor with head and paws--a trick to divert
+the gaze of Vergilius.  The Satanic eyes were ever on its foe.  As the
+beast lay there, twisting and turning, the black fur seemed to wrap it
+in the gloom of Tartarus, and the fire of the burning lake to shine
+through its eyes.  While Vergilius stood motionless and alert, a slave
+hurriedly entered the lion-house and spoke to Antipater.
+
+"The imperator!" whispered the slave.  "He cannot wait; he must see you
+quickly."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the palace hall."
+
+Antipater hurried away.
+
+The slave-girl went close to the barred arena.
+
+"Young master," said she, in quick and eager words, "the lamps are
+burning dimmer.  They will go out soon.  It is a trick.  You will not
+be able to see and the leopard will rend you."
+
+Antipater ran to the banquet-hall of his palace, where sat the emperor,
+his chin resting thoughtfully on his hand.  The great Augustus did not
+look up nor even change his attitude as the son of Herod came near and
+bowed low and called him father.
+
+"I have a plan," said the emperor thoughtfully, "--a pretty plan, my
+young prince of--of--"
+
+"Judea?" suggested the young prince.
+
+"Oh, well, it matters not," the great father went on.  "You know that
+fair Vergilius, son of Varro?  A headstrong, foolish youth he is, and I
+fear much that he is like to die shortly.  What think you?"
+
+The piercing eyes of Augustus were looking into those of the young man.
+
+"My great father," said the latter, "I do not know."
+
+"'Tis gross ignorance and unworthy of you," said Augustus, quickly, as
+he rose.  "Well, I have bethought me of a pretty plan.  Your funeral
+and his shall occur on the same day--a fine, great, amusing funeral,"
+he added, thoughtfully.  "It shall be so.  Do not worry, I shall see
+you well buried.  Ah, you are most impolite.  Why do you not ask me to
+drink your health?  My pretty prince, you look most ill and have need
+of my good wishes."
+
+"Dominus!" said the other, trembling with anxiety.
+
+"Dominus!" the old emperor shouted, angrily.  "Call me ass, if you
+dare, but never call me 'Dominus.'"
+
+"You honor me, great father," said the young man, his eyes staring with
+terror, "but I beg you to excuse me for a little time."
+
+"Ah, so you would leave me," said the sly emperor, in his mildest
+tones.  "A most inhospitable wretch, indeed."
+
+The tall Jew was now pale with fright.  His feeling showed in great
+beads of perspiration.  He dared not to stay; he dared not to go.  He
+was in a worse plight than Vergilius, now standing in the leopard's
+cage.
+
+"A most inhospitable prince," the bland emperor repeated, smiling with
+amusement.  "You are in a hurry?"
+
+"I am ill."
+
+The emperor stood smiling as Antipater glided away.
+
+"Run, you knave!" said the former to himself, with a chuckle of
+satisfaction.  "Upon my soul! the Jew has already set his snare."
+
+Then the gentle and cunning man, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
+Augustus, made his way to the entrance where lecticarii were waiting
+with his litter.
+
+"Can you hear the sound of running feet?" he inquired of the lady who
+sat beside him as they went away.
+
+"Yes.  What means it?"
+
+He turned with a smile and a movement of his hand.  Then he answered
+calmly:
+
+"Death is chasing a man through the garden yonder."
+
+While Antipater was running towards the lion-house, that small tragedy
+of the arena was near its end.
+
+The lights are burning low.  Two have flickered for a little and gone
+out.  The young men are watching with eager eyes.
+
+"I can bear it no longer," says one, rushing to the gate of the arena,
+only to find that he could not open it.
+
+The slave-girl utters a cry and steps forward and is caught and held by
+the carnifex.
+
+Vergilius urges the leopard.  He steps quickly, feinting with his
+lance; the cat darts along the farther side of the arena, roaring.  Its
+eyes glow fiery in the dusk.  The beast is become furious with
+continued baiting.  Half the lamps are out and the light rapidly
+failing as Antipater rushes through the door.  He falls beside the
+arena, rises and opens the gate.
+
+"A lance," he whispers, and it is quickly put in his hands.  "Come,
+come quickly, son of Varro," he whispers again.  "The light is failing.
+He will tear you into shreds.  Come through the gate here."
+
+Vergilius had stopped, facing the leopard with lance raised.
+
+"Not unless I have the wager," says he, calmly.
+
+"You have won it," Antipater answers.  "Come, good friend, be quick, I
+beg of you!"
+
+Both moved backward through the gate, and before it closed there came a
+fling of claws on the floor.  A black ball, bound hard with tightened
+sinew, rose in the air and shot across the arena and shook the gate
+which had closed in time to stop it.
+
+"You are living, son of Varro, and I thank the God of my fathers,"
+Antipater shouted, as he flung himself on a big divan, his breath
+coming fast.  "I forgot the lights.  I thought of them suddenly, and
+ran to save you.  If I had been running in the games I should have won
+the laurel of Caesar."
+
+"I was wrong--he could not have meant to slay me," thought Vergilius.
+"Not by the paws of the leopard."
+
+Cyran stood near the door, weeping.  Antipater rose and led her to
+Vergilius.
+
+"The girl is yours," said he.  "I am glad to be done with her.  Come,
+all."
+
+They followed him to the palace, and Vergilius bade the girl dress and
+be ready to join his pedisequi in the outer hall.  She knelt before him
+and kissed the border of his tunic.
+
+"Oh, my young master!" said she, "I shall be of those who part the
+briers in your way."  Then she hurried to obey him.
+
+"I would speak with you, noble son of Varro," said Antipater, beckoning.
+
+Vergilius followed to the deep atrium of the palace, where they stood
+alone.
+
+"You have one thing I desire, and I will pay you five thousand aurei to
+relinquish it--five thousand aurei," the Jew whispered.
+
+"And what is it you would buy of me, noble prince?"
+
+"A mere plaything!  A bouquet that will fade shortly and be flung
+aside.  The thing happens to suit my fancy, and--and I can afford it."
+
+In the moment of silence that followed this remark a stern look of
+inquiry came into the face of Vergilius.
+
+"Man, do you not know?  'Tis the sister of Appius," Antipater added,
+lightly.
+
+"Cur of Judea!" hissed the knight, his sword flashing out of its
+scabbard, "I shall cut you down and fling you out to the dogs.  Fight
+here and now.  I demand it!"
+
+The young Roman spoke loudly and stood waiting.  Those others had heard
+the challenge and were now coming near.  Antipater stood silent,
+glaring, as had the leopard, with an evil leer at his foe, and thinking
+no doubt of the warning of Augustus.  The stiff, straight hairs in his
+mustache quivered as he turned slowly, watchfully, towards the others,
+who were now standing near.  Since his funeral should occur on the same
+day, how could he fight with Vergilius?
+
+"You dare not," the latter added, fiercely; "and before these men I
+denounce you as a coward--a coward who fears to raise a hand."
+
+His arm was extended, his finger at the face of the Jew, now white with
+passion.  Half a moment passed in which there was no word.
+
+"You living carrion!" said the young knight, turning and walking away.
+"I am done with you."
+
+He took the hand of the poor slave Cyran, and walked to the farther
+side of the atrium.  He turned, still white with anger as if
+unsatisfied.
+
+"Pet of harlots!" said he, fiercely.  "It is time for some one to stand
+for the honor of good women.  If you do but speak her name again before
+me I will run you through."
+
+Receiving no answer, he departed with Cyran, while the others gathered
+about their host.
+
+There was a heavy rumble in the throat of Antipater--a tiger-like,
+Herodian trait--and then a volley of oaths came out of it.  He trembled
+with rage and flung his sword far across the dim atrium with a shout of
+anger.  Like the great cats in his rage, he was like them also in his
+methods of attack--sly and terrible, but with a deep regard for the
+integrity of his own skin.  Sure of his advantage, he could be as brave
+as when he faced the tiger.
+
+He sat awhile muttering, his face between his hands.  Soon, having
+calmed his passion, he rose and snarled: "Good sirs, never quarrel with
+the pet of an emperor, for if one spares you the other will not."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+Arria and her mother sat with the emperor.  He was at home and in a
+playful humor.  The hour of his banquet was approaching.  Soon he would
+be summoned to receive his guests.
+
+"Nay, but I am sure he loves me," the girl was saying.
+
+The cunning emperor smiled and spoke very gently.  "Think you so, dear
+child?  I will put him to the test.  Soon we shall know if he be worthy
+of so great a prize.  I will try both his wit and his devotion, but
+you--you cannot be here."
+
+"And why, great father?"
+
+"Think you it could be a test with your eye upon him?"
+
+"Oh, but I must see it," said the girl.  "Unless I see it I shall not
+know.  Let me be your slave and stand behind you in gray cloth.
+Beloved father, I implore you, let me see the test."
+
+"Ah, well," said the emperor, rising, with a smile.  "I shall know
+nothing but that you have gone above-stairs to find Clia, mistress of
+the robes.  Tell her to give you a box of tablets, and when I raise my
+finger--so--they are to be delivered.  Away with you."
+
+Arria left with a cry of joy, and presently Augustus went with the Lady
+Lucia to meet his guests.
+
+The "commands" of the emperor had given the hour of the banquet and
+prescribed the dress to be worn.  Vergilius had waited anxiously for
+the moment when he should again see the great god of Rome, who could
+give or take away as he would.  Standing at the door of Caesar, he
+wondered whether he were nearing the end of all pleasure or the gate of
+paradise.  A plate of polished brass hung on its lintel, bearing in
+large letters the word Salve.  A slave opened the door and took his
+pallium.  Julia, that wayward daughter of Augustus, now three times
+married but yet beautiful, met him in the inner hall, and together they
+walked to the banquet-room.  There the emperor, limping slightly, came
+to meet Vergilius, and there, also, were the guests, seven in number:
+Appius and his mother, the Lady Lucia; Terentia, wife of the late
+Maecenas; Manius, an assessor in Judea; Hortensius, legate of Spain;
+Antipater, son of Herod the Great; and Aulus Valerius Maro, the senator.
+
+"It enters my thought to say to you," said the emperor, aside, as he
+put his hand upon the shoulder of Vergilius, "keep the number one in
+your mind, so that by-and-by you can tell me what you make of it."
+
+Slaves had covered the table with fish and fowl in dishes of unwrought
+silver.  The guests reclined upon three great divans set around as many
+sides of the table.  They ate resting on their elbows, and were so
+disposed that each could see the host without turning.  The emperor
+asked only for coarse bread, a morsel of fish, two figs, and a bit of
+cheese.
+
+"My good friends," said he, in a low voice, when the wine was served,
+"we have with us an able officer in this young Manius, one of our
+assessors in Jerusalem.  I ask you to drink his health.  Though I can
+drink no wine, I can feel good sentiments."
+
+One could not help remarking his fixed serenity of face and voice and
+manner as he went on:
+
+"Some time ago it came to my ear that he thought me a tyrant wallowing
+in vulgar and ill-gotten luxury."
+
+There was a little stir in those heads around the table, and in every
+hand and face one might have seen evidence of quickened pulses.  The
+young officer was now staring through deathly pallor.
+
+"My friends, it is not strange," said the great Augustus, mildly.  "To
+Jerusalem is quite two thousand miles; and, then he was very young when
+he left the home of his fathers.  Am I not right, Manius?"
+
+"Your words are both true and kindly," said the young man.
+
+"And you are discerning," said the emperor, with a smile.  "Now, good
+people, observe that I have invited our young officer to Rome for two
+purposes: to show him, first, that I live no better than the poorest
+nobleman; secondly, that I am only a servant of the people; for, since
+he is an able officer, I shall resist my own will and keep him in the
+public service."
+
+"Bravo!" said they all, and clapped their hands.
+
+A strange, inscrutable man was the emperor at that moment, the mildness
+of a lamb in his voice and manner, the gleam of a serpent's eye under
+his brows.  And that right hand of his, clinched now and quivering a
+little, had it grasped a reaching, invisible serpent within him?
+Kindly?  Yes, but with the kindness of a deep and subtle character who
+saw in forbearance the best politics and the most effective discipline.
+Lights were now aglow in a great candelabrum over the table and in many
+tall lampadaria.
+
+A slave, who was a juggler, came near and began to fill the gloom above
+him with golden disks.  From afar came the music of flutes and
+timbrels.  Julia retired presently, and returned soon with her pet
+dwarf Cenopas.  She stood him on a large, round table, and the guests
+greeted him with loud laughter as he looked down.  He had a hard,
+unlovely face, that little dwarf.  He suggested to Vergilius unwelcome
+thoughts of a new sort of Cupid--deformed, evil, and hideous--typifying
+the degenerate passions of Rome.  There were in the quiver of this
+Cupid arrows which carried the venom of the asp.  Some at the table
+mocked his grinning face and made a jest of his deformity.  When he
+could be heard he mimicked the speech and manners of public men.
+
+"A Cupid with a knot in his back," said one.
+
+"And if I were to aim an arrow at you," said the dwarf, quickly, "I'm
+sure you'd have a pain in yours."
+
+"My dear," said the gentle-mannered emperor, when the laughter had died
+away, "I think we shall now give him the crown of folly and let him go."
+
+"Between the greatest and the least of Romans," said his daughter,
+rising and pointing at her father and then at the dwarf, "I am lost in
+mediocrity."
+
+A slave took the little creature in his arms and bore him away as if he
+had been a pet dog.
+
+"Tell me, young men," said the emperor, "have you no lines to read
+us--you that have youth and beauty and sweethearts?  How is it with
+you, good Vergilius?"
+
+The young man shook his head.  "No," said he; "I have youth and a
+sweetheart, but not the gift of poesy."
+
+"No lines!  What are we coming to in this Rome of ours?  Are there no
+more poets?  My dear friends, tell me, in the baths or the forum or the
+theatre, or wherever the people congregate, do you hear of no youth
+that has the divine gift of song?"
+
+He paused for a little, but there was no reply.
+
+"Then Rome is in evil days," said the great father, sadly.
+
+"Why?"  It was the question of Gracus.
+
+"Why, young man?  Because in every land there should be those who can
+cherish the fear of the gods and make honor beautiful and love sacred
+and valor a thing of imperishable fame.  I assure you, good people, one
+poet is better," he paused, thoughtfully--"than ten thousand soldiers,"
+he added.  "Who will bring me a poet?"
+
+The gods are indeed helpless, thought Vergilius.  They must have poets
+to do their work for them?  But he said nothing.
+
+"The streets are full of poets," said Gracus.
+
+"Those old men with long beards and stilted rubbish!" said Augustus,
+"with tragedies that slay the hero and the hearer!  Bring me a poet,
+and, remember, I shall honor him above all men.  Once I invited Horace
+to dine with me, and got no answer.  He was a proud man"--this with a
+merry smile.  "Again I invited him, and then he deigned to write me a
+sentence, merely, and said: 'Thanks, I am happy out here on my farm.'
+I did not know what to do, but I wrote a letter and said to the great
+man: 'You may not desire my friendship, but that is no reason for my
+failing to value yours.'  I am proud to say that he was my friend ever
+after.  But I weary you."
+
+A female slave, thickly veiled, stood behind him.  He made a signal and
+she quickly put in his hand a little box of ivory, finely wrought.
+
+"I have here," said the great father, "nine disks of wax.  You see they
+are very small, but so they shall serve my purpose the better.  Will
+each of you take one and retire from the table and write upon it the
+thing he most desires?  Now, my dear friends, brevity is ever as the
+point of the lance.  Wit is blunt and Truth half armed without it.  I
+lay a test upon you."
+
+All retired quickly, and, soon returning, dropped their wishes in the
+box.  The playful emperor closed and shook it and withdrew a disk.
+
+"I find here the word 'preference,'" said he, and all observed that his
+keen eyes were calmly measuring the prince Antipater.  "It is a poor
+word, and does you little honor, my young friend.  In mere preference
+there is no merit.  Here is another, and it says 'more wine.'  Keep his
+goblet full," he added, pointing to that of the senator, as all
+laughed.  "Here is one says 'rest.'  Have patience, my good daughter, I
+shall soon be done talking.  Another has on it the words 'your
+health'--a charming compliment, dear Lady Lucia.  'Courage,' 'wisdom,'
+'success,'" he added, reading from the tablets.  "Naturally, and who,
+indeed, does not desire those things?  Here is one that says 'help'--a
+great word, upon my soul!  He that prays for help and not for favor, if
+he do his best, may have many good things--even 'courage,' 'wisdom,'
+'success.'  Keep at work and you shall have my help, Appius, and, I
+doubt not, that of the gods also.  Here is one--I like it best of
+all--it is that of the modest young Vergilius.  He would have a
+priceless thing.  And do you," he inquired, turning to the young
+knight, "desire this above all things?  Think; there is the distinction
+of place and power and honor--the ring of a legate would become you
+well!"
+
+"But, above all," said Vergilius, "I desire that I have written."
+
+"Beautiful boy!" said the cunning emperor.  "'Tis so great a prize,
+give me another test of your quality.  With one word you ask for one
+thing.  To try your wit, I give you a theme so small it is next to
+naught--the number one.  Tell us, and briefly as you may, what is in
+it."
+
+The young man rose and bowed low.  "One is in all numbers," said he,
+"and unless all numbers are as one they are nothing.  I desire one
+mistress for my heart, one purpose for my conduct, and one great master
+for my country."
+
+"The gods grant them!" said Augustus, leading the applause.
+
+"And now I shall proclaim the word he has written.  It is 'Arria,' and
+stands, I know well, for the sister of Appius."
+
+He turned quickly to the still and silent figure of the slave behind
+him.  All eyes were now watching her.
+
+"Are you content?" he inquired.
+
+Gray veil and robe fell away, revealing the beautiful sister of Appius.
+Vergilius went quickly to her side.
+
+"I declare them for each other!" said the emperor, as all rose and
+gathered around the two.  He took the boy's hand.  "Come to me at ten
+to-morrow," he added.
+
+"But, O father of Rome!" said Arria, looking up at the great man, "how
+long shall you detain him?"
+
+"Give me half an hour, you love-sick maiden," said Augustus.  "He shall
+be at your palace in good time."
+
+"Come at the middle hour," said the Lady Lucia, her hand upon the arm
+of Vergilius.
+
+"The gods give you sleep," said the great father, as he bade them
+good-night.
+
+Beneath the laurels on their way to the gate, Gracus, who rode with
+Antipater, said:
+
+"And what of your oath, son of Herod?"
+
+"But they are not yet married," the other answered, malevolently.
+"Vergilius!  Bah!  He is the son of a praetor and I am the son of a
+king.  Curse the old fox!  He never spoke to me after greetings, and
+once when I glanced up at him I thought his keen eyes were looking
+through me.
+
+"Those eyes!  Jupiter!" said Gracus, "they drop a plummet into one."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+Now there were few barriers between the emperor and the people.  He
+went to work in his study at an early hour and gave a patient hearing
+to any but foolish men.  This morning he had been reading a long
+address from the legate of Syria.  He had a way of dividing his thought
+between reading and small affairs of the state.  His legate recited all
+he had been able to learn of the new king they were now expecting in
+Judea.  He told also of a plot which had baffled all his efforts and
+which aimed to take the life of Herod and crown the king of prophecy
+and divine power.
+
+"We must have a spy of noble blood and bearing, of unswerving fidelity
+and honor, and with some knowledge of the religion of Judea," said the
+legate.  "Of course, you will not be able to find him, for where in all
+the world, save yourself, good father, is there such a man?"
+
+Augustus dropped the sheet of vellum and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
+
+"How about this young Vergilius--the handsome, clever, woman-loving
+Vergilius?" he thought.  Then for a moment the cunning emperor laughed
+silently.
+
+Ever since he began to read the letter he had been conversing with his
+daughter Julia.
+
+"If you can propose a better candidate for the girl, I--" he paused,
+looking intently at the letter--"I shall consider him," he added,
+presently.
+
+"She is beautiful," his daughter whispered.  "I know one who will give
+to the state many thousand aurei."
+
+"No need of hurry.  The young Vergilius will give what is better than
+money, and then--"
+
+The emperor paused again.
+
+"And then?" it was the inquiry of Julia.
+
+"He will forget her and she will grow weary and yield.  There's time
+enough, and time"--he took a little mirror from the table and looked
+down upon it--"can accomplish many things," he added.  "It will have
+the assistance of fame and honor and new faces.  Now go, I beg of you,
+and leave me to my work."
+
+
+A delegation of Jews--petty merchants of the Trastevere--were leaving
+as Vergilius entered.  The emperor, now alone save for his young
+caller, rose and gave him a sprig of laurel.
+
+"Sit here," said he, resuming his seat and pausing for a little to
+study a sheet of vellum in his hands.  He continued, without raising
+his eyes: "I have another test for you, my fair son.  You shall be
+assistant procurator in Jerusalem, with rank of tribune.  It may be you
+shall have command of the castle.  Three days from now take the south
+road with Manius and a troop of horse.  This court of Herod--of course,
+I am speaking kindly, my dear Vergilius--but, you may know, it is a
+place of mysteries, and there are many things I do not need to _say_ to
+_you_."
+
+The old emperor, leaning forward, touched the arm of the young man and
+gave him a cunning glance.
+
+"A cipher," he added, passing the sheet of vellum.  "It will be known
+to you and to me only.  You will understand what I wish to know.  You
+shall have command of a cohort."
+
+Vergilius thought for a second of that strange overhauling of Manius
+the night before, and of the shrewdness of the great father in
+returning him, kindly, to his task, with a pair of eyes to keep watch
+of him.
+
+"With all my heart I thank you," said the young knight.  "But--my
+beloved father--I was hoping to marry and--and know the path of peace."
+
+"But I am sure you will wait two years--only two years," said the
+other, rising with extended hands.  "There is time enough; and
+remember, whether to peace or war, your path is that of duty.
+Farewell!"
+
+It was a way he had of commanding, kindly but inexorable, and Vergilius
+knew it.  Again he spoke as the knight turned away.
+
+"This young Antipater--do you know him?"
+
+"Not well."
+
+"But, possibly, well enough," said the emperor, with a knowing look.
+Then, casually: "Oh, there is yet a little matter--that new king the
+Jews are looking for--if he should come, I suppose he will report to
+me, but--but let me know what you learn.  Study the Jewish faith and
+discover what this hope is founded upon."  Then he turned quickly and
+went away.
+
+This "little matter" counted much with the shrewd emperor.  Kings were
+his puppets, and if there were to be a new one he must, indeed,
+consider what to do with him.  Yet he had shame of his interest in
+"that foolish gossip" of an alien race.  Therefore he put it only as a
+trifling after-thought.  But he had a way of talking with his eyes, and
+the alert youth read them well.
+
+That elation of the young lover now had its boundary of thoughtfulness.
+Going down the Palatine, he was also descending his hill of happiness.
+Below him, in the Forum, he could see the golden mile-stone of
+Augustus, now like a pillar of fire in the sunlight; he could see the
+beginning of those many roads radiating from it to far peripheries of
+the empire.  Tens of thousands had turned their backs upon it, leaving
+with slow feet, some to live in distant, inhospitable lands, some to
+die of fever and the sword, some to return forgotten of their kindred,
+and some few with laurels of renown; but all of these many who went
+away were leaving, for long or forever, love and home and peace.
+
+"The army is sucking our blood, and Hate grows while Love is starving,"
+Vergilius reflected, as he went along, while a hideous, unwelcome
+thought grew slowly, creeping over him.  This golden mile-stone was the
+centre of a great spider-web laced by road and sea way to the far
+corners of the empire; and that cunning, alert man--who was he but the
+spider?
+
+"And I--what am I, now, but one of his flies caught in the mighty web?"
+he thought.  "Love and its peace have come to me and I shall know
+them--for three days--and perhaps no longer."
+
+His wealth and rank and influence might, if used with diplomacy, have
+kept him at home, for, after all, he was a Varro; but Arria had been
+used to press him into bondage.
+
+"Another test!"  he said to himself.  "Ah, what a cunning old fox!  He
+needed a spy, and one of character and noble blood.  How well he tested
+my cleverness!  And now I am his, body and soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+While Vergilius, going slowly, was thinking of these things, Vanity,
+the only real goddess who, in Rome, managed the great theatre of
+fashion, had her stage set for a love scene.  It was to occur in the
+triclinium, or great banquet-hall, of a palace--that of the Lady Lucia.
+There were portrait-masks and mural paintings on either wall; ancestral
+statues of white marble stood in a row against the red wall; there were
+seats and divans of ebony enriched by cunning hands; lamp-holders of
+wrought metal standing high as a man's head, and immense violet rugs on
+the floor.  The heroine wore a white robe banded low with purple, and
+her jewelled hair was in fillets of gold.  There was always a pretty
+artfulness in the match-making of a patrician beauty and her mother.
+Indeed, life had grown far from elemental emotions.
+
+"Now, when he enters," said the girl, turning to the Lady Lucia, "I
+shall bring him here at once and sit down by this heap of cushions, and
+then--Oh, god of my heart!  What shall I do with that big man--what
+shall I say to him?"
+
+"My dear, he will speak, and then you will know what to say," said the
+matron.  "Only do not let him know that you love him--at least, not for
+a time yet."
+
+"Too late; I fear he knows it now--the wretch!" said Arria, rubbing her
+cheeks to make them glow.
+
+"But mind you hold him off, and do not let him caress you for an hour
+at least.  One kiss and one only."
+
+"One!" the girl repeated, with contempt.  "How ungenerous are the old!"
+
+"Hard to count are a lover's kisses," her mother answered, with a sigh.
+"But you can use them up in a day.  Really, you can use them up all in
+a day."
+
+"A day full of kisses!  Oh, heart of me!  Think of it!" said the
+beautiful girl, covering her face a moment.  "I will not have the
+yellow cushions," she added, quickly.  "Here, take these and bring me
+two violet ones, and that cushion of gauze filled with rose leaves.  I
+will have that in my lap when we are sitting here.  Now what do you
+think of the colors?" she demanded.
+
+"Beautiful!  And best of all that in your cheeks.  I doubt not he will
+worship you."
+
+"Or he is no kind of a man," said Arria, thoughtfully.  "Oh, son of
+Varro! come, I am waiting.  If he takes me in his arms, what shall I
+do?"
+
+"Thrust him aside--tell him that you do not like it."
+
+"And what shall I do if he does not?"
+
+"Bid him go at once.  We have no need of any half-men."
+
+"But he will," said the girl, with a worried look.  "He shall embrace
+me--he shall, or--or I will bid my brother kill him.  Oh, wretch!"  She
+jumped to her feet with a merry cry.  "I have an idea," she added,
+clapping her hands.  "When the sunlight falls on the floor yonder, I
+will get up and dance in it."
+
+"A pretty trick!" said her mother.
+
+"Oh, son of Varro! why do you not come?" said the girl, impatiently.
+"I love him so I could die for him--I could die for him!  Perhaps he
+loves me not and I shall never see him again."
+
+She hurried to the outer court, whispering anxiously: "Come, son of
+Varro.  Oh, come quickly, son of Varro!"
+
+When Vergilius arrived Arria was waiting for him there in the court of
+the palace.  Her white silk rustled as she ran to meet him.  Her cheeks
+had the pink of roses and her eyes a glow in them like that of
+diamonds.  She stopped as he came near, and turned away.
+
+"Tears?" said he, leaning down, with his arms about her.  "Oh, love,
+let me see your face!"
+
+She turned quickly with a little toss of her head and took a step
+backward.
+
+"You shall not call me love," said she--"not yet.  You have not told me
+that you love me."
+
+"I told all who were at the palace of the great father."
+
+"But you have not told me, son of Varro."
+
+"I do love you."  He was approaching.
+
+"Hush!  Not now," she answered, taking his hand in hers--temporizing.
+"Come, I will race with you."
+
+She ran, leading him, with quick, pattering feet through an inner hall
+and up the long triclinium.  There, presently, she threw herself upon
+the heap of cushions.
+
+"Now, sit," said she, draping her robe and then feeling her hair that
+was aglow with jewels.
+
+A graceful and charming creature was this child of the new empire, a
+noble beauty in her face and form, the value of a small kingdom on her
+body.  "Not so near," said she, as he complied.  "Now, son of my
+father's friend, say what you will and quickly."
+
+"I love you," he began to say.
+
+"Wait," she whispered, stopping him as she turned, looking up and down
+the great hall.  "It is for me alone.  I will not share the words with
+any other.  Now tell me--tell me, son of Varro," she whispered, moving
+nearer; "tell me at once."
+
+"I love you, sweet girl, above gods and men.  You are more to me than
+crowns of laurel and gold, more than all that is in the earth and
+heavens.  My heart burns when I look at you."
+
+He hesitated, pressing her hand upon his lips.
+
+"Is that all?" said she, with a pretty sadness, looking down at the
+golden braces on her fan.  "Now, say it again, all, slowly."
+
+She might as well have told a bird how he should sing.
+
+He went on all unconscious of her command, his words lighted by the
+fire in his heart.  They were as waters rippling in the sun-glow.
+
+"Without you there is no light in the heavens, no beauty in the earth,
+no hope or glory in the future, no joy in my heart.  My sword threatens
+me, dear love, when I think of losing you."
+
+She turned, quickly, with almost a look of surprise.
+
+"It is beautiful," said she, with a sigh; "but is there no more?
+Think, dear, noble knight; do think of more!"
+
+She was near forgetting her plan.  He took her in his arms and kissed
+her.
+
+"Think--think of more," said she, "and I will dance the tourina."
+
+There was a note of gladness in her voice.  It rang merry as a girdle
+of silver bells.  Now, on the floor near them was a golden square of
+sunlight, and, tabret in hand, she sprang up and began to dance in it.
+She moved swiftly back and forth, her arms extended, her white robe
+flowing above the sapphires in each purple fillet on her ankles.
+
+"Now, dear Vergilius, tell me, why do you love me?" she said, throwing
+herself upon the cushions near him with glowing cheeks.
+
+"Because you are Arria.  Because Arria is you.  Because I must, for
+your pure and noble heart and for your beauty," said he.  "When I look
+upon you I forget my dreams of war and conquest; I think only of peace
+and love and have no longer the heart to slay.  Oh, sweet Arria!  I
+feel as if I should fling my swords into the Tiber."
+
+"Oh, my love! could I make you throw your swords into the Tiber I
+should be very happy."  Her eyes had turned serious and thoughtful.
+Her girlish trickery had come to an end.  Vanity retired, now, and Love
+had sole command.
+
+He put his arms about her and rained kisses upon her face, her hair,
+her eyes.  "Say it all again, dear Vergilius--say it a hundred times,"
+she whispered.
+
+"My dear one, I love you more than I can say.  Now am I prepared to
+speak in deeds, in faithfulness, in devotion."
+
+"But, once more, why do you love me?  Why me?" said she, moving aside
+with an air of preoccupation, her chin resting upon her hand, her elbow
+upon the gauze pillow of rose leaves in her lap.  "Is it my beauty more
+than myself?"
+
+"No," he answered; "your beauty is intoxicating, and I thank the gods
+for it, but your sweet self, your soul, is more, far more to me than
+your grace and all your loveliness."
+
+She had dreamed of such love but never hoped for it, and now all the
+pretty tricks she had thought of had become as the mummery of fools.
+She sat in silence for a little space, her eyes upon her girdle, and a
+new and serious look came into her face.
+
+"I shall try, then," said she, presently--"I shall try to be noble.
+But shall you--shall you truly throw your swords into the Tiber?"
+
+"Would I might," said he, sadly.  "And now I must tell you--"  He
+paused, and Arria turned quickly, her lips trembling as her color faded.
+
+"In three days I go to Jerusalem," he added, "by command of the
+emperor."
+
+"For how long?" she whispered, her eyes taking years upon them as the
+seconds flew.
+
+"For two years."
+
+Quickly she hid her face in the cushions and her body quivered.  That
+old, familiar cry, which had in it the history and the doom of Rome,
+rang in the great halls around them--that cry of forsaken women.
+
+"The iron foot is upon us," said he.  "Do not let it tread you down as
+it has other women.  Be my vestal and guard the holy fire of love."
+
+Then he told of Cyran, the slave-girl, and added: "I leave her in your
+care.  Every day she will cause you to think of me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+It was near the middle hour of the night.  Many, just out of
+banquet-hall, theatre, and circus, thronged the main thoroughfares of
+the capital.  Cries of venders, ribald songs, shouts of revelry, the
+hurrying of many feet roused the good people who, wearied by other
+nights of dissipation, now sought repose.  They turned, uneasily,
+reflecting that to-morrow they would have their revenge.
+
+Antipater had dined with but a single guest--a young priest, who,
+arriving that very day from Damascus, had sought the palace of his
+countryman.  The service at his table had not pleased the prince.
+Leaping from his couch, he struck down a slave and ordered his
+crucifixion.  It was a luckless Arab, who many times had unwittingly
+offended his master.
+
+Now the son of Herod lay asleep where, a little time ago, he had been
+feasting.  Manius, who had just entered the palace of his friend, came
+into the banquet-hall.  He touched the arm of Antipater, who started
+with a curse and rose with an apology.
+
+"I was dreaming of foes and I see a friend," he muttered.  "Forgive me,
+noble Manius."
+
+The prince pulled a golden bell-cord that shone against the green
+pargeting of the wall.
+
+"Now to our business," he whispered, turning to the officer.
+
+They crossed the atrium, descended a stairway, and threw open a barred
+door.  They were now in a gloomy passage between walls of marble.
+Antipater halted, presently, and tapped with his seal ring on a metal
+door.  Then a rattle of bolts and the door swung open.
+
+"Now," Antipater whispered, "are you of the same mind?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"And again you swear secrecy?"
+
+"I do."
+
+Without more delay they entered a room walled with white marble and
+lighted by candles.  A bearded Jew, in a scarlet cloak embroidered with
+gold, rose to greet them.
+
+"To John ben Joreb I present the noble Manius," said Antipater.
+
+"Blessings of the one God be upon thee," said Ben Joreb, bowing low.
+
+"And the favor of many gods on thee," said the assessor.  "From
+Jerusalem?"
+
+"Nay, from Damascus."
+
+Antipater stirred the fire in iron braziers on either side of the room,
+and then bade them recline beside him at a small table whereon a supper
+waited.
+
+"Ben Joreb has good news of our plan," said he, turning to Manius.
+
+"It prospers," said the priest.  "Our council is now in thirty cities."
+
+"And the king is better," said Manius.  "He will not soon perish of
+infirmity."
+
+"But you tell me that my father suffers?"
+
+Antipater started nervously.  A long, weird wail from the Arab dying on
+a cross in the garden flooded down the flues.
+
+"A hundred deaths a day," said Ben Joreb.
+
+"I have been talking with Manius," Antipater answered.  "He thinks it
+would be a mercy to--"
+
+He was interrupted again.  That tremulous, awful cry for mercy found
+its way to his ear.  It seemed to mock the sacred word.  Antipater
+jumped to his feet, cursing.
+
+"I will put an end to that," said he, rushing to the door and flinging
+it back and running down the passage.
+
+Manius turned to Ben Joreb.
+
+"What is there in the howling of that slave?" he whispered.  "I am
+weak-hearted."
+
+"I take it for a sign," the other answered, gravely.  "It is written,
+'Thy spirit shall be as the candle of the Lord,' and, again, 'Thou
+shall hearken to the cry of anguish.'"
+
+In a few moments Antipater returned.
+
+"I have summoned the carnifex," said he, bolting the door and resuming
+his place at the table.  "I was saying to you, good Manius, that my
+friend here, Ben Joreb, would think it a great mercy to remove him."
+
+"A great mercy!" Ben Joreb answered; "a man's mercy to him; a God's
+mercy to his people."
+
+"And what think you?" said Antipater, turning to Manius.
+
+"I agree; 'twould be a mercy, but a risky enterprise," said the Roman.
+
+"I would risk my head to save him a day of pain," said the treacherous
+son of Herod.  "You love him not as I do or you would brave all to end
+his misery."
+
+There was now half a moment filled with a long, piercing cry from
+beyond the walls of the palace until Antipater spoke, a tiger look in
+his face again.  "Put the lance into him, my good carnifex," he
+growled, striking with clinched fist.  "Again, now; and again, and
+again."
+
+He listened for a breath, and as silence came he added, "There, that
+will do."
+
+Neither spoke for a little time.
+
+"I wish I could make you feel how dearly I love my father," he went on,
+addressing his friends now and hiding his claws with revolting guile
+and all unconscious that he had shown them.
+
+Again a breath of silence, in which Manius thought of the black leopard
+when he lay making those playful and caressing movements on the floor.
+And there came to the heart of Ben Joreb a fear that this man might
+prove more terrible than his father.
+
+"We feel it," said Manius, with inner smiles that showed not upon his
+face.
+
+"Then be servants of my love."
+
+"And of our own welfare?"
+
+"Certainly!  You shall each have a palace in Jerusalem and fifty
+thousand aurei; and you, Manius, shall command the forces on land and
+sea, and you, John ben Joreb, of the tribe of Aaron, shall be
+high-priest."
+
+"I agree," said Manius, an overwhelming cupidity in the words.
+
+"And I agree," said the Jew, who had entered upon this intrigue with
+motives of patriotism, and now, although suspicious of the result, was
+committed beyond a chance of turning.
+
+"Angels of mercy!" Antipater exclaimed, rising and taking a hand of
+each in his.  "My love shall be ever a shield and weapon for you.  One
+other thing.  The couriers who bring to Rome news of my father's
+death--bid them hurry and take with them, also, word of the illness of
+that dog Vergilius.  After they leave let him not linger in needless
+pain--do you understand me?  For that, I say, each of you shall have
+five thousand aurei added to his wealth."
+
+The others nodded.
+
+"Now take this--it may be useful," whispered the prince of Judea,
+handing a little golden box to the assessor.  "There is something in it
+will hasten the effect of wine--a fine remedy for a weary land, good
+Manius.  He that makes it a friend shall have no enemies.  Hold, let me
+think.  That old fox on the hill yonder has a thousand eyes and his
+ears are everywhere.  Not a word, Manius, after we leave this door.  In
+yon passage turn to the right.  Walk until your head touches the
+ceiling, then creep to the door.  Open it and use your ears.  If no one
+is passing, go straight ahead.  You will come to a gate on the Via
+Sacra.  You," he added, turning to Ben Joreb, "shall leave by the main
+gate."
+
+When both had gone, this prince of Judea walked across the inner hall
+of his palace and flung himself on the cushions of a great divan.
+
+A swarthy eunuch came near him on tip-toe.
+
+"Begone!"  The word burst from the lips of Antipater in a hoarse growl,
+and, like a tiger's paw, his hand struck the cushions in front of him.
+As he lay blinking drowsily, his chin upon his hands, there was still
+in his face and attitude a suggestion of the monster cat.
+
+And he thought fondly of his wreaking of vengeance when he should be
+crowned the great king of prophetic promise--of the fury of armies, of
+the stench of the slain, of the cry of the ravished, of "mountains
+melting in blood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+It was the fifth anniversary of that resolution of the senate fathers
+to consecrate the altar of Peace.  Pilgrims thronged the city, and some
+had journeyed far.  Tens of thousands surrounded the great monument,
+immense and beautiful beyond any in the knowledge of men.  It
+signalized a remarkable state of things--the world was at peace.  More
+than seven centuries before that day an idea had entered the heart of a
+prophet; now it was in the very heart of the world.  This heap of
+marble, under pagan gods, had given it grand, if only partial,
+expression.  There was no symbol of war in the long procession of its
+upper frieze, and its lower was like a sculptured song of peace wrought
+in fruits and bees and birds and blossoms.  Here was a mighty plant
+flowering twice a year and giving its seed to the four winds.  Every
+July and January its erection was celebrated in the imperial republic.
+
+Vergilius stood beside the emperor that day when, at the Ars Pacis
+Augustas, he addressed the people.
+
+"I have been reading," he said, "the words of a certain dreamer of
+Judea, who, in the olden time, wrote of a day when swords should be
+beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks, and when peace
+should reign among the nations of the earth.  Well, give me an army for
+a hundred years, good people, and then I may voice the will of the gods
+that iron be used no more to plough its way in living flesh, but only
+to turn the furrow and to prune the tree.  Meanwhile, believe me, every
+man must learn to love honor and virtue, and to respect his neighbor,
+and the gods above all."
+
+A hundred years!  The playful emperor knew not how quickly a man passes
+and how slowly, how exceeding slowly, moves the great procession of
+mankind.  But so it befell; the very right hand of Jupiter had helped
+in the sowing of that seed which, as it grew, was to lift the
+foundations of his power.
+
+Vergilius left the scene with Augustus.  They rode away in the royal
+litter.
+
+"In all the great cities men are speaking to-day of the value of peace
+and honor," said the subtle emperor--a sceptic in religion, a cynic in
+philosophy, a rake in private life, and a conqueror who commanded
+"peace" with a trained army of four hundred and fifty thousand men.
+
+"It is a great thing to do," said the young knight.
+
+"Give me men enough to say it, and if they grow not weary I will bring
+the world to believe that the sun is only the breast-plate of Jupiter,"
+said Augustus.  "Honor and peace are good things--do not forget that,
+my young friend.  Give the words to your tongue, not flippantly, but
+with a sober eye, and often, my brave knight--often.  You leave
+to-morrow--have you made ready?"
+
+"Ready but for the leave-taking;" this with a sigh.
+
+"It ill becomes you to be cast down.  Shake your heart with
+laughter--it will roll away the stone of regret.  Buy a fool, my young
+friend.  For five thousand denarii you may obtain a most excellent
+fool."
+
+He knew the price of all, from the hewer of wood to the crowned king,
+but only he could afford a slave like that.
+
+"I should prefer a wise man," said the young knight.
+
+"Philosophers are more expensive," the father continued,
+craftily--"twenty thousand denarii, and dear at that.  They will teach
+you little but discontent.  I recommend a grammarian."
+
+The old emperor turned his cunning eyes upon the face of Vergilius.
+
+"Forty thousand, at least, for a good one," he added; "but a youth of
+your talent should remember the value of immortal fame."  Word and look
+were a hint to the young man that he should prepare himself with all
+diligence for an active career in the senate.  The youth understood
+their meaning and was a trifle comforted.  There was no promise nor the
+least warrant for a claim--it was only the emperor's way of guiding.
+
+They were now passing a row of shops on the Via Claudia.  The emperor,
+putting his hand out of the door, motioned to his lecticarii and they
+halted.
+
+"Come with me," said the great man.  They left the litter and entered a
+large shop.  There Augustus bought many gifts for the young man--new
+arms, a beautiful corselet, a girdle of the look of knitted gold--for
+the Roman wore a girdle in Judea--articles of apparel suited to the
+climate of the Far East.  The shop had filled with people, who tried to
+cover their curiosity by the purchase of trifles.
+
+"This cloth would make a fine toga," said the shopkeeper.
+
+The emperor surveyed it closely.
+
+"Let me hold it up to the light and then you will see its texture," the
+other continued.
+
+"You are a hard master," said Augustus.
+
+"You would have us walk on the house-tops to show the fineness of our
+togas?  It is enough.  Let us pass, good people."
+
+A cheer, starting at the shop door, went to the far sides of the city.
+It signified that the emperor was out among the people and in his best
+mood.
+
+Their nomenclator cleared a way for them to the litter and they sat
+down again, facing each other, the emperor and the boy.
+
+"If I had your riches," the great man remarked, as they went on, "I
+wonder what I should do with them."
+
+"You jest with me, good father," said Vergilius.
+
+"Nay, but I envy you; for have you not youth and love and the beauty of
+Apollo?"
+
+He laid his hand upon the arm of the boy, and there was in his voice
+and manner a gentleness to make one regret that he lived not in a
+better time; for, perhaps, after all, he was what he had to be as the
+ruthless conqueror of a savage world.
+
+"And I--what have I but burdens I dare not lay aside?  When I sleep,
+even, they press upon me.  I am weary--but if I should let them fall,
+what, think you, would happen?"
+
+His keen eyes, seeing before them, possibly, the great down-rush to
+madness, pressed a glance into the very soul of the young man.  The
+latter started to reply, but with a look the emperor forbade him.
+
+"Think, good youth--learn to think.  It will profit you--there is so
+little competition.  By-and-by Rome will need you."
+
+Gently, forcefully this teacher of statesmen had given the young knight
+his first lesson.  It was nearing its end now.  The litter had stopped
+hard by the gate of the Lady Lucia.
+
+"I wonder how you knew my destination," said Vergilius.
+
+"You credit me with small discernment.  Learn to know things that are
+not told you--it is the beginning of wisdom."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+Arria met them in the atrium.  She saw not the great father of Rome,
+but only her lover, and ran to him with a little cry of delight.
+
+The playful emperor mounted a chair and stood looking down at them.
+
+"I am so small here in the presence of this great king," said he, as
+they turned to him.  "Were my head as high as the ceiling I am sure I
+should not be seen."
+
+"What long, good father?" said Arria, bowing low.
+
+"Love!  'Tis better, I have heard, to be ruler of one than of many.
+You give him kisses, little tyrant, and me not a glance."
+
+He looked down, smiling at the pretty maiden.
+
+"Because 'tis he I love," said she, her cheeks red with blushes, her
+eyes upon her sandals.  "You--you have been cruel."
+
+"I am sadly out of favor," said Augustus, playfully, stepping to the
+floor.  "If the great king dared, I am sure he would cut off my head,
+now.  Let him not condemn me without trial.  Remember the law of Rome."
+
+"You are sending my love away."  Her voice trembled as she spoke.
+
+"And happy are you, sweet girl, to have so much to give to your
+country."
+
+There was a moment of silence.  Then said the emperor: "Be merry.  'Tis
+not for long."
+
+"'Tis a thousand years!" said she, sadly.
+
+He was fond of the young, and her frank innocence appealed to all best
+in the heart of the old emperor.  He turned to greet the Lady Lucia.
+
+"Come with me, son of Varro," said Arria, taking the arm of her lover
+and leading him away.  "It will soon be to-morrow."
+
+"And I am acquitted?"  So spoke the emperor.
+
+"You are condemned to the company of my mother," said Arria, quickly.
+
+She wore a tunic of the color of violets, with not a jewel.  Now she
+led her lover to a heap of yellow cushions in the triclinium.
+
+"Dear Vergilius," said she, turning to him with a serious look as they
+sat down; "tell me again--say to me again how you love me."  She held
+his hand against her cheek and her eyes looked into his.
+
+"Oh, my beloved!  I have thought of naught else since I saw you.  I
+have heard your pretty feet and the rustle of your tunic in my dreams;
+I have felt the touch of your hands; every moment I have seen your
+face--now glowing with happiness, now white and lovely with sorrow.
+And, dear, I love its sorrow--I confess to you that I love its sorrow
+better than its happiness.  I saw in your sad eyes, then, a thing
+dearer than their beauty.  It told me that you felt as I feel--that you
+would live and, if need be, die for the love of me."
+
+The girl listened thoughtfully, and moved close to her lover; he took
+her in his arms.  She had dreamed of many things to say, but now she
+only whispered to him, her lips against his ear, the simple message: "I
+love you, I love you, I love you."  Then: "But I forgot," said she,
+pushing him away, a note of fear in her voice.  She straightened the
+folds of her tunic, and drew the transparent silk close to her full,
+white bosom.  It was all unconscious as the trick of a wooing bird.
+
+"And what did you forget?" he inquired.
+
+"That you are you, and a man," said she, sighing.  "In some way it
+is--it is such a pity, I dare not suffer you to caress me.  And
+yet--and yet, I do love it."
+
+"And your lips," said he, embracing her, "they are to me as the gate of
+Elysium!"
+
+"It may be we are now in the islands of the blest and know them not,"
+she whispered.
+
+She tried to draw herself away.
+
+"I will not let you go.  Indeed, I cannot let you go."
+
+"And I am glad," she answered, with a little laugh, her hand caressing
+his brow.  "I do love the feel of your arms and your lips--beautiful
+son of Varro!"
+
+"I will not let you go until--until you have promised to be my bride.
+Think, the term is only two years."
+
+"Be it one or many, I will be your bride," said she.  "And although you
+were never to return, yet would I always wait for you and think of this
+day."
+
+She drew herself away and sat thoughtful, her chin upon her hands.
+
+"Now are you most beautiful," said he, "with that little touch of
+sorrow in your face.  It gives me high thoughts to look at you."
+
+While they were thus sitting a woman, well past middle age, came into
+their presence.  She stopped near the feet of Arria.  It was her
+grandmother, the Lady Claudia, once a beauty of the great capital, now
+gray and wrinkled, but still erect with patrician pride.
+
+Vergilius had risen quickly, bowed low, and kissed her hand.
+
+"I often saw you, son of my friend, when you were a child," said she.
+"I remember when you were young you went away with the legions."
+
+"To learn the art of war," he answered.
+
+"Sit down, dear grandmother," said the girl, as he brought a chair.
+"Now let her hear you tell me why it is that you have chosen me, dear
+Vergilius--let her hear you."
+
+"I know not.  Perhaps because your beauty, sweet girl, is like the
+snare of the fowler and brought me to your hand.  Then something in
+your eyes captured the heart of me--something better than beauty.  It
+is the light of your soul.  Love and peace and innocence and gentleness
+and all good are in it.  That is why."
+
+The two embraced each other.  The Lady Claudia rose and came and put
+her hands upon them, and her voice trembled with emotion.
+
+"They are beautiful," said she, "the kisses of the young, and their
+words are as the music of Apollo's lyre.  I thank the gods I have seen
+it all again.  But you are going away to-morrow.  Son of Varro, be not
+as other men.  Remember it is not well for women to live apart from the
+men they love."
+
+"I leave at daybreak," said the young knight.  "'Tis for two years, so
+said the emperor; for 'only' two years."
+
+"She shall not be as others I have known," said the Lady Claudia.  "It
+is an evil time, good youth; but, remember, as men are so are women.
+Last night I dreamed a wonderful dream of you two, and of a sweet,
+immortal love between men and women.  Some say the dreams of men are,
+indeed, the plans of the gods.  Pray to them.  It may be they will give
+you this great love."
+
+"It is here--it is in her soul and mine!" the youth declared, his arm
+about Arria.  "It has prepared us for any trial--even parting."
+
+"I have so much happiness already," said the girl.  "So much--it will
+keep me through many years."
+
+"Then it is the great love, and I thank the gods I have seen it," said
+the Lady Claudia.  "Who may say where it shall end?"  She came near
+them as she spoke and offered her cheek to the boy.  He kissed her, and
+she went away with tears upon her face.
+
+"Now you are brave and strong with this great love in you," said
+Vergilius.  "Let it bear you up as I leave the palace.  Promise you
+will not cry out.  If you do, my beloved, I shall hear always the sound
+of mourning when I think of you."
+
+"Then I shall not weep," said she, bravely, but with a little quiver in
+her voice.
+
+She knew the old story of a young man's love--how often he went away
+with sweet words, to return, if ever, hardened to stern trials and
+bloody work, his vows long forgotten.
+
+"For your sake, dear Vergilius, I will be calm," she added.
+
+"Now sit here," said he, as he led her to the heap of cushions, "just
+as I saw you a little time ago.  Rest your chin upon your hands.
+There; now your soul is in your eyes.  Let me see only this picture as
+I go."
+
+He took a handful of her curls and let them fall upon her shoulders.
+Then he crowned her with a sprig of vervain from a vase near by.
+
+"I will not weep--I will not weep," she repeated, her voice trembling
+as he touched her hair.
+
+He moved backward slowly, as one might leave a queen.  Her eyes
+followed him, and suddenly she rose and flew to his arms again.
+
+"I will not weep--I will not weep," said she, brokenly.  Again he held
+her to his breast.
+
+"Though you get fame and glory, forget not love," she whispered.
+
+"Dear one," he exclaimed, kissing her, "this hour shall be in every day
+of my life."
+
+"But with adventures and battles and the praise of kings it is so easy
+to forget."
+
+"But with one so noble and so beautiful at home it will be easy to
+remember.  Let us be brave.  I am only a woman myself to-day.  Help me
+to be a man."
+
+He led her again to the cushions, and she sat as before--a picture,
+now, beyond all art, sublime indeed with love and sorrow and
+trustfulness and repression.  It was that look of abnegation upon her
+that he remembered.
+
+"I shall not rise nor speak again, dear son of Varro," said she.  "You
+shall know that my love for you has made me strong.  See, dear love.
+Look at my face and see how brave I am."  Her voice, now calm, had in
+it some power that touched him deeply.  It was the great, new love
+between men and women---forerunner of the mighty revolution.
+
+He stood silent, looking down at her.  The song of a nightingale rang
+in the great halls.  He turned and brought a lyre that lay on a table
+near them.  She took it in her hands.  Then it seemed as if her sorrow
+fell upon the strings, and in their music was the voice of her soul.
+
+He bowed before her, whispering a prayer; he put all his soul into one
+long look and quickly went away.
+
+Then she rose and ran to the end of the banquet-hall.  "I can hear his
+voice," she whispered.  "No, I must not go--I must not go."
+
+A moment followed in which there came to her a sound of distant voices.
+She stilled her sobs and listened.  She ran towards the loved voice and
+checked her eager feet.
+
+She stood a moment with arms extended.  The sound grew fainter and a
+hush fell.  She ran to the white statue of the little god Eros, and,
+kneeling, threw her arms around the shapely form and wept bitterly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+The dark was lifting as Vergilius entered the Field of Mars.  There
+were lanterns about his litter, and far and near, in lines and
+clusters, he could see lights on the plain, some moving, some standing
+still.  Hard by the Tiber he joined a small troop of horse, and
+vaulting on the shaft of his lance, mounted a white charger.  Manius
+wheeled into place beside him at the head of the column.  A quaestor
+called the roll.
+
+"Ready?" Vergilius inquired, turning to Manius.
+
+"All ready," the other answered.
+
+Then a trumpet sounded and those many feet had begun the long journey
+to Jerusalem.  They made their way to the Forum.  Scores of women and
+children of the families of those departing had gathered by the golden
+mile-stone.  The troop halted.  Those who had been waiting in the dank,
+chill air sought to press in among the horses.  It was hard to keep
+them back.  Vergilius, full of his own sorrow, felt for them and gave
+them good time.  A little group, in gray paenula and veils, were
+watching from without the crowd.  He moved aside, beckoning to them.
+
+"Make your farewells," said he, as they came near.  "We shall be off in
+a moment."
+
+A beautiful white hand was extended to him.  He took it in his, and
+then quickly pressed it to his lips.
+
+"Farewell, dear love!" he whispered.
+
+A quick pressure answered him, and the veiled figure turned away.  Then
+a trumpet-call, a flash of blue vexilla and silver eagles in the air,
+and, a moment later, some eighty hoofs were drumming in the Appian Way.
+For a little the horsemen heard them that were left behind, wailing.
+
+"It is like a sticking of pigs to leave a lot of plebeian women," said
+Manius, when the sound was far out of hearing.
+
+"An arrow in the heart of the soldier, but I think it good," said
+Vergilius.  "For a time, at least, Rome will be dear to him."
+
+There were forty men riding in the troop, all lancers, saving a few
+slingers and bowmen.  They rattled over the hard Way at a pace of
+fifteen miles an hour.  It was an immense, rock-paved road--this Appian
+Way--straight, wide, and level, flinging its arches over fen, river,
+and valley, and breaking through hill and mountain to the distant sea.
+No citizen might bring his horse upon it unless a diploma had been
+granted him--it was, indeed, for the larger purposes of the government.
+After two hours they drew up at a posting-house and changed horses.
+They rode this mount some forty miles, halting at a large inn, its
+doors flush with the road.  A transport and postal train bound for Rome
+was expected shortly, and, before eating, Vergilius wrote a letter and
+had it ready when the wagons came rattling in a deep-worn rut, behind
+teams of horses moving at a swift gallop.  There were five wagons in
+the train, bearing letters and light merchandise from the south.  Hard
+by was one of the wheelwright-shops that lined the great thoroughfare.
+The train stopped only a moment for water and a new wheel, then rushed
+along on its way to the capital.  A light meal of bread and porridge,
+half an hour of rest, and again, with new horses, the troop was in full
+career.  A sense of loneliness grew in the heart of the youth as he
+journeyed.  Lover and soldier had fought their duel, and the latter was
+outdone.  But the lover's courage was now sorely tried.  Every mounted
+courier hastening to Rome on the south road bore a letter from the
+young man to her he loved.  He met a legion of infantry going north,
+and envied every soldier, sweating under a set pace of four miles to
+the hour and a burden of sixty pounds--shield, helmet, breast-plate,
+pilum, swords, intrenching tools, stakes for a palisade, and corn for
+seventeen days.
+
+A trireme was waiting for them on the Adriatic Sea, and Vergilius,
+Manius, and their escort sailed to northwestern Macedonia, mounted
+horses again, galloping over the great highway to Athens; crossed by
+trireme to Ephesus, thence to Antioch by the long sea-road, and,
+agreeably with orders, they began to leave their men at forts along the
+frontier.
+
+Events on the way filled him with contempt for his country and for
+himself.  Here and there he met people travelling under imperial passes
+that gave them the use of the road and a right of free levy for
+subsistence, often much abused.  These travellers were people of
+leisure from the large cities, wont to stretch their power to the point
+of robbery.  He saw them seizing slaves and cattle from terrified
+agrarians; he saw Manius strike a man down for resenting insults to his
+daughter; he saw the deadly toil of the oarsmen, the bitter punishment
+of the cross.
+
+His heart was now sore and sensitive.  Was it the new love which had
+flung off its shield of sternness and left it exposed to every lash
+that flew?  The misery of others afflicted him.  Thoughts of injustice
+grew into motives of action, the loss of faith into the gain of
+unutterable longing.  Who were these gods who heard not the cry of the
+weak and were ever on the side of the strong?  Were they only in those
+hands of power that flung their levin from the Palatine?  Could he, who
+had learned to love innocence and purity, love also the foul harpy
+which Rome had become?  It seemed to him difficult to reconcile the
+love of Arria and the love of Rome.  Was the time not, indeed, overdue
+when the wicked should tremble and the proud should bow themselves,
+according to that song of the slave-girl?
+
+From Antioch they turned southward, passing the cloistered plain paved
+with polished marble, and hurried to Damascus.  Thence they rode to
+Jerusalem.  The troop had dwindled to a squad of six, and came slowly
+into the ancient capital at dawn.  From afar they could hear bugles at
+the castle of Antonia.
+
+"They are changing the guard," Manius remarked.
+
+Having entered the city gates, they passed throngs of cattle and their
+drivers and many worshippers hurrying to the temple.  One of the latter
+stopped, and, pointing to the eagles and the medallion of Augustus on
+their signa, shouted loudly:
+
+"I thank Thee, O God, and the God of my fathers, that I am not of them
+who provoke Thine anger with the graven image."
+
+A chant of many voices from the temple roof floated over the plain,
+saying:
+
+"The light has come as far as Hebron."
+
+Vergilius turned, looking up at the splendid Doric temple of Jerusalem.
+As he looked, the sun's rays fell on a great, golden lantern before a
+thicket of high columns in its eastern portico.  It was the signal for
+another outburst of trumpets.
+
+"They are now making incense for the nostrils of Jehovah," said Manius.
+"Soon they will offer him one of the most beautiful lambs in Judea."
+
+In a few moments they drew up at the castle of Antonia.  News of their
+coming had reached Jerusalem by courier, three days before.  The
+captain of the guard repeated part of the introduction.
+
+"Vergilius, son of Varro, sent by the great father?" said he, in a tone
+of inquiry.
+
+"And worn with much riding," said the young knight.
+
+"I have a message for you.  It is from the king."
+
+"He would see me at once," said Vergilius, having read it.
+
+"The sooner you go the more gracious you will be like to find him,"
+said Manius, with a smile.
+
+"My apparel!  It is on the transport and has not yet arrived."
+
+"But you have arrived, and forget not you are in the land of Herod--a
+most impatient king."
+
+"He will not know, however, that we have come," Vergilius answered.
+
+"Friend of Caesar," said the captain of the guard, "within an hour he
+will know everything you have done since you entered the city--whither
+you went, to whom you spoke, and what you said, and perhaps even what
+you thought."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+The characters of Herod and Augustus were as far apart as their
+capitals.  Extremes of temperament were in these two.  The Roman was
+cold, calm, of unfailing prudence; the Jew hot-blooded, reckless, and
+warmed by a word into startling and frank ferocity.  The one was keen
+and delicate, the other blunt and robust.  The emperor was a fox, the
+king a lion.  Herod and his people were now worried with mutual
+distrust.  He had no faith in any man, and no man--not even the emperor
+by whose sufferance he held the crown--had any faith in him.  The king
+feared the people and the people feared the king.
+
+Herod began his career with good purposes.  An erect, powerful, and
+handsome youth of Arabic and Idumaean blood, brave with lance and
+charger, he raided the bandit chieftain Hezekias and slew him, with all
+his followers.  The Sanhedrim thought not of his valor but only of the
+ancient law he had broken.  They put him on trial for usurping the
+power of life and death.  In the midst of his peril he escaped, taking
+with him the seed of those dark revenges which, when he got the crown,
+destroyed all save a single member of the old court of justice and the
+confidence of his people.
+
+His household became the scene of bloody intrigues which even stirred
+the tongue of Caesar with contempt.  Herod became the dupe of a
+designing sister, of base flatterers, and of an evil and ambitious son.
+They undermined his confidence in all who deserved it.  His beloved
+wife Mariamne, his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus, and many others
+of exceptional good repute in the kingdom were unjustly put to death.
+Then, swiftly, as he penetrated the maze of plot and counterplot, those
+who had fooled him began to fall before his wrath.  He was now, indeed,
+a forlorn, loveless, and terrible creature.
+
+Many thought him afflicted with madness.  There were noble folk in
+Jerusalem who said they had seen the body of Mariamne embalmed in
+honey, above the king's chamber, where every day he could look upon it.
+Some had seen him wandering about the palace at night with a candle,
+mourning over his loss and raging at his own folly.  Some had seen him
+so shaken by remorse that he roared like a lion goaded by hunger and
+the lance.  At such a time it was, indeed, a peril to come before him.
+Plots against his life had worried him, and, distrusting his helpers,
+he was wont to go about the city in disguise seeking information.
+Twice he had forgiven Antipater, his favorite son, for crimes in the
+royal household.
+
+Now, in his seventy-sixth year, the king was, indeed, sorely pressed
+with trouble.  Jerusalem was the centre of a plot formidable and
+far-reaching.  Its object was, in part, clear to him, or so he thought,
+and with some reason.  It seemed to aim at his removal and the crowning
+of a mysterious king of prophecy, who, many said, was now waiting the
+death of Herod.  It baffled him.  He saw signs that many had their
+heads together in this plot.  So far, however, he had not been able to
+lay hands upon them.  There were many theories about the new king.
+They were strange and conflicting and zealously put forth.  They
+differed as to whether he were yet born and as to his divinity, his
+character, and his purposes.  The Sanhedrim held that when he came into
+the world there would be certain signs and portents seen of all men.
+This conflict of authority increased the confusion of Herod.  When
+Vergilius came to his capital the king was mired on the very edge of
+the great mystery.
+
+Powers of darkness ruled the city of Jerusalem.  The sword, the lance,
+the dagger, and the wheel were wreaking vengeance and creating new
+perils while they were removing old ones.  The king had tried vainly to
+repair the past.  He gave freely to the poor; he erected gorgeous
+places of amusement; he built the new temple and a great palace in the
+upper city.  The splendor of the latter structures had outdone the
+imperator.  No shape born of barbaric dreams, to be slowly spread upon
+the earth in marble and gold, had so taxed the cunning and the patience
+of human hands.  Such, in brief, were the character, the troubles, the
+home, and the city of Herod.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+In travel-worn garb Vergilius went early to see the king.  Accustomed
+to the grandeur of Rome itself, he yet saw with astonishment the
+beautiful groves, the lakes, canals, and fountains sparkling in the
+sunlight which surrounded the great marble palace of Herod.  In the
+shadow of its many towers, each thirty cubits high, Vergilius began to
+feel some dread of this terrible king.  At least fifty paces from the
+door of his chamber, in the great hall above-stairs, he could hear the
+growl of the old lion.  In Herod was the voice of wrath and revenge and
+terror.  His words came rolling out in a deep, husky, guttural tone, or
+leaped forth hissing with anger.  Some officials stood by the king's
+door with fear and dread upon their faces.  A young woman of singular
+beauty was among them.
+
+"O Salome, daughter of Herod," said one, "the king would have you come
+to-morrow.  He is in ill humor with the plotters."
+
+"And I with him," said she, stamping her foot.
+
+An usher had presented Vergilius at the door.  As Herod's daughter
+proudly turned away, she came face to face with the young Roman noble.
+For one moment their eyes held each other.  A chamberlain approached
+Vergilius, whispered a few inquiries, and then led him before the king.
+Herod was having a bad day.
+
+"Traitors!" he hissed.  In a voice like the menacing growl of a savage
+beast he added: "May their eyes rot in their heads!  Go!  I have heard
+enough, bearer of evil tidings."
+
+Far down the great chamber in which half a cohort could have stood
+comfortably, in a carved chair on a dais, under a vault and against a
+background of blue, Babylonian tapestry, sat the king.  A priest had
+bowed low and was now leaving his presence.  The chamberlain announced,
+in a loud voice, "Vergilius, son of Varro, of Rome, and officer of the
+fatherly and much-beloved Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus."
+
+The king sat erect, a purple tarboosh and crown of wrought gold upon
+his head.  As Vergilius approached, the dark, suspicious eyes of Herod
+were surveying him from under long, quivering tufts of gray hair.  His
+great body, in its prime, must have been like that of Achilles.
+
+"Stand where you are, son of Varro," said the king, as he moved
+nervously.  His broad shoulders were beginning to bend a little under
+their burden of trouble and disease.  The harrow of pain and passion
+had roughened his face with wrinkles.  His manner was alert and
+watchful.
+
+"Have you seen my son?" he inquired, quickly.
+
+"Yes, great sire, and he was well."
+
+"And is he not comely?"
+
+"Ay, and brave with his lance."
+
+"And a born king," said Herod.  "I have fixed my heart upon him.  I
+have no other to love--but the great imperator.  And how is he?"
+
+"I left him well, good sire."
+
+"Stand a moment, son of Varro," said the king, with an impatient
+gesture.  An attendant approached him and spoke in a low tone.  Herod,
+snarled like a huge cat when the lance threatens.
+
+"Break him on the rack," he muttered; "and unless he tell, crucify
+him--crucify him.  He shall do me no further injury.  That priest
+Lugar, bring him back to me.  Quickly now, bring him to me!"
+
+The attendant hurried away, soon returning with him who had retired as
+Vergilius entered the king's chamber.
+
+"Saw you the men of learning in Ascalon?" the king demanded.
+
+"I did."
+
+"What said they?"
+
+There was a moment of silence.
+
+"Out with it," said the king, fiercely.  "Must I put every man upon the
+rack?  Speak, and that you may tell the truth I shall not demand their
+names."
+
+"They, also, look for the new king," said Lugar.  "Many believe he is
+already born.  They say that on your death he will declare himself."
+
+"And they, too, pray for my death?"
+
+"Most earnestly, my beloved king."
+
+"Traitors!" said Herod, and as he spoke his powerful hands were tearing
+his kerchief into rags.  "I shall soon change the burden of their
+prayers.  Go tell them this: the day I die two of the wisest men from
+every city in the kingdom shall die also.  Go everywhere, and tell
+these learned doctors they had best pray for my good health."
+
+The priest bowed before his king and retired.  The pagan noble looked
+up at this ruler of the land of the one God and felt a thrill of
+horror.  Herod, turning quickly, beckoned to the young knight, his
+wrinkles quivering with anger.  Now, indeed, he was like a lion at bay.
+
+"Ha-a!" he roared, and his head bent slowly and his voice fell to a low
+rumble as he continued.  "'Tis an evil time in Jerusalem.  I weary of
+this long fight with traitors.  They grind their points; they stir
+poison; they swarm in the streets.  They rob me of my friends, and
+now--now they seek alliance with Jehovah to rob me of my throne.  'Tis
+well you should know and beware.  I have a plan which will make them
+desire my good health.  Report to Quirinus, and remember"--he took a
+hand of the youth in both of his with a fawning movement--"I have need
+of friends."
+
+That very day an order went forth that certain of the learned men of
+every city be assembled in the amphitheatre at Jericho, and be there
+confined to wait the further pleasure of the king.  It was a bold plan
+through which Herod hoped to confound his enemies and insure his
+safety.  He decreed that on the day of his death all these men should
+be executed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+Among the orderlies at the castle was one David, a young Jew, whose
+face and bearing had attracted the eye of Vergilius.  There was in both
+something admirable  and familiar.  Straightway the tribune chose the
+young Jew for his own service, and soon held him in high esteem.
+Together they set out one morning, with a troop of horse, bound for the
+southern limit of Samaria.  Thus quickly orders had arrived from the
+emperor.  They sent Vergilius on a journey to inspect roads and report
+"as to hopes, plans, and theories of import to the king."
+
+That morning as they left the old city, Vergilius and the young Jew
+rode abreast.
+
+"Tell me," said the former, presently, "what know you of the new king?"
+
+"Of him I have thought much and know little," said David.  "My mother
+taught me to look for him.  That was before the evil days."
+
+"And you learned what of her?"
+
+"Little save the long hope.  She taught me an old chant of the coming.
+If you wish, I will sing it."
+
+Being bidden, he sang, as she had sung who hushed the revels of
+Antipater, of signs and fears and of arrows to fly as the lightning.
+Words, melody, emotion, the note of inveterate wrong, were those of the
+slave-girl.
+
+"The same nose and blue eyes, and fair, curly locks--the same feeling
+and chant of faith," said Vergilius, thoughtfully.  "Did you not live
+in Galilee and suffer ill fortune?"
+
+"We lived in Galilee, and, by-and-by, were as those hurled into
+Gehenna."
+
+"And have you a sister in Rome?"
+
+"I have a sister, but know not where she may be.  Cyran the Beloved, so
+my mother called her."
+
+Then Vergilius told his companion how he had won her from the son of
+Herod and left her in the keeping of Arria.  David wept as he listened.
+
+When the tale was finished he spoke bitterly: "'Twas she--the Beloved.
+My father was put to death, his property seized, his wife and children
+dragged to captivity.  My heart is faint with sorrow.  God!  I weary of
+thy slowness.
+
+  "Send, quickly send the new king, whose arrows
+      shall fly as the lightning
+  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
+      low and the wicked to tremble."
+
+
+For a moment they rode in silence.  David was first to speak.
+
+"Forgive me," said he, with fear of his imprudence.  "My tongue has
+gone too far.  I am true to Herod, being his debtor, for he gave me
+freedom.  But I am of the house of David."
+
+"Fear not," said Vergilius.  "Never shall I betray the broken hearted.
+I give you friendship."
+
+"And I give you gratitude," was the answer of the Jew.
+
+"I am as a child here in Judea and seek understanding.  You shall be my
+teacher."
+
+For a time neither spoke; soon David asked: "Will you tell me of her my
+sister is now serving?"
+
+"Of all the daughters of Rome she is noblest.  We love each other.  Ah,
+friend!  'Tis a wonder--this great love.  My tongue halts when I think
+of it."
+
+He paused, in meditation.
+
+"I have heard much of it here in Judea--a love that exalts the soul,"
+said David.
+
+"And changes the heart of man with all that is in it.  My love has
+filled me with a tender feeling for all women; it has made me to hate
+injustice and even to complain of the gods."
+
+"To complain of the gods!" said David, turning and looking into the
+face of his friend.
+
+"It does seem to me they set a bad example and are too childish for the
+work they have to do, but still--still I bow before them."
+
+"I do not understand you," said David.
+
+"They are given to spite, anger, vanity, lust, revenge, and idleness.
+Caesar is greater than they.  He has learned self-control.  And this
+new king of your faith, who, you tell me, is to conquer the world--he
+is no better."
+
+"And why think you so?"
+
+"He is to conquer the world.  Good sir, it has been conquered--how many
+times!  He shall make the mighty afraid--have they not often trembled
+with fear and perished by the sword?  He shall fling arrows of just
+revenge, as if our old earth were not already soaked in the blood of
+the wicked.  Ah, my David, I wonder not you long for a king of the
+sword and the arrow.  Revenge is ever the dream of the oppressed.  But
+I have dreamed of a greater king."
+
+"Tell me who?"
+
+"He would be like this love in me," said Vergilius.  "If it were to go
+abroad--if it were only to find the hearts of the mighty--what, think
+you, would happen?"
+
+"Ay, if it were to go from friend to friend and from neighbor to
+neighbor," said the young Jew, "it would indeed conquer the world."
+
+"And there would be neither war nor injustice."
+
+"Tell me," said David.  "Are there many lovers like you in Rome?"
+
+"Some half a score that I have heard of, and I doubt not there be many."
+
+"'Tis the candle of the Lord--the preparation of the heart of man,"
+said David.  "I do believe his arrow shall be that of love."
+
+"This feeling in me has kindled a great desire," said Vergilius.  "I
+burn for knowledge."
+
+Then said the young Jew: "Let us find my kinsman, Zacharias--a priest
+of holy life and great learning.  Through his aged wife a miracle has
+been accomplished.  I learn that she has given birth, and many have
+journeyed far to see the child.  There be some who say that he is,
+indeed, the king of promise, albeit I have no such opinion."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"There shall be signs in the deep of the heavens, and we have not seen
+them."
+
+"Where may we find the priest?"
+
+"In the village of Ain Karim, yonder."
+
+They could see its low dwellings and the dome of its synagogue.  The
+Roman halted near the abode of Zacharias, while David took their
+followers to the inn.  Suddenly the young Roman saw an aged priest
+approaching with a child in his arms.
+
+"I have a message for you," said the man of God, stopping near the
+Roman officer.
+
+"And I seek it," said Vergilius, looking at the long, gray beard of the
+venerable priest.
+
+"It is borne in upon me to say to you that the kingdom of heaven is at
+hand."
+
+"Tell me of the king," said Vergilius.  "I do thirst for knowledge."
+
+"He shall be the prince of peace."
+
+Vergilius looked thoughtfully at the old priest, who now sat down as if
+weary.
+
+"And he shall conquer with the sword?"
+
+"Nay, but as it is written, 'he shall judge among the nations and shall
+rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares
+and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword
+against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'"
+
+Now the Roman was alert to hear.  His ideal, which had taken form at
+the altar of peace and grown with his love, was being set up before him.
+
+"But the nations are stubborn," said he.  "Tell me, O wise and learned
+man, how shall he subdue them?"
+
+"By the love of God, almighty and ever-lasting."
+
+"God, almighty and everlasting," said Vergilius.  "I know him not."
+
+"I do but defile myself to speak with you, worshipper of idols,"
+sternly spake the priest.  "And yet I am constrained to instruct you.
+Listen--there is a power which even Rome has not been able to conquer.
+Know you what power it is?"
+
+The young tribune was recounting the peoples of the earth, when
+Zacharias continued:
+
+"'Tis the God of the Jews.  Rome has conquered his people, but mark how
+he stands.  And what is there of wrong that his law cannot remedy?
+Tell me, is there no injustice in your land?"
+
+"There is much," said the young Roman.
+
+"And so I know--but name it."
+
+"Well, for one thing, men torture and kill their slaves."
+
+"And in the law of the one God 'tis written, 'Thou shalt not kill.'"
+
+After a thoughtful moment Vergilius added: "And the strong prey upon
+the weak, seizing their property and holding it for their own."
+
+"And the one God commands, 'Thou shalt not steal'; and again, 'Thou
+shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
+neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox,
+nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.'"
+
+"But you have injustice, also, in Judea."
+
+"Ay, because there be evil men who obey not the law of God.  But
+presently they shall be put to shame.  Here is he that is come to
+prepare the way of the Lord."
+
+The child was now asleep, his head on his father's knee.
+
+"John," said the priest, tenderly looking down.
+
+But the little one continued to sleep, and a wonderful peace and beauty
+had come upon him.
+
+"And this new king--whence shall he come and how shall we know him?"
+the young Roman persisted.
+
+"Conceived of God, he is now in the womb of his mother," said the
+priest.  "Soon--very soon, he shall enter the gate of the world.  The
+ground is ready and he shall be like a sower, and his seed shall be
+love, and peace shall be his harvest.  If ye would know him, behold
+this face."
+
+He touched the brow of the child.  "Son of darkness," he continued,
+"look upon the son of light!  The faith of Mizraim or the wisdom of
+Hillel could show you no more.  Do you see the new light shining within
+this lovely veil of flesh?  Look, and you shall know the fashion of his
+countenance, and that his hand shall make no wound."
+
+The priest rose, and, lifting the child in his arms, went away, saying,
+"His peace be with you."
+
+The young Roman stood looking at the sweet face that lay on the
+shoulder of him departing.  The great hope of Judea had entered his
+heart--the hope of a just king to rule the nations and point the way to
+eternal life.
+
+On his return he bought a statue representing a beautiful young boy.
+He set it up in his chamber, and, kneeling, prayed to it as the one God
+who forbade killing and theft and every evil practice of men.  He
+prayed for understanding; he prayed, also, that he might see her he
+loved.  But this new God seemed as deaf to his entreaty as had been
+those of the pagan temples.  Groping for light, he turned to the young
+David.  Then first he learned that God, being jealous, hated the image
+of everything that has the breath of life.  His understanding had
+diminished, for, in this matter, the one God was like the many.  He
+questioned the Jew.  "Wonder not," said his friend, "that God hates the
+symbol of ancient error.  It has been as a cloud upon the sun."
+
+Vergilius had taken a palace and filled it with treasures, for,
+possibly, he had thought, some day she would see all.  Now its noble
+statues were sent away--a kind of sacrifice to the God of the Jews.
+But there was one he could not part with--a copy of the lovely Venus of
+Alcamenes which his mother had sent to him.  He concealed her in a
+closet, contenting himself with a furtive glance at her now and then.
+He set up in his fancy a giant of benevolent face, and humbly sought
+his favor.  Still he had no success.
+
+Lying at table one night with Manius and Ben Joreb, he sought counsel
+of the latter.
+
+"He that hath his prayer hath prayed wisely," said the priest.  "You
+have much to learn."
+
+"How, and of whom?" said Vergilius.
+
+"There is in Jerusalem a council of learned men.  They expound the
+Scripture and study all mysteries of the faith."
+
+"And who are they?"
+
+"I would I knew.  Being wise, they are unknown."
+
+"Unknown!"
+
+"So I have heard.  They have knowledge of him who is to come, and Herod
+is very jealous."
+
+"True," said Vergilius.  "I would I were of them who know."
+
+"If it may be so you shall have word tomorrow," said the priest.
+
+Promptly Manius relieved the tension of curiosity.
+
+"Vergilius, I drink to you--the new commander of the cohorts," said he,
+rising.
+
+"I reserve my thanks for more information," said Vergilius.
+
+"It will come," said Manius, who then left with the priest in his
+company.
+
+Soon the former added, in a low tone: "He may be of some value before
+he dies."
+
+"Ah, yes, but he will die young," said the other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+Next day among his letters were two of value in the history of
+Vergilius--one from the procurator, apprising him of his appointment to
+command the cohorts, the other a communication with no signature, the
+source of which was, in his view, quite apparent.  This latter one gave
+him the greater satisfaction.  It conveyed, in formal script, the
+following message:
+
+
+"TO ONE SEEKING WISDOM IN PRAYER
+
+"If you would share in the deliberations of the Council of the
+Covenant, be at the well of Nicanor, which is opposite the tenth column
+in the king's portico of the temple, at the second sounding of the
+sacred horns on the Day of Atonement.  There wait until one shall come
+and ask what you are seeking, and you shall answer, 'Knowledge of the
+one God.'  Then, if he turns away, follow him and do as he bids you."
+
+
+His opportunity had come.  He waited with the curiosity of a child.
+Soon, possibly, he should see the face of the great Lawgiver and learn
+of things beyond the valley of death.  If all went well he would amaze
+the people of Rome with wonder stories and give them assurance of
+immortal life.
+
+The city had been thronged with pilgrims that day of the ancient
+festival.  It was turning dusk when Vergilius made his way through
+crowded streets to the well of Nicanor.  Suddenly he heard a trumpet
+signal, and then followed that moment of silence when every tongue and
+foot and wheel stopped, quickly, and all stood listening for the awful
+name spoken but once a year.
+
+Presently the shout of the high priest rang like a trumpet-peal above
+the roofs of the city.  Then Jerusalem was all begirt and overflooded
+with song.  Maidens, white robed, were singing in distant vineyards;
+people were singing in the streets; trained devotees were whirling and
+dancing and chanting psalms in the court of the Temple, while priest
+and Levite followed, blowing, with all their power of lung, upon the
+sacred horns.
+
+In the midst of this outbreak a stranger approached Vergilius at the
+well, saying, "What seek you?"  The young Roman gave his answer, but
+was unable to see the face of him who questioned.  The stranger turned
+away and bade him follow.  Without more ceremony Vergilius walked
+behind him through narrow streets, wholly unfamiliar, and presently
+descending a stairway, came into a dark passage.  They halted, after a
+few paces, whereupon a loud rap startled the new-comer.  Soon he could
+hear a door open.  The stranger, taking his hand, led him into some
+dark place.  It was all very strange, and like tales long familiar,
+relating to the city of mysteries.  Standing there in the dark and
+silence, he had some misgivings which gave way when a voice addressed
+him as follows:
+
+"You are now in the council-chamber of the Covenant.  We meet in
+darkness, so that no shape or form or image may turn our thought from
+the contemplation of him who is most high and who hath his dwelling in
+black darkness.  Moreover, those who are not seen shall have neither
+vanity nor the will to deceive.  Would you share in our deliberations?"
+
+Vergilius answered yes, and one of the council then took his hand and
+administered the oath of secrecy, and led him to what seemed to be a
+large divan, where he sat, shoulder to shoulder, between other members
+of the council.  He listened long to the casuistry of learned men
+touching prayer, atonement, and sacrifice.  It led at last to some
+discussion of the new king.
+
+"Is there one here can tell me where and when he shall be born?" was
+the query of Vergilius.
+
+"We believe the Messiah is already born," said a councillor.
+"Moreover, some here have beheld his face."
+
+"And where, then, does he dwell?" Vergilius inquired.
+
+"That you shall know some day.  At the next meeting of the council it
+may be told.  We wait only for the fulness of time.  He dwells in a
+distant city, and not long ago I spoke with him.  He sent his love and
+greeting to every member of our council.  He bids you wait his time,
+when all your prayers shall be answered."
+
+"Shall there be signs of his coming?"  So spoke Vergilius.
+
+"There shall be signs, and you shall hear of them in this chamber."
+
+"And what shall be the aim of the king?"
+
+"To establish the reign of justice."
+
+Vergilius queried much regarding the government of the new king, and
+got replies adding more to his curiosity than to his knowledge.
+
+It was near the middle hour of the night when a voice announced: "The
+keeper of the new door will now leave the council."
+
+Vergilius heard a stir coming near him in the darkness.  Hands were
+laid upon him, and, presently, one took his arm and led him away.  The
+two climbed a long flight of stairs and made hastily across a broad
+roof.  At a railed opening they came to other stairs, and, descending,
+entered a passage, dark as had been the chamber.  At its end the Roman
+received a password.  Then a door swung and again he was on the
+pavements of Jerusalem, and, far away, could see the lights of Temple
+Hill.
+
+His conductor, returning, announced the departure of "the new voice."
+
+"We will now hear from the keeper of records," said one.
+
+A voice quickly answered: "He secured a lock of his hair."
+
+"And what says the keeper of the hidden light?"
+
+Then said another voice: "He now sees but one obstacle."
+
+"And what says the Angel of Death?"
+
+A low, deep tone broke the silence in which all waited.  "The sixth day
+before the kalends, he shall claim his own," so it answered.
+
+"Enough," said the questioner.  "The ways lead to safety.  I bid you
+go."
+
+One by one the councillors began to leave.  There was no treading upon
+heels, for one was well out of the way before another was allowed to
+go.  So cunningly was their room devised that half the exits led to one
+thoroughfare and half to another; and so many were they, it was said,
+no more than two councillors came or went by the same door.  And of all
+who came, so say the records, not one knew another to be sure of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+For the king there were three great perils: the people, Caesar, and his
+own family.  The descendant of old John Hyrcanus of Idumaea--a Jew only
+by compulsion--had no understanding of the children of Moses.  He
+tripped every day on the barriers of ancient law, and often his
+generosity was taken for defiance.  Caesar was not so hard to please.
+He had vanity and laws not wholly inflexible.  Herod's family, with its
+evil sister, its profligate sons, its voluptuous daughters, its wives,
+of whom it is enough to say they were nine, its intrigues and
+jealousies, gave him greater trouble than either the kingdom or the
+emperor.  He built a city near Jerusalem, on the sea.  Magnificent in
+marble and gold, Caesarea stood for a monument of Herodian troubles.
+Therein he sought to amuse the people, to pacify his kindred, and to
+flatter Caesar.  Its vast breakwater; its great arches through which
+the sea came gently in all weather; its mosaic pavements washed daily
+by the salt tide; its palaces of white marble; its great, glowing
+amphitheatre--these were unique in their barbaric splendor, albeit, in
+the view of the people, an offence to God.
+
+Among those who dwelt in Caesarea was Elpis, eighth wife of the king,
+with her daughter Salome, whose praises had been sung at the banquet of
+Antipater.  Both were renowned for beauty and the splendor of their
+dress.  Salome had the colors of the far north, and that perfect and
+voluptuous contour found only in marble figures of Venus, above the
+great purple sea, and, below it, in the daughters of men.  She was
+tall, shapely, full blooded.  They called her Salome, child of the sun,
+because she had the dark of night in her large eyes, the tints of
+morning in her cheeks, and the gold of noonday in her hair.
+
+When Manius came to seek her hand the king said, with a smile: "My
+noble youth, she is for the like of Achilles--a man of heroic heart and
+size.  Have you no fear of her?"
+
+Quickly Manius replied: "Know you not, O king! my fathers fought with
+Achilles?"
+
+"But they had the protection of the gods," said Herod, with a smile.
+"However, you may find her favor sufficient.  I have heard her speak
+fair of you."
+
+Now a quarrel had arisen between Elpis and a sister of Herod.  So,
+therefore, to calm a tempest, the adroit king had sent his eighth wife
+to live by the sea.
+
+It was a day near the nones of October, when the tribune went to
+Caesarea with Manius.  There in a great palace, erected by the king,
+they met the two renowned women.  It was a fête day and the gay people
+of Herod's court were in attendance.  Salome was dancing, tabret in
+hand, her form showing through a robe of transparent silk as the two
+entered.  Once before, at the door of the king, Vergilius had seen her.
+
+"See the taper of arm and leg," said he, addressing his companion, "She
+is wonderful!"
+
+A lithe and beautiful creature, she swayed and bent, with arms
+extended, her feet, now slow as the pinions of a sailing hawk, now
+swift as the wings of a tilting sparrow.  She stopped suddenly, her
+form proudly erect, looking at her lover.  Now she had the dignity of a
+wild deer in the barrens.  With one hand she felt her jewelled hair,
+with the other she beckoned to him.  The young men approached her.
+
+"Children of Aeneas, I give you welcome," said she.  Then turning to
+Vergilius: "Did Manius tell you that I bade him bring you here?"
+
+"I knew not I was so honored."
+
+"He is jealous.  He will not permit me to embrace my little page.  I
+have wished to meet you, noble tribune, ever since I saw you in my
+father's palace."
+
+Her eyes were playful, as if they would try the heart of her lover.
+
+"And when I saw you," said Vergilius, "I--I knew you were the betrothed
+of the assessor."
+
+"And why?" she besought, with a smile.
+
+"Because I heard him say in Rome that, of all the daughters of Judea,
+you were most beautiful."
+
+Her eyes looked full upon his and he saw in them a glint of that fire
+which had begun to burn within her.  He said to himself, as he came
+away, "Here is another Cleopatra--a woman made to pull down the mighty."
+
+Next day from the daughter of Herod came a letter to the young tribune:
+
+
+"NOBLE SON OF VARRO,--I have much to say concerning your welfare, and I
+doubt not you will desire to hear it.  If I judge you rightly, come to
+the palace of my mother the second evening before the nones.  An hour
+after sunset I will meet you at the gate of bronze.  Say naught to
+Manius of your coming or of this letter."
+
+
+"Temptress!" said he, crushing the sheet of scented vellum.  "But she
+is beautiful," he added, wistfully.  "She is like the Venus of
+Alcamenes.  I would love well to look upon her again."
+
+He smoothed out the crumpled vellum.
+
+"'Say naught to Manius,'" he read again.  "I like it not.  I shall
+write to her that I have other business."
+
+And so did he, although in phrases of regret, as became one addressing
+a daughter of the great king.
+
+Sorely vexed, she thought ever of the noble beauty of the Roman youth,
+and became more eager to gain her purpose.  It may be the girl bore for
+him a better feeling than she had ever known.  She wished, if possible,
+to win him, knowing that her father would not be slow to help him
+forward.  The handsome youth had pleased her eye, and might, also,
+gratify her ambition.  Those days the art of intrigue was the study of
+a king's daughter; so, straightway, she invented a cunning plan.
+Knowing the great desire of Vergilius, she bribed the priest Lugar to
+give him crafty counsel.  On the very morning of that second day the
+priest came to him.
+
+"How fares your soul, noble tribune?" said Lugar.
+
+"I feel it strong in me," said Vergilius.
+
+"And you would know if it be strong unto salvation?"
+
+"That would I gladly know."
+
+"Come with me this night and you shall see your soul in the balance."
+
+"And whither shall we go?"
+
+"To the palace of Laban, steward of the king.  I shall come for you
+soon after the ninth hour."
+
+"And thereby increase my debt to you," said Vergilius.  "Remember my
+soul may not be rejected for lack of gratitude."
+
+Now in that hour which follows the beginning of night, Lugar and
+Vergilius were come to the place appointed.  Slaves led them through a
+great hall to the banquet-chamber.  There were the daughters of Laban,
+reclining in graceful ease.  The banquet-table had been removed.  Now
+they were taking their feast of old tales and new gossip.  They rose
+and came to meet the young men.  Tunics of jewelled gauze covered
+without concealing forms lovely as the sculptures of immortal Greece
+and redolent of all rare perfumes.
+
+"And you would see a maidens' frolic?" said one to Vergilius.
+
+Then said he: "Maidens are ever a delight to me."
+
+"Ay, they make you to forget," said the girl.
+
+He thought a moment before answering.  "It may be true," said he.  "But
+they keep you in mind of the power of woman."
+
+Strains of the lyre broke in upon them.  Suddenly the centre of the
+great room was thronged with maidens.  The young tribune was full of
+wonder, knowing not whence they had come.  There was a wreath of roses
+on each brow, and as they gathered in even rank with varicolored robes
+upon them, they reminded the knight of garden walls in Velitrae.
+Quickly they began to mingle, with feet tripping lightly, with bodies
+bending to display their charms.  Threadlike, wavering gleams of ruby,
+pearl, and sapphire seemed to weave a net upon them.  Such a scene
+appealed to the love of beauty in Vergilius.  It awoke dying but
+delightful memories of the pagan capital--splendors of form and color,
+glowing eyes and pretty frolic.
+
+"O Venus, mother of love!" he whispered, turning to admire a statue in
+the dim-lit corner where he stood.  Now the eyes of Venus were covered
+with an arm.  Out went his hand to feel the shapely marble.  It was
+warm, and slowly Venus began to move, as did the strains of music, and,
+presently, whirled away.
+
+"How beautiful!" he said.  "'Tis the magic of a dream."
+
+His eyes were upon the form of Venus, taller than the others and more
+nobly fashioned.
+
+"'Tis the great goddess come to earth," said he, turning to Lugar.
+
+The music had ceased.  The maidens, save two, had flung themselves upon
+rugs and couches.  Venus and another were approaching the Roman.
+
+"Daughter of Herod," said he, going to meet her, "I knew you not."
+
+She took his arm and led him to one of the couches.
+
+"You are very stubborn," said she, looking into his eyes.  "You had
+'business.'"
+
+"So have I.  We came here, as I thought, to confer with--with wise men."
+
+"And not with wise women?"
+
+"It may be.  I had not learned to look for wisdom where there is
+beauty."
+
+"And have I not wisdom?  Ah, son of Varro, my mother has taught me many
+mysteries.  I can read the future and the past."
+
+She leaned close to his ear and whispered, her arm against his: "I
+believe in the power of fate.  I had much to say and you had not the
+will to listen.  It has brought you and me together,"
+
+"To enchant me with your beauty?" he inquired.
+
+"Nay," said she, her cheek touching his shoulder.  "But to instruct you
+with my wisdom.  I see much in your face."
+
+"And what see you?"
+
+"Apollo!" she whispered, with a sigh; "and the power to be great."
+
+It flattered him, but he knew the sound of fair words.
+
+"In Rome," said he, laughing, "we belittle with compliments."
+
+"In Jerusalem we fill them with sincerity, and often--"
+
+He listened as the daughter of Herod drew closer.
+
+"They convey our love," she added, in a whisper.
+
+"I learn wonderful things every day.  But why think you I am to be
+great?"
+
+"I know the mysteries of fate," she answered, quickly, and with a
+little resentment of his coldness.  "But there is one thing in your
+way."
+
+"And what?"
+
+"Your work is to be in Judea, and you love, or think you love, a Roman
+maiden."
+
+"I know that I love her," said he, quickly.
+
+"But love is a great deceiver.  You shall not take her for your wife."
+
+"Why?" he demanded, turning and looking into the face of Salome.
+
+Her dark eyes were now gazing into his, her hand softly stroking his
+bare arm.
+
+"Because," she whispered, and now he could feel the motion of her
+shapely red lips upon his ear, "here, in Judea, you shall find one who
+loves you with a greater love."
+
+His pulses were quick with passion.  He rose, turning from the daughter
+of Herod.  To his amazement the others had all departed.  He and this
+living Venus of Judea were alone.
+
+She rose and spoke rapidly, her heart's fire in her words!  "Here the
+love of women is longer than their lives--greater than their prudence
+or their hope of heaven."
+
+She stood erect before him, her beauty striving with the ardor of her
+words.
+
+He looked down at her with a kind of fear in his eyes.
+
+She took his hand in hers.  "My father is fond of you," she continued.
+"Shall I tell your future?"
+
+"And I knew it for a moment hence I should know all," he answered;
+covering his eyes.  She came near, and, caressingly, put an arm about
+his neck.  He could hear a nightingale singing somewhere in the great
+palace.  It seemed to fling open the gates of memory.  He thought of
+his love--sacred now above all things.  His fear of it was like as the
+fear of the gods had been to his fathers.  For a moment honor, wisdom,
+and love trembled in the balance.  Suddenly he stood erect and put his
+hand upon the shoulder of Salome and gently pushed her aside.
+
+He turned away, his left arm covering his eyes and his right moving in
+a gesture of protest.  He staggered as one drunk with wine.  Slowly he
+crossed the chamber, struggling to defend his soul.
+
+"I dare not look upon your face again," said he, sternly.
+
+She ran before and tried to stop him.  "Hear me, son of Varro," said
+she.  "It is my will to help you."
+
+"I will not look upon your face again," he repeated.
+
+She struck at his hand fiercely, her foot stamping on the floor.  Now
+was she of the catlike tribe of Herod.
+
+"Go, stupid fool!"  The words came hissing from her lips.  "I hate
+you!"  She ran away, with impassioned laughter.  He passed the door.
+
+"To the evil honor is ever stupid," he said, to himself, as he left the
+palace.  By-and-by he added, thoughtfully, "'Tis a mighty friend--this
+great love in me."
+
+And said David, who was waiting when he returned: "They kept you long,
+my master."
+
+"Yes; I have been fighting!"
+
+"Fighting?"
+
+"For the prize of heaven in the amphitheatre of hell.  My love was my
+shield, the power of God my weapon."
+
+"Friend, what mean you?"
+
+"That an evil woman has tried to put the leash of fate upon me."
+
+"How fared the battle?"
+
+"It was my victory," said Vergilius; "and I do feel a mighty peace in
+me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+Vergilius had thought wisely of his temptation.  Fate rules them only
+who are too weak to rule themselves, and the great leash of fate is the
+power of evil women.  It was now to hasten the current of history in
+the old capital.
+
+Salome sat with Manius in the great picture-room of her mother's
+palace.  Guests had left the banquet-hall and gone to their homes.  It
+was near the middle hour of the night and Herod's daughter was alone
+with the young assessor of Augustus.
+
+"You shall choose," said she, "between the daughter and the son of
+Herod.  My brother hates me, and I fear him.  When he is king, what,
+think you, would happen to the husband of Salome, and what to her?  I
+should have to train my tongue to praise him and my knees to bend.  I
+should need to bow my head for fear of losing it.  Know you not of
+Alexander and Aristobulus and the dear, beloved Mariamne--how they
+died?  You--poor fool!--you would be lucky if he made you master of the
+stables!"
+
+"But he has promised--"
+
+"Promised!  If you care to live a day after he is king remind him not
+of his promises."
+
+"Think you Antipater would dare to take my life?  I am an officer of
+Augustus."
+
+"Oh, beautiful boy!" she laughed.  "He would be no toy of Caesar.  He
+dreams of conquest.  He will gather an army in Judea, Parthia, and
+Arabia.  He will attack Caesar, and Caesar is growing old.  Do you not
+know it is long since Actium?"
+
+Alarm had risen to the eyes of the young Roman, his lips were now
+trembling.  "What is your plan?" he whispered.
+
+"Betray the council," said she.  "Tell the king and write to Caesar
+about it.  So you will prove your faithfulness and devotion.  Loving
+Caesar, you have been a spy self-appointed.  Antipater shall be put to
+death, and we--we shall have honor and glory and, maybe, a palace of
+many towers."
+
+She put her arms about his neck and gave him a look whose meaning he
+understood.
+
+"By all the gods! you are worthy to be the wife as well as the daughter
+of a king," he whispered, his cheeks red with enthusiasm.  "But they
+will think me a poor spy if I give not the names of the conspirators,
+and how may I?"
+
+"But the God-fearing fool, Vergilius--you know he is of them?"
+
+"I am sure--I heard his voice, but I have not seen him."
+
+"You shall see him," said she, with rising fury in her eyes; "and I
+shall see him"--she paused, her hands clinched, her tongue sorting hot
+words--"melting in fire," she added, fiercely.  She clapped her hands;
+she leaned forward, her body shaking with a silent, horrible laughter
+of the spirit.
+
+A moment she seemed to dwell upon the awful picture.  Then, turning to
+Manius; "Give the password to my father and let him go and listen.  I
+promise you their names shall not be long a secret.  He must hear all.
+Give him plans of that chamber so he may guard the exits."
+
+"I will do my part, dear and wonderful daughter of Herod!  To-morrow I
+shall begin the good work."  So saying the Roman embraced Salome and
+spoke his farewell.
+
+Having left her, he went to his own palace and sat awhile pondering.
+
+"But if Herod is there," said he to himself, "and the soldiers come in
+with lights and the council members see me, they will learn that I have
+betrayed them.  And some may be there who know of my part in other
+enterprises.  By showing proof--Jupiter! they would bring confusion or
+death upon me.  I must not be there, and yet--and yet I must.  They
+wait for the shrill voice to declare the fulness of time.  Unless I be
+there the king may be no wiser for his coming.  I will go, but I will
+not tell Herod of the long way underground to the street of tombs.  I
+will announce the fulness of time and quit the council before its
+proclamation is made.  Then the old lion may spring his trap, and who,
+save Ben Joreb, will know that I ever sat with traitors.  And as for
+the priest, I shall warn him.  I know that he is weary of Antipater and
+will take a share in the new enterprise."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+It was the day before the nones of November in Rome.  The emperor had
+returned to his palace after opening the Ludi Plebeii.  The people had
+hailed him as father, forgiver, peace-maker.  A softened spirit,
+sweeping over the world, was come upon them.  That day they had put in
+his hands a petition for new laws to limit the power of men over
+slaves.  But in that matter he was bound to ancient custom by fetters
+of his own making.  Once--he was then emperor of Rome but not of his
+own spirit--he had punished a slave by crucifixion for killing a pet
+quail.  For that act, one cannot help thinking, he must have been
+harassed with regret.  The sting of it tempered his elation that
+November day.  He was, however, pleased with the spirit of the people
+and his heart was full of sympathy and good-will.
+
+On his table were letters from the south.  He lay comfortably in his
+great chair and began to read them.  Presently his body straightened,
+the wrinkles deepened in his brow.  Soon he flung the letter he had
+been reading upon his table and leaned back, laughing quietly as he
+remarked to himself:
+
+"Innocent, beautiful son of Varro!  He is making progress."
+
+An attendant came near.
+
+"Find my young Appius at once and bring him to me," said the emperor,
+as he went on reading his letters.
+
+Appius, quickly found, came with all haste to the great father of Rome.
+
+"I have news for you," said the latter, quietly, with a glance at his
+young friend.  He continued to read his letters.
+
+"News!" said Appius.
+
+"'Tis of Vergilius--the apt and youthful Vergilius.  How swift,
+industrious, and capable is he!  How versatile!  How varied his
+attainments!"
+
+"I am delighted."
+
+The emperor turned his keen eyes on the young man, with a smile of
+amusement.  Then he spoke, gently:
+
+"'Tis only four months, and he has become a conspirator, and also a
+prophet, and is likely soon to be--what is that word they use in
+Judea?--an angel.  You will start for Jerusalem to-morrow, my good
+Appius.  And when you arrive there convey to him my congratulations."
+
+"Your congratulations!"
+
+"That he is upon earth to receive them," said the great man.  He
+resumed his letters and continued speaking, slowly: "Tell him I have
+been asked to consider whether he should keep his head upon his
+shoulders, and that I have decided to refer the question to him.  It
+will not come back to me.  Say, also, that he should have more light
+upon his friends, and that I have withdrawn my consent to his marriage."
+
+The young man rose, a look of astonishment in his face.
+
+"But shall I be in time?" said he, with some excitement.
+
+"Learn composure, my good Appius.  Herod may not be extremely polite to
+him, but--but he will wait."
+
+That odd man, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, laughed silently
+as the youth was leaving.  He beckoned to a slave, who halted Appius
+and turned him back.
+
+"An escort will be on the campus at dawn," said the emperor.  "I wish
+you a pleasant journey and will write you when to return."
+
+Now there had been no changes of moment in the palace of the Lady
+Lucia, save one.  The slave-girl, Cyran, had brought to Arria the
+inspiration of a new faith.  The sister of Appius had begun to try it
+in secret prayers.  Her mother had fallen ill of a deadly fever so that
+none had hope of her recovery, and the girl had prayed, and, lo! her
+prayer had been answered.  Letters from Vergilius, full of the new
+light in him, had confirmed her faith.  And Arria confided to her
+family and intimates knowledge of her devotion to the one God.  Soon
+the religion of Judea had become a topic of patrician Rome.
+
+When Vergilius had left the capital, Antipater came every day for a
+time to the palace of the Lady Lucia, and brought with him many
+beautiful gifts.  But Arria refused to see him or to accept the gifts
+he had brought.  Now the stubborn prince had faith that when he was
+made king she would no longer be able to resist him.  If he failed with
+splendor, he was beginning to consider what he might do with power.
+
+That day of the interview between youth and emperor a letter came to
+Arria from her lover.  It began as follows:
+
+
+"DEAR LOVE,--It has been a day illumined with new honor and the praises
+of a king.  Now, before sleeping, I send these words to tell you that I
+have not forgotten.  Every day I think of you, and my love grows.  I
+see your face full of honor and the will to give all for me.  Because
+it is in you, I love honor beyond all my hope of it, and--that look in
+your eyes--oh, it has made me to think gently and be kind!  Now I tell
+you of a wonderful thing--this feeling is the very seed of friendship.
+The legate, the procurator, the high priest, and Herod himself, are my
+friends.  I had only the will to serve, and now they insist that I
+shall command.  After all, it is in no way remarkable--there be so few
+here who forget themselves for the good of the service.  It all leads
+to a new and a great law--think of the good of others and you need have
+no thought of yourself.  Consider this, my beloved, if every man loved
+a good woman as I love you a new peace would fill the world."
+
+
+Then he told her of his discovery of David, the brother of Cyran, and
+their friendship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19
+
+When Appius told his mother and his sister what Augustus had said to
+him, they were greatly distressed.  But Arria would not believe that
+Vergilius had been guilty of dishonor.  Such were her anxiety and her
+fear of injustice falling upon her lover, the girl would have it that
+she must go to Jerusalem with Appius.  She would neither be turned away
+nor bear with dissuasion.  Her brother told her not of the bitter
+message of Augustus, and, fearing the wiles of the Jewish prince,
+determined to take her with him.  So, therefore, as the sun rose on the
+nones of November in that year of the birth of Jesus, they set out with
+a troop of horse on the Appian Way.
+
+They were midland in Thrace on their way to Piraeus, where a ship
+waited them, when they were overtaken by the cavalcade of Antipater.
+The prince, summoned by Herod, was now returning, under royal banners,
+to receive his inheritance of glory and power.  A letter had started
+him, which, according to the great historian of that time, was warm
+with affectionate greeting.  Antipater, also, was to take ship for
+Judea.  He had learned of the departure of Appius and Arria, and had
+pushed his horses to the limit of their speed in order to overtake
+them.  When he first saw the troop of the young Roman, he left his
+column and came rushing on to greet them.
+
+The troop of Appius quickly faced about and stood with raised lances.
+
+"Proud son and daughter of Publius," said Antipater, drawing rein, "my
+heart, my horses, and my men are at your service!"  He was now splendid
+in royal vestments of purple and gold.
+
+"Our gratitude is not less than our surprise," said Appius.  "How came
+you flying out of the west like a bluebird?"
+
+"'Tis a winged foot that goes to meet a friend," said the prince.  "I
+left Rome far behind you and I go to Jerusalem."
+
+"We took you for a bandit."
+
+"And I am only a king," said Antipater, proudly.  "I am summoned to
+take the crown of my father."
+
+"And is he dead?"
+
+"Nay, but ill and weary of his burden."
+
+Appius removed his helmet as he made answer:
+
+"The gods give you health, honor, and wisdom, O king!  Will you ride
+with us?"
+
+"Already the gods give me honor," said the prince, bowing politely as
+the troop made way for him.  "I doubt not they will add health and
+wisdom.  But there is a blessing I put above either."
+
+They started slowly, Antipater riding between Arria and her brother in
+advance of the troop.
+
+"And shall we ask the gods to grant it?" said Arria.
+
+"Yes, for it is your favor, sweet girl.  I adore you, and shall have no
+other queen."
+
+"I cannot give you my heart," said she, frankly.  "It is impossible--I
+cannot bear to speak of it."
+
+"And you would not share my power and glory with me?" said Antipater,
+turning, with a look of surprise.
+
+Appius answered:
+
+"Once before I have told you, my worthy prince, that whom the emperor
+chooses she will wed."
+
+"Think not of that--I shall make terms with him," said Antipater.  "She
+shall never wed a weak-hearted tribune."
+
+"You speak lightly of my friend," said Appius.  "I like it not, good
+sire."
+
+"Son of Herod," said Arria, drawing rein, "we cannot longer enjoy your
+company."
+
+Appius halted the troop.
+
+For a little Antipater was dumb with astonishment.  He drew aside, and
+when he spoke his voice trembled with ire, it was near bursting into
+fury.
+
+"Sweet girl," said he, caressing the neck of his horse, "not even the
+power of Rome shall forbid me to love you, and I swear, by the god of
+my fathers, no man shall live between us!"  He turned quickly, and a
+fierce look came into his eyes and he added, in a hoarse half-whisper,
+"You shall be my wife, sister of Appius."
+
+The young Roman wheeled his horse between them.  Antipater backed away,
+threatening with his lance.  He shouted to his trumpeter, his troop
+being hard by, and quickly a call sounded.  Then spur went to flank,
+and the followers of the Jew passed in a quick rush and went thundering
+off, Antipater at the head of their column.  He rode to Athens in ill
+humor and was at Piraeus three hours in advance of Arria and Appius.
+The sun had set and the sea lay calm in a purple dusk.  He went aboard
+his trireme at once and called his pilot to him.
+
+"Go find the vessel waiting here for one Appius of Rome," he commanded.
+
+"It is she that lies near us," said the other.
+
+"And you know her pilot?"
+
+"Ay, 'tis Tepas the Idumaean.  He knows the broad sea as one may know
+his own vineyard."
+
+"Bring him to me."
+
+When Tepas came, Antipater took him aside and spread before him a chart
+of the vast, purple sea which beat upon the shores of Hellas.  He put
+his finger on a little spot some leagues from the coast of Africa.
+
+"Know you the Isle of Doom?" said he.
+
+"Ay, 'tis a lonely heap of rocks."
+
+"A roost of sea-birds," said the prince of Judea.  "Know you who am I?"
+
+"You are the son of Herod."
+
+"And I go to be king of the Jews."
+
+Antipater took from a bag many pieces of gold and heaped them on the
+chart above the Isle of Doom.
+
+"Would you earn this money, and much more?" he whispered.
+
+"If you will but show me how," said Tepas, the fire of greed now
+burning in his heart.
+
+"Sail close to the Isle of Doom.  There your trireme shall be leaking
+and you shall desert her and seek refuge on the isle and wait for me.
+You shall have ample store of provisions, and this treasure, and when I
+come you shall have, also, three talents more and a home in Jerusalem,
+and my favor as long as you live."
+
+"But how long must I wait?"
+
+"Not beyond, the ides of January, good man."
+
+"Then I agree," said Tepas.
+
+So was it with an evil man those days.  If he were armed with power he
+halted not between his plan and his purpose.  There were, indeed, few
+things so valued as to be above price.
+
+But the cunning of the tempter was to lead his prey into further depths
+of infamy.  The prince took the hand of the sailor and whispered to him:
+
+"If you would be a friend to me, then my enemies should be your
+enemies."  He paused a moment, looking into the eyes of the pilot and
+tenderly patting his shoulder.  It was like the guile of the black
+leopard.  Presently he continued:
+
+"Now this young Roman is my enemy.  If by any chance he, Appius, should
+die before I come, you shall have six instead of three talents.  He is
+fond of wine, and for such the sea has many perils.  Do you understand
+me?"
+
+"I do," said Tepas, nodding his approval, and then that heap of gold,
+lying on the chart, was delivered to him, and without more delay he
+went to his own vessel.  Antipater sat in silence, thinking for a
+moment, his chin upon his breast.  Soon the thought of his enemies and
+their doom brightened his eyes and lifted the corners of his mouth a
+little and set his lips quivering.  He leaned forward upon a table,
+softly, as if in fear that some eye would observe him.  One might have
+heard then that menacing, Herodian rumble in his throat.  He seemed to
+caress the table with his hands.
+
+"Dear Appius!  Good Vergilius!" he muttered, seizing a piece of vellum
+and crushing it in his hand.  "Soon my power shall close upon you.  And
+Arria, my pretty maiden, you shall repair my heart with kisses."
+
+A pet kitten leaped upon the table.  It seemed to startle him, and he
+struck it dead with his hand.
+
+Then he sprang up suddenly and looked about, a feline stealth upon him,
+and ran with catlike paces to the deck.
+
+"Get to work, you sea-rats!" he roared.  "Every man to his place.  If
+we are not gone to sea before the moon is up, some of you will be gone
+to Hades."
+
+In half a moment slaves were up in the rigging and rushing across the
+deck and tumbling into the galley.
+
+And that night Antipater pushed his prow into the deep sea.
+
+Meanwhile Arria and Appius, fearing the power of this new king of
+Judea, and thinking also of the peril of Vergilius, travelled slowly,
+considering what they should do.  Appius feared either to go or to
+return, but Arria was of better courage.
+
+"I must go to him," said she.  "You know not this love in me, dear
+brother.  I would give up my life to be with him.  If he is dead I
+shall never see the seven hills again.  I shall go--" she paused,
+covering her eyes a moment.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"To the city of God," she whispered.
+
+"May all the gods protect us," said her brother.
+
+And the day after Antipater had set sail, they, too, with Cyran, the
+slave-girl, were moving southward in the great, middle sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20
+
+Again the council of the covenant was in session.  Herod, unknown to
+all, sat in the darkness of the council chamber.  The intrigue of
+Salome and the treachery of Manius had led the Lion of Judea to his
+prey.  Swords of fate were in the gloom that surrounded the traitors.
+
+Now there had been, that night, a great discussion of the new king, and
+suddenly a man sitting by the side of Vergilius had risen.  He began
+speaking in a strange voice, which had, however, some quality familiar
+to the young Roman.  Shrill and trembling with emotion, it thrilled
+many with a feeling of religious awe.
+
+"The time is upon us," said he, "when the judges of the council have
+come to the end of their deliberations.  It is for me, therefore, to
+reveal it to you in part.  If there be any here who give not full
+approval, let them freely express their minds."
+
+He did not explain that such were, then and there, to be won by
+argument or put out of the way by daggers.
+
+"I speak of great things, but he that is to follow me shall speak of
+greater.  After weighing all the promises of Holy Writ, and enforcing
+their wisdom by the counsel of other learned men," he continued, "your
+judges declare the fulness of time."
+
+The speaker paused.  He heard a little stir of bodies, a rustle of
+robes in the darkness.
+
+The speaker went on:
+
+"When Herod dies you shall see a rider go swiftly through the streets
+bearing a red banner and crying, 'The king is dead.'  Then shall the
+commander of the cohorts go quickly and take possession of the royal
+palace and await the new king."
+
+Vergilius turned quickly in the direction of the fateful voice.  He had
+begun to suspect a plot.  In a moment he saw to the very depths of its
+cunning.  Here was a band of conspirators meeting in the darkness and
+speaking in disguised voices.  Probably no member had ever seen the
+face of another, and the betrayal of a name was, therefore, impossible.
+Vergilius, now commander of the castle, heard with consternation of his
+part in the programme.  By some movement of the speaker's body an end
+of his girdle was flung against the hand of Vergilius.  Immediately the
+young Roman laid hold of the silken cord.  Tracing it stealthily, to
+make sure of its owner, he drew his dagger and cut the girdle in twain,
+hiding an end of it in his bosom.
+
+"The new king is in Rome," the speaker added.  "Presently you shall
+hear the voice of his herald, whose face I know not, but of whose
+fidelity and wisdom.  I have long been sure.  He will give you further
+revelation of our purposes."
+
+It was cunningly said, for the speaker knew that such a promise would
+delay the vengeance of Herod.
+
+A little silence followed the ceasing of "the shrill voice."  Vergilius
+could hear its owner moving away in the darkness.  Fearful
+possibilities had begun to suggest themselves to the new convert.  Now
+had he the flinty heart and the cunning mind of his fathers.  The
+darkness had begun to smother and sicken him.
+
+"Hear me now, good friends," said a low, calm, but unfamiliar voice,
+"and let my words enter your hearts and be there cherished in secret,
+for I shall tell you a name, and for its safe-keeping you shall answer
+to the Most High.  Know you, then, that the new king is no other than
+the son of Herod and his name is Antipater--a man of great valor,
+learned in all wisdom and all mystery, who loves the people of God.
+His heart has suffered, feeling the wrongs of Israel.  He has the voice
+of wrath, the hand of power, and the claim of a just and natural
+inheritor.  I have his word that we who are bound in this council of
+the covenant shall share in the glory of his reign."
+
+Vergilius, hot with anger, rose to his feet.
+
+"Good sirs," said he, in a piping voice very unlike his own, "let us
+not approve without full understanding.  There may be some here who in
+their zeal have been deceived.  Let us be fair, and warn them that all
+who approve this plan are traitors.  I came here to study the mysteries
+of the one God, and I am learning the mysteries of an evil plot.  'Tis
+a great surprise to me.  I like it not, and shall have no part in it.
+I know not your names or your faces, but I know your plan is murder,
+and if the one God favor it, I can no longer honor Him."
+
+He paused, but there came no answer.  Again he heard a rustle of
+garments in the dark chamber, and, also, a stealthy and suggestive
+grating of steel upon scabbard.  He perceived now the imminence of his
+peril.  He could hear no sound in the darkness.
+
+He stepped quickly aside, hearing not the feet which followed, nor
+feeling him who clung to the skirt of his toga.  He stood silent, with
+dagger drawn.  As he felt about him, he touched a pair of great,
+trembling hands.  He stood motionless, expecting every breath to feel a
+point plunging into his flesh.  Suddenly some one blew a sharp whistle
+close beside him.  Then, for a little, it seemed as if the doors were
+being rent by thunderbolts.  Crowding forms and cries of terror filled
+the darkness.  The young Vergilius kept his place after the first
+outbreak.  Men, rushing past him, had torn the toga from his back.  The
+hands which had clung upon him now held his wrist with a grip
+immovable.  Doors fell and lights were flashing in.  He saw now, on
+every side, a gleam of helmet and cuirass.  Men, retreating from the
+lights, huddled in a dark corner.  Some began to weep and cry to God.
+The scene was awful with swiftness and terror.  The crowding group
+moved like caving sand.  It sank suddenly, every man going to his
+knees.  Quick as the serpent, a line of soldiers flung itself around
+them.  Vergilius, with the man who clung to him, stood apart near the
+middle of the chamber.
+
+Suddenly he heard an impatient, wrathful shout close beside him:
+"Lights here, ye laggards!"
+
+Vergilius jumped as if he had felt the prick of steel.  He turned,
+looking at the man who held his arm.  A squad with torches came
+swiftly, forming about them.  The powerful hands let go; a cloak and
+hood fell upon the floor.
+
+"The king!" said Vergilius, bowing low.
+
+"And you," said Herod, breathing heavily and leaning on the shoulder of
+the young man, "you are the only friend of the king.  To save you from
+the fate of those dogs yonder, I would not let you go."
+
+This unloved and terrible man, still leaning upon the shoulder of
+Vergilius, wept feebly.  It seemed as if the infirmity of old age had
+fallen suddenly upon him.  He muttered, in a weak and piping tone, of
+his great life weariness.  Then he seemed to hear those low cries of
+terror from beyond the line of guards.  He lifted his head, listening.
+He turned quickly, crouching low, and seemed to threaten the soldiers
+near him with his hand.  They stepped aside fearfully.  Then was he,
+indeed, the old lion of Judea, ready to spring upon his prey.
+
+"Stand them here before me," he growled, fiercely.
+
+The conspirators were drawn up in line.  Torches were held before their
+faces.  Vergilius looked with pity at the terrified throng.  There were
+Lugar and two merchants he knew, and that chamberlain of Herod's palace
+who had taken him before the king.  There was also a famous young Roman
+athlete, whom Vergilius had first seen and admired at the circus in
+Rome, and who had lately been a member of the castle guard.  But none
+wore the girdle which Vergilius had cut in twain.
+
+The king stood before them, raging like a man possessed of demons.
+Fate, which had whispered through lips of beauty in the palace at
+Caesarea, now thundered in the voice of power.
+
+"Serpents, murderers, children of the devil!" he roared.  "Soon shall
+your souls wander in hell and your bodies rot in the valley of Hinnom.
+Take them to the torture, and make it slow for such as give us no
+further knowledge.  Away with them!  Let their food be fear and their
+drink be the sweat of agony and their end be death at the games of
+Caesar!"
+
+The will of that graceful and voluptuous maiden had been well if only
+partially expressed.
+
+A guard of soldiers led the unfortunate men away.
+
+Herod, now weak and trembling, took the arm of Vergilius.
+
+"To my palace!" said he, and they made their way to his litter.
+
+"It will do no good to put them to torture," said Vergilius.  "You have
+heard all.  They have met in darkness and the leaders have disguised
+their voices.  No member could be sure of the identity of any save
+himself.  Only two or three, perhaps, could have betrayed other members
+of the order."
+
+"Fool! were they not sure of Vergilius, the commander of the cohorts?"
+said Herod.
+
+"But the plot is uncovered, and now, great sir, I implore you, try the
+remedy of Caesar."
+
+Herod ceased muttering and turned with a look of inquiry.
+
+"Forgive them," Vergilius added.
+
+The king answered with curses.  Then from his chamber, where they had
+now arrived, he drove all save the young Roman.  "Long ago I discovered
+evidence of the treachery of the prince," said he.  "To Antipater--foul
+son of Doris--I despatched this letter."
+
+He spread a sheet of vellum before Vergilius, bidding him read.  It was
+the copy of a letter addressed to his "dutiful and affectionate son
+Antipater."  It recited that, whereas he (Herod) was now become ill and
+weary under his many cares, and needed the companionship of them he
+loved, Antipater should ask, in the name of his father, for a goodly
+escort of cavalry and proceed at once to Jerusalem, there, shortly, to
+receive his inheritance.
+
+"Foul son of Doris!" the king growled, hoarsely, as the young Roman
+turned.  Then his voice broke into a shrill, piping laugh.  "Ha, ha!
+He is coming--even now he is coming to take the crown of his loving
+father!"
+
+Then he leaned forward with a savage leer, as if he saw the object of
+his wrath.  His lips were parted, his mouth open, his breath came
+hissing from his throat.
+
+"Foul son of Doris!" he repeated, beating the floor with his feet.
+"Your lies have drowned me in the blood of those I love.  Swamp plant!
+creeping asp!  Soon shall I put my foot upon you!"
+
+Turning to Vergilius, he continued, presently:
+
+"Be ready, my tribune, to go down to the sea with a cohort.  There meet
+him, as he comes, and let him fall quickly from his height of
+greatness, and chain him, hand and foot, and bring him hence.  You may
+go now."
+
+Vergilius bowed and left the home of Herod.  As he went away he fell to
+thinking of that girdle's end in his bosom.  Although it was past the
+middle hour of night, he hastened to the palace of Manius.  The
+assessor, distraught and pale, started as he met him, and Vergilius saw
+at once that an end of the other's girdle had been cut away.  The young
+tribune drew that piece of braided silk from under his tunic.
+
+"It is yours?" said he, tossing it to Manius.
+
+"I--I had not observed," said the other, nervously, "It is part of the
+girdle I wear in deference to the people among whom I live.  How came
+you by it?"
+
+"Fox!  Your cunning will not save you.  Tell me first how you escaped
+the peril into which you had drawn me."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"But I understand you," said Vergilius, with anger.  "There are but two
+places in the world for you.  One is beyond the boundaries of Rome, the
+other is the valley of Hinnom."  Having said which, he turned, quickly,
+and left the assessor's palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 21
+
+Arria and her brother were far from the shores of Hellas and near the
+Isle of Doom.  Tepas knew that a few leagues more would bring him in
+sight of the familiar cliffs.  Brother and sister were reclining on the
+deck of their trireme.  The tenth day of their journey was near its
+end.  The sun had sunk through misty depths of purple, and now seemed
+to melt and pour a flood of fire upon the waters.
+
+"I am weary," said the girl, looking thoughtfully at the calm sea.
+
+"Of me?" said her brother.
+
+"Nay, but of that groaning of the rowers.  It tells me of aching arms
+in the galley.  I cannot sleep at night, hearing it."
+
+Appius laughed with amusement.  "Little fool!" said he.  "The slaves of
+Tepas are all Jews."
+
+"But they are men," said the beautiful girl; "and do you not
+understand, dear brother?  I love a man."
+
+"Love!" exclaimed Appius, with contempt, "'Tis only as the longing of
+the bird for its mate."
+
+"Nay, I would give all for him I love."
+
+"Not all," said he, with a look of surprise.
+
+"Yes, all--even you, and my mother, and my home, and my country, and my
+life--I am sick with longing.  And when I think of him I cannot bear to
+see men suffer."
+
+"You are gone mad," said Appius, "and I pray the gods to bring you
+back.  It may be the fair Vergilius forgets you."
+
+She turned, quickly, and her voice trembled as she whispered: "Nay, he
+also has the great love in him.  He could not forget."
+
+Cyran, the pretty slave-girl, came soon with their evening repast.
+Arria bade her sit beside them.
+
+"Tell us, dear Cyran," said the Roman beauty--"tell us a tale of old
+Judea."
+
+"Beloved mistress," said Cyran, kneeling by the side of Arria and
+kissing the border of her robe, "listen; I will tell you of the coming
+of the great love.  Long ago there was a maiden of Galilee so beautiful
+that many came far to see her.  Now, it so befell, there came a certain
+priest, young and fair to look upon, who did love her and seek her hand
+in marriage.  And she loved him, even as you love, but would not wed
+him.  O my good mistress!  She knew that a mighty king was coming, and
+she was held of a great hope that God would choose her for the blessed
+mother.  And, still loving the priest, she kept herself pure in thought
+and deed.  Every day they saw each other, but stayed apart, and their
+love grew holier the more it was put down.  And oh, it was a wonder!
+for it filled their hearts with kindness and sent their feet upon
+errands of mercy.  And many years passed, and one day they sat together.
+
+"'My beloved, you are grown old and feeble, and so am I,' said she, 'We
+have pitied every child of sorrow but ourselves.'  And they rose and
+put their arms about each other and went into the dark valley of death,
+heart to heart, that very day, and were seen no more of men.  And they
+in the hills of Galilee, where the lovers dwelt, made much account of
+them, for while she had not borne the great king, still was she long
+remembered as the blessed mother of holy love.  Now, maidens, with
+youth and love and beauty strong upon them, gave all for the great
+hope.  And wonderful stories went abroad, and women were more sacred in
+the eyes of men, seeing that one of them, indeed, must be mother of the
+very Son of God."
+
+The slave-girl covered her face and her body shook with emotion.
+
+"Cyran, why are you crying?" said Arria.
+
+"Because," Cyran replied, her voice trembling--"because I can never be
+the blessed mother."
+
+"Tell me," said Arria, "have you never felt the great love?"
+
+Cyran rose and looked down at her mistress.
+
+"I have felt the pain of it," said she, sadly.  "And my heart--Oh, it
+is like the house of mourning where Sorrow has hushed the Children of
+Joy.  But the sweet pain of love is dear to me."
+
+"Tell me of it."
+
+"Good mistress, I cannot tell you."
+
+"Why, dear Cyran?"
+
+"Because--" the slave-girl hesitated; then timidly and with trembling
+lips she whispered, "because, dear mistress, I--I love you."  She
+seemed to bend beneath her burden and, knelt beside her mistress and
+wept.
+
+"Go--please go," said Appius, turning to Cyran.  "You irritate me, and
+I cannot understand you."
+
+But Arria divined the secret of the poor slave-girl, and pitied her.
+
+Cyran rose and left them.
+
+"The great love may come to you, and then you shall understand," said
+Arria to Appius.
+
+"The great madness!" her brother exclaimed.  "I like not these Jewish
+cattle.  The gods forgive me that we have fallen among them.  With a
+Jew for a pilot we should make a landing in Hades."
+
+Something in his manner alarmed the girl.
+
+"What mean you?" she inquired.
+
+"I will tell you to-morrow," said her brother.  "'Tis time you went to
+your couch and I to mine.  Have no fear."
+
+Now, the young Roman had begun to suspect the pilot of some evil plan.
+After the girl had left him he sat drinking wine for hours.  Soon he
+was in a merry way, singing songs and jesting with all who passed him.
+Long after the dark had come, when Tepas only remained upon deck,
+Appius reeled up and down, singing, with a flask in his hand.  The moon
+had risen.  Eastward her light lay like hammered silver on the ripples.
+
+Appius neared the tall, rugged form of Tepas.  Against the illumined
+waters he could see the long, bent nose, the great beard, the shaggy
+brows, the large, hairy head of his pilot.  Tepas, who ruled his men
+with scourge and pilum, had made himself feared of all save the young
+Roman noble.  Appius halted, looking scornfully at the Jew.  Then he
+shouted:
+
+"A knave, upon my honor!  'Tis better to be drunk, for then one has
+hope of recovery.  You long-haired dog!  Here is something would make
+you bay the moon.  Drink and howl.  You weary me with silence."
+
+Tepas, familiar with the contempt of Romans, took the flask, and,
+pouring into his cup, drank of the rich wine.  Then Appius held the
+flask above his head, and with a word of scorn flung it into the sea.
+He started to cross the deck and fell heavily.  Now, after striving, as
+it seemed, to regain his feet, he lay awhile muttering and helpless and
+soon began to snore.  The deck was deserted by all save him and the
+pilot.  Tepas looked down at the young Roman.  Already, far off in the
+moonlight, he had seen cliffs and knew they were on the Isle of Doom.
+He must be about his business.  He went to where Appius lay and bent
+over him.  The pilot drew his dagger; the youth rolled drowsily and his
+hands were now upon the feet of Tepas.  The latter leaned to strike.  A
+sound startled him.  It was a footfall close behind.  The Jew rose,
+turning to listen.  Suddenly his feet went from under him and he fell
+head-long; quickly two seamen leaped upon him, seizing his head and
+hands.  One disarmed him, the other covered his mouth.  Appius clung
+upon the feet of the Jew.  A Roman slave had taken the wheel.
+
+"Shall we bind him?" said one of the seamen.
+
+"No," said Appius, breathing heavily as the pilot tried to shake him
+off.  "Give the dog a chance.  Yonder is an island.  We shall soon be
+near it, and by swimming he may save his life."
+
+"The gold is upon him," said a seaman; "I can feel it under his tunic."
+
+"But we shall not rob him," was the answer of Appius.
+
+"It is heavy.  It will be like a stone to sink him."
+
+"However, we shall not rob him," the young Roman repeated.
+
+Now, when they were come as near the isle as they dare bring their
+ship, Appius gave a command.  They lifted the body of that cursing
+wretch.  Back and forth they swung it as one counted.  Then over it
+went with reaching hands and fell upon the moonlit plane of water.
+They could see him rise and turn towards the isle, swimming.  Weighted
+by his burden, he swam not twice his length before the sea closed above
+him.
+
+"I thought he had struck you with his dagger," said one of the seamen.
+
+"It would have done no harm," Appius replied.  "I have a corselet under
+my tunic.  Is the ship still leaking?"
+
+"A little, good sire.  We found a wedge in the planks.  He would have
+driven it through, no doubt, if all had gone well with him.  I know not
+why, unless he meant to beach her under the cliffs yonder."
+
+The young Roman stood silent for a little time.  Presently his thought
+came in a whisper to his lips: "And hold my sister until Antipater
+should come."
+
+He called the seamen to his side.
+
+"I, who am a friend of the great father of Rome," said he, "shall see
+you well rewarded.  The little I gave you is not enough.  Without your
+help and warning worse luck than death might soon have come to us."
+
+A light wind was now blowing, and the sails began to fill.
+
+Suddenly all rushed forward, falling upon the deck.  Their trireme had
+lost half her headway and was now crashing over rocks and trembling as
+her bow rose.  She stopped, all her timbers groaning in the shock, and
+rolled sideways and lay with tilted deck above the water.  Cries of
+alarm rose from her galley.  Men fought their way up the ladders and
+scrambled like dripping rats to every place of vantage.  After the
+shock, Appius had leaped to the upper rail, and, rushing forward to the
+door of Arria's deck-house, found her and the slave-girl within it,
+unharmed.  The two were crying with fear, and he bade them dress
+quickly and await his orders.  Then he took command.  Soon a raft and
+small boats were ready alongside the wreck.  Within half an hour Appius
+and the two maidens and part of the crew landed.
+
+Before daylight all were safely carried to the bare, lonely rocks, with
+a goodly store of food and water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 22
+
+It was a clear morning and the tenth day before the kalends of January.
+Since the ides, Vergilius had been lying in camp with a cohort, near
+the port of Ascalon.  Night and day on the headland velites had been
+watching for the trireme of Antipater.  A little before dawn their
+beacon-fires had flamed up.  Since daylight all had been watching the
+far-come vessel of the son of Herod, and, as she came near, they could
+see the pattern of gold upon the royal vestments of Antipater.  Now,
+presently, he would set foot upon the unhappy land of his inheritance.
+The cohort had formed in a long arc at the landing.  Before now, on his
+return, the king's horsemen had greeted him with cheers; to-day he
+greeted them with curses.  Vergilius, hard by, faced the cohort, his
+back turned to the new-comer.  Antipater halted as he came ashore,
+looking in surprise at the tribune.  He seized a lance, and, crouching
+as he ran, with sly feet approached the Roman officer.  He was like the
+cat nearing its prey.  Vergilius, now seeming unmindful of his pursuer,
+walked in the direction of the cohort.  Swiftly, stealthily, the prince
+came near, intending to plunge his lance into the back of the young
+tribune.  Suddenly there rose an outcry among the soldiers.  Vergilius
+turned; the prince halted, breathing heavily, for he had run near a
+hundred paces in the sea-sand.  A roar of rage burst from his lips.
+
+"Dog!" he shouted.  "Bid them cheer me or I will run you through!"  His
+lance threatened.
+
+"There shall be cheers in a moment, son of Herod," said Vergilius,
+calmly and respectfully approaching him.  Antipater, unaware of his
+peril, stood with lance at rest.  With a hand quick as the paw of a
+leopard, Vergilius whirled it away and caught the wrist of the Jew and
+flung him down.  While Antipater struggled in his great robe the
+tribune had disarmed him.  Every man of the cohort was now cheering.
+Antipater rose in terrible wrath and flung off his robe of gold and
+purple.
+
+"Put him in irons!" he shouted.  "I, who shall soon be king of the
+Jews, command you!"
+
+The cohort began to jeer at him; Vergilius commanded silence.
+
+"You lapdog!" Antipater hissed, turning upon the Roman.  "Am I met with
+treason?"
+
+"You give yourself a poor compliment," said Vergilius.  "Better call me
+a lion than a lapdog."  He turned to an officer who stood near and
+added: "You will now obey the orders of the king."
+
+Forthwith, Vergilius went aboard the new-come vessel and seized the
+goods of Antipater and put them on their way to the king.  Meanwhile,
+the soldiers, many of whom had borne with the cruelty and insolence of
+their prisoner, were little inclined to mercy.  He struggled, cursing,
+but they bore him down, binding him hand and knee to an open litter, so
+he stood, like a beast, upon all fours, for such, indeed, was the order
+of the king.  Then they put on him the skin of a wild ass and carried
+him up and down, jeering as the long ears flapped.  Vergilius,
+returning, removed the skin of the ass and loosed the fetters a little,
+and forbade the soldiers any further revenge.
+
+"The skin of a leopard would become you better," said Vergilius to
+Antipater, as he unlashed the coat of shame.
+
+The wrathful Jew, still cursing, tried to bite the friendly hand of his
+keeper.  "My noble prince," said Vergilius, "you flatter me; I am not
+good to eat."
+
+Those crowding near laughed loudly, but Vergilius hushed them and
+signalled to the trumpeter.  Then a call and a rush of horses into
+line.  The litter was lifted quickly and lashed upon the backs of two
+chargers.  In a little time the cohort was on its way to Jerusalem.
+
+Arriving, it massed in front of the royal palace.  Vergilius repaired
+to the king's chamber.  The body of Herod was now become as an old
+house, its timbers sagging to their fall, its tenant trembling at dim
+windows while the storm beat upon it.  Shame and sorrow and remorse
+were racking him down.  King and kingdom were now swiftly changing.
+
+"At last!" he piped, with quivering hands uplifted.  "Slow-footed
+justice!  come--come close to me."
+
+Eagerly he grasped the hands of the young Roman and kissed them.  Then
+he spoke with bitter irony, his words coming fast.  "You met the great
+king?"
+
+"Yes, good sire."
+
+"You put him in chains and brought him hither?"
+
+"And I commend him to your mercy."
+
+"Ha, ha!" the king shrieked, caressing the hand of the Roman.  Now his
+head rose, and for a little his old vigor and menacing voice returned
+to him.  "He has run me through with the blade of remorse and put upon
+me the chains of infirmity," he complained, an ominous, croaking rattle
+in his throat.  "To-day, to-day, my wrath shall descend upon him and my
+gratitude upon you!  These forty years have I been seeking a man of
+honor.  At last, at last, here is the greatest of men!  I, Herod,
+surnamed the Great, king of Judea, conqueror of hosts, builder of
+cities, bare my head before you!"
+
+He removed his jewelled crown; he drew off his purple tarboosh, and
+bowed before the young tribune.  Tenderly Vergilius replaced them on
+the gray head.
+
+"O king," said he, bowing low, "you do me great honor."
+
+Herod closed his eyes and muttered feebly.  Again remorse and age had
+flung their weight upon him.  His hard face seemed to shrink and
+wither, and the young man thought as he looked upon it, "What a great,
+good thing is death!"
+
+The king opened his eyes and piped, feebly: "Help me; help me to win
+the favor of my people!  You shall be procurator, commander of the
+forces, counsellor of kings, priest of God."
+
+The king waited, but Vergilius made no reply.  Now, indeed, was he
+living in a great and memorable moment.  He thought of the power
+offered him--power of doing and undoing, power of raising up and
+putting down, power over good and evil.
+
+"Well," said Herod, impatiently, "what say you?"
+
+"O king!" said Vergilius, "I had hoped soon to return to Rome and marry
+and live in the land of my fathers."
+
+"Hear me, good youth," said Herod, sternly, seizing the hand of the
+young man.  "There is a wise proverb in Judea.  It is: 'Speak not much
+with a woman.'  Had I obeyed it, then had I saved my soul and
+happiness.  Women have been ever false with me--an idle, whispering,
+and mischievous crew!  O youth, give not your heart to them!  For five
+years let Judea be your bride.  She woos you, son of Varro, and she is
+fair.  She asks for love and justice, and she will give you immortal
+fame."
+
+The king fondly pressed the hand of the Roman, who stood beside him,
+grave and thoughtful.  For the young man it was a moment of almost
+overwhelming temptation.  Love and ambition wrestled in his soul.  He
+stood silent.
+
+"For only five years," the king pleaded.  "For five years give me your
+heart.  Man!" he shouted, impatiently, "will you not answer?"
+
+"I will consider," said Vergilius, calmly.
+
+"Go!" said Herod, in a burst of ire.  Then, presently: "Now, now I will
+attend to the son of Doris."
+
+And Vergilius hastened away.
+
+Within the hour, Antipater, son of Herod the Great, was dragged to that
+strong chamber in a remote end of the vast home of Herod whence were to
+come cries for mercy by night such as he had often heard from his own
+victims.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 23
+
+Now in Vergilius and in many of that time the human heart had dropped
+its plummet into new depths of feeling, the human mind had made a reach
+for nobler principles.  A greater love between men and women, spreading
+mysteriously, had been as the uplift of a mighty wave on the deep of
+the spirit.  It had broadened the sympathy of man; it had extended his
+vision beyond selfish limits.  Vergilius and Arria had crossed the
+boundary of barbaric evolution under the leadership of love.  The young
+man was now in the borderland of new attainment.  He was full of the
+joy and the wonder of discovery.  He was like a child--eager for
+understanding and impatient of delay.  Now he thought with the pagans
+and now with the Jews.
+
+At his palace a letter had been waiting for the tribune.  It was from
+his friend Appius.  "My excellent and beloved Vergilius," it said, "I
+address you with a feeling of deep concern for your safety.  To-night
+by tabellarius, my letter shall go down to the sea on its way to
+Jerusalem.  And now to its subject.  This morning I went to the public
+games, and, returning, I was near my palace when a messenger, bearing
+the command of Augustus, overtook and stopped me.  Quickly I made my
+way to The Laurels.  Our great imperator was in his chamber and reading
+letters.  He gave me a glance and greeted me.  I saw he wished me to
+come near, and I stood close beside him.  Then, with that slow, gentle
+tone, he hurled his lightning into me--you remember his way.  He told
+me, as he read, that you were making rapid progress in Jerusalem; that
+you had become a conspirator, a prophet, and were likely soon to be an
+angel.  And he bade me go to you with his congratulations that you have
+succeeded so long in keeping your head upon your shoulders.  Oh, deep
+and cunning imperator!  Said he: 'I cannot tell you the name of my
+informant; and really, my good son, why--why should I?' There, spread
+before me on the table, so I knew he wished me to see it, was a letter
+which bore the signature of Manius and gave information of a certain
+council.  I could not make out the name, but I was able to recall how
+the great father had said to me, once, that when a man secretly puts
+blame upon another, the infamy he charges shall be only half his own.
+Our imperator is no fool, my friend.  'A ship will be leaving the
+seventh day before the ides,' said he.  '_You_ will not be able to make
+it.'  His meaning was clear.  It could bear my warning, if not me, and
+here it is.  With the gods' favor, soon, also, I shall be able to say
+to you, here am I.  To-morrow at dawn I leave for Jerusalem."
+
+Beneath the signature these words were added: "As soon as possible I
+wish to know all and to speak my heart to you.  The emperor has
+withdrawn his consent to your marriage with Arria.  I shall explain
+everything but the purpose of the emperor, and who may understand him?
+If it be due to caprice or doubt or anger he will do you justice.  But
+if a deeper motive is in his mind who knows what may happen?"
+
+This letter kindled a fire in the heart of Vergilius.  It burned
+fiercely, so that prudence and noble feeling were driven out.  In spite
+of the warning of the young tribune, Manius had remained in Jerusalem.
+Vergilius had delayed action, dreading to bring the wrath of Rome upon
+one so young, so well born, so highly honored, and possibly so far
+misled.  Therefore, he had held his peace and waited patiently for more
+knowledge.  Now the evil heart of the assessor was laid bare, his
+infamy proven.  Vergilius reread the letter with flashing eyes.  Then
+he summoned his lecticarii and set out for the palace of the plotter.
+Manius approached him, a kindly greeting on his lips.
+
+"Liar!" Vergilius interrupted, his hand upon his sword.  "Speak no word
+of kindness to me!"
+
+"What mean you, son of Varro?" the other demanded.
+
+"That, with me, you have not even the right of an enemy.  You are a
+deadly serpent, born to creep and hide.  Shame upon you--murderer!  If
+there be many like you, what--God tell me!--what shall be the fate of
+Rome?"
+
+Vergilius stepped away, and, lifting his hands, gave the other a look
+of unspeakable scorn.  Manius made no reply, but stood as still and
+white as marble, with sword in hand.
+
+"It was I who sat beside you that night," said the other, his voice
+aglow with feeling.  "When I heard you speak treason I cut off the end
+of your girdle.  But you left by some unguarded way and escaped the
+fate of your fellows.  You have not seen them since, and shall not.
+When you see them die in the arena think what you escaped, although
+deserving it more than they.  Vile serpent! you brought the king, and
+hoped to send me also to Hades.  You are a traitor, and that I know.
+Traitor to friend and country!  Dare to provoke me further and I shall
+slay you!"
+
+"What would you, son of Varro?" said the other, sullenly.
+
+"Wretch!  If you would save your life, hide as becomes the asp.  Creep
+away from them who would put their feet upon you.  Go live and die with
+the wild men of the far deserts."
+
+"Traitor to the gods!" said Manius, threatening with his sword.  "Roman
+Jew!  I am of noble birth, and claim the right of combat."
+
+"I give it, though you have no better right than dogs.  Well, it would
+please my hand to slay you.  I know the name and father you have
+dishonored, and you are grandnephew of the good Lady Claudia--noble
+mother of Publius.  For their sake I give you the right of combat.  By
+the wayside near Bethlehem are lonely hills.  There, the seventh day
+before the kalends, in the middle hour of the night, you shall see a
+beacon-fire and near it my colors.  Three friends may go with each, and
+you and I will draw swords in the fire-light."
+
+"I shall meet you there," said Manius.  Vergilius, putting away his
+weapon, turned quickly, and, without speaking, left the traitor's
+palace with firm faith in the one God--that he was ever on the side of
+the just who humbly sought his favor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 24
+
+The festival of games, in honor of Augustus, were about to begin at
+Caesarea.  Lately the highway from north to south, which passed the
+gates of Jerusalem, had been as a fair of the nations.  A host had
+journeyed far to amuse the great king or to enjoy his holiday.  Gayer
+and more given to proud speech than they who came to the festivals of
+the Temple, beneath the skull-bone there was yet a more remarkable
+unlikeness.
+
+These were mostly the children of Hatred, each heart a lair of wild
+passions, each brain teeming with catlike gods.  Here were they to be
+lifted up by the power of love--the heathen, the debased.  What a
+gathering of the enemies of God and man!  Crowding at the gates were
+gladiators from Greece and Rome; Arab chiefs upon camels, with horses
+trained for the race; troops of rich men with armed retainers; hunters
+bringing wild beasts in cages lashed upon heavy carts; squads of Roman
+cavalry; gamblers, peddlers, thieves, bandits, musicians, dancers, and
+singers, some walking, some riding horse or camel.  Many had travelled
+far for one purpose--to behold the great king.  Now solemn whispers of
+gossip had gone to every side of the city.  Herod was ill, so said
+they, and had not long to live.  That morning of the day before the
+games the old king had summoned Vergilius.
+
+"I will not be cheated by God or man," said he, fiercely.  "Tell the
+master of the games that I will have him entertain me here to-day,
+after the middle hour, in my palace court.  Bid him bring beast and
+gladiator and the strong men of the prisons.  Let him not forget the
+traitors.  I would have, also, a thousand maids to sing and dance for
+me."
+
+The king looked down, impatiently, at his trembling hands.  He flung a
+wrathful gesture, and again that bestial voice: "Go, bid him bring
+them!"
+
+So at the middle hour a wonderful scene was beginning in the great
+court of Herod's palace.  The king sat on a balcony with Salome, Elpis,
+Roxana, Phaedra, and others of his kindred.  On the circular terraces
+of a great fountain below and in front of them were rows of naked
+maidens.  Circle after circle of this living statuary towered, with
+diminishing radii, above the court level, to an apex, where a stream of
+cool, perfumed water, broken to misty spray, rose aloft, scattering in
+the sunlight.  So cunningly had they contrived to enhance the charm of
+the spectacle, those many graceful shapes were under a fine,
+transparent veil of water-drops lighted by rainbow gleams and sweet
+with musky odor.  Circles were closely massed around the base of the
+fountain.  They stood in silence, all looking down.  The old king
+surveyed them.  Within the palace a hundred harpers smote their
+strings, flooding the scene with music.  Slowly each circumference
+began to move.  Step and measure increased their speed.  The circles
+were now revolving, one around another, with swift and bewildering
+motion.  At a signal the silent figures broke into song.  They sang of
+the glories of Jerusalem and the great king.  Herod's hand was up--he
+would have no more of it.  The song ceased, the circles, one by one,
+rolled into helices which, unbending into slender lines, vanished
+quickly beneath a great arch.  Then a trumpet peal and a rattle of iron
+wheels.  Brawny arms were pushing a movable arena.  Swiftly it came
+into that ample space between the king and the great fountain.  Behind
+its iron bars a large lion paced up and down.  Two hundred mounted men
+of the cohort stood in triple rank some fifty paces from the scene.
+Vergilius, on a white charger, was in front of the column.
+
+While Arab slaves pushed the arena into place, David came and touched
+the arm of the young tribune.  He whispered, eagerly: "My sister, Cyran
+the Beloved, is here.  She is waiting at the castle."
+
+"Whence came she?" said the tribune, with astonishment.
+
+"From the port of Ascalon, where she arrived by trireme with Appius.
+They were wrecked, finding shore in a far country.  There the friend of
+Caesar, Probus Sulpicius Quirinus, discovered them on his way from
+Carthage, and brought them hither."
+
+Appius, fearing Antipater, had waited by the sea while Cyran came to
+find her brother and Vergilius.  The prince's threat and the words of
+Caesar had checked his feet with caution.  He forbade Cyran to tell any
+one of the presence of Arria.
+
+"And where is my friend?" Vergilius demanded.
+
+"He waits on the ship to hear from you--whether it be safe to come.  It
+seems Antipater has threatened him."
+
+"Tell Cyran I would have her come to me.  Then find my orderly and bid
+him bring Appius hither by the way of Bethlehem.  If he arrives there
+before the end of the third watch he will see my fire-light on the
+hill."
+
+David left the scene as a powerful Thracian, standing by the arena's
+gate, saluted the king.  Entering, the gladiator engaged the lion with
+his lance.  Incautiously he pressed his weapon too far, drawing blood.
+Before he could set his lance the wild foe was upon him.  A leap into
+the air, a double stroke of the right fore-paw, and down fell the
+beast, while the man reeled, with rent tunic, and caught the side of
+the arena.  In a twinkling, as he clung feebly, he reddened from head
+to toe.  Three bestiarii had thrust in their lances and held the lion
+back; others opened a gate and removed the dying gladiator.  Herod,
+leaning over, beckoned to the master of the games.
+
+"A noble lion!" said he, his voice trembling.  "Save him for the battle
+of the pit."
+
+Now, in pursuance of the order of the king, a pit had been dug and
+walled with timber near that place where the fighter had met his death.
+A score of slaves forthwith lowered the arena into the pit with ropes.
+Herod and all who sat with him could see the open top of the barred
+space, but the beast was beyond their vision.
+
+Another trumpet-call.  A band of prisoners have entered the court.
+Antipater, tall and erect in exomis of plain gray, right arm and
+shoulder bare, walked in the centre of the front rank.  Traitors of the
+betrayed council were there beside him.  Slowly they about to die came
+forth and stood in even rank and bowed low before the king.  Herod beat
+his palms upon the golden rail before him and muttered hoarsely.  Then
+with raised finger and leering face he taunted them.
+
+"Outlaws!" he croaked.  "I doubt not ye be also cowards."
+
+All drew back save Antipater and a huge Scythian bandit.  They drew
+broadswords and rushed together, fighting with terrific energy.  The
+Scythian fell in a moment.  One after another four conspirators came to
+battle with their chief, but each went down before his terrible attack.
+Some asked for mercy as they fell, but all perished by the hand of him
+they had sought to serve.  Held for the battle of the pit, the young
+Roman whom Vergilius had recognized in the council chamber advanced to
+meet Herod's son.  He had won his freedom in the arena and lost it in
+the conspiracy of the prince.  He was a tall, lithe, splendid figure of
+a man.  The heart of the young commander was touched with pity as he
+beheld the comely youth.  This game, invented by Antipater himself, was
+a test of strength and quickness.  Nets were the only weapons, strong
+sinews and a quick hand the main reliance of either.  Each tried to
+entangle the other in his net and secure a hold.  Then he sought to
+rush or drag his adversary to the edge of the pit and force him down.
+Weapons lay on every side of the arena below.  The unfortunate had,
+therefore, a chance to defend himself against the lion.
+
+On the signal to begin, Jew and Roman wrestled fiercely, their weapons
+on their arms, but neither fell.  Suddenly Antipater broke away and
+flung his net.  Nimbly the other dodged.  Down came the net, grazing
+his head.  Swiftly he sprang upon the Jew, striving to entangle him.
+Antipater pulled away.  Again the Roman was upon his enemy and the two
+struggled to the very noses of the cohort.  Hard by the centre of the
+column, where sat Vergilius on his charger, the powerful prince threw
+his adversary, and, choking him down, secured the net over his head.
+Swiftly he began to drag the fallen youth.  Vergilius, angered by the
+prince's cruelty, could no longer hold his peace.
+
+"'Tis unfair," said he, pointing at Antipater.  "In the name of the
+fatherly Augustus, I protest."
+
+The prince, still dragging his foe, answered with insulting threats.
+The young commander leaped from his horse and ran to the side of
+Antipater.  The latter released his captive and drew sword.  Swiftly
+Vergilius approached him and the two met with a clash of steel.
+
+Now the first battle in that war of the spirit, which was to shake the
+world with fury had begun.
+
+Back and forth across the court of Herod they fought their way--the son
+of light and the son of darkness.  Sparks of fire flew from their
+weapons while a murmur in the cohort grew to a loud roar and the old
+king and his women stood with hands uplifted shrieking like fiends of
+hell.  Hand and foot grew weary; their speed slackened.  Slowly, now,
+they moved in front of the cohort and back to the middle space.  They
+were evenly matched; both began to reel and labor heavily, their
+strength failing in like degree.  The end was at hand.  Now the angel
+of death hovered near, about to choose between them.  Suddenly
+Antipater, pressing upon his man, fell forward.  At the very moment
+Vergilius, who had been giving quarter, reeled a few paces and was down
+upon his back.  Prince and tribune lay apart some twenty cubits.  Both
+tried to rise and fell exhausted.  Half a moment passed.  Antipater had
+risen to his elbow.  Slowly he gained a knee, while the other lay as
+one dead.  He rested, staring with vengeful eyes at his enemy.
+Stealthily he felt for his weapon.  The right hand of Vergilius began
+to move.  A hush fell upon the scene.  Swiftly, from beside the cohort
+a fair daughter of Judea, in a white robe, ran across the field of
+battle.  She knelt beside Vergilius and touched his pale face with her
+hands.  Then she called to him: "Rise, O my beloved!  Rise quickly!  He
+will slay you!"
+
+"Cyran!" he whispered.
+
+Antipater had gained his feet and now ran to glut his anger.  Cyran
+rose upon her knees and put her beautiful body between the steel and
+him she loved.  The sword seemed to spring at her bosom.  She seized
+it, clinging as if it were a thing she prized.  Vergilius had risen.
+Swiftly sword smote upon sword.  The young Roman pressed his enemy,
+forcing him backward.  From dying lips he heard again the old chant of
+faith:
+
+
+  "Let me not be ashamed--I trust in Thee, God
+      of my fathers;
+  Send, quickly send the new king" . . .
+
+
+The words seemed to strengthen his arm.  He fought as one having power
+above that of men.  On and on he forced his foe with increasing energy.
+He gave him no chance to stop or turn aside.  Yells of fury drowned the
+clash of steel.  The tumult grew.  The son of Herod was near the pit.
+He seemed to tempt the Roman to press him.  Suddenly he leaped backward
+to the very edge.  The Roman rushed upon him.  Before their swords met,
+Antipater sprang aside with the quickness of a leopard.  In cunning he
+had outdone his foe.  Unable to check his onrush, Vergilius leaped
+forward and fell out of sight.  A booming roar from the startled lion
+rose out of the pit and hushed the tumult of the people.  Herod,
+pointing at his son, shrieked with rage as he bade the soldiers of the
+cohort to seize and put him in irons.
+
+A score of slaves hastened to the mouth of the pit.  They caught the
+ropes and quickly lifted the arena.  As it came into view the tumult
+broke out afresh.  There far spent, resting on his bloody weapon, near
+the middle of the arena stood Vergilius, and the lion lay dead before
+him.
+
+Slaves opened the iron gate.  Vergilius ran to the still form of the
+slave-girl.  He knelt beside her and kissed her lifeless hand.
+
+"Poor child of God!" he whispered.  "If indeed you loved me, I have no
+wonder that you knelt here to die."
+
+The master brought a wreath of laurel to the young tribune, saying:
+"'Tis from the king."  Vergilius seemed not to hear.  Tenderly he
+raised the lifeless body of Cyran in his arms.  The spectators were
+cheering.  "Hail, victor!" they shouted.
+
+"Hail, victor!" he whispered, looking into the dead face.  "Blessed be
+they who conquer death."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 25
+
+The day was near its end.  Soldiers of the cohort, bearers of the dead,
+harpers and singers filed through the gate of Herod's palace.  Hard by,
+in Temple Street, were many people.  An old man stood among them, his
+white beard falling low upon a purple robe, his face turned to the sky.
+He sang as if unconscious of all around him.  Often he raised his hand,
+which trembled like a leaf in the wind.  Horses, maidens, and men
+halted to hear the words:
+
+
+  "Now is the day foretold of them who dwell in
+      the dust of the vineyard.
+  Bow and be silent, ye children of God and ye of
+      far countries.
+  Consider how many lie low in the old, immemorial vineyard.
+  Deep--fathom deep--is the dust of the dead
+      'neath the feet of the living.
+
+  "Gone are they and the work of their hands--all
+      save their hope and desire have perished.
+  Only the flowers of the heart have endured--
+      only they in the waste of the ages,
+  Ay--they have grown, but the hewn rock has
+      crumbled away and the temples have fallen.
+  Bow, haughty people; ye live in the day of
+      fulfilment--the day everlasting.
+  Soon the plough of oppression shall cease and
+      the ox shall abandon the furrow.
+  Ready the field, and I sing of the sower whose
+      grain has been gathered in heaven.
+
+  "Now is he come, with my voice and my soul I declare him.
+  Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, the Everlasting
+      Father, the Prince of Peace."
+
+
+The flood of inspiration had passed.  The singer turned away.  "It is
+Simeon," said a voice in the crowd.  "He shall not die until his eyes
+have beheld the king of promise."
+
+Those departing from the games of Herod resumed their march.  At the
+gate of the castle of Antonia, Vergilius, with David and two armed
+equites, one bearing colors, left the squadron.  They rode slowly
+towards the setting sun.  Now there was not in all the world a city so
+wonderful as Jerusalem.  Golden dome and tower were gleaming above
+white walls on the turquoise blue of the heavens.
+
+"Good friend, I grieve for her who is dead," said Vergilius to David.
+
+"She died for love," the other answered as one who would have done the
+same.
+
+Vergilius looked not to right nor left.  His dark, quivering plume was
+an apt symbol of thought and passion beneath it.  His blood was hot
+from the rush and wrath of battle, from hatred of them who had sought
+his life.  He could hear the cry of Cyran; "Rise, rise, my beloved!"
+Again, he was like as he had been there on the field of battle.  He
+could not rise above his longing for revenge.  He hated the emperor
+whose cruel message had wrung his heart; he hated Manius, who had
+sought to destroy him; he despised the vile and stealthy son of Herod,
+who had plotted to rob him of love and life; he had begun to doubt the
+goodness of the great Lawgiver.
+
+No sooner had he found an enemy than his God was become a god of
+vengeance.  The council, the continued failure of his prayers, the
+cruelty of impending misfortune, the death of Cyran had weakened the
+faith of Vergilius.  He had begun to founder in the deep mystery of the
+world.  The voice of the old singer had not broken the spell of bitter
+passion.  Vergilius trembled with haste to kill.  He feared even that
+his anger would abate and leave him unavenged.  There were memories
+which bade him to forgive, and of them was the gentle face of Arria,
+but he turned as one who would say "Begone!"  He had not time even to
+consider what he should do to oppose the will of the emperor.  As they
+rode on, his companion addressed the young commander.
+
+"Saw you Manius in the balcony of Herod?"
+
+"No."
+
+"As I passed beneath it I saw him by the side of Salome, and I heard
+her say: 'Not until you slay him shall I be your wife.'  I fear she
+means you ill, good friend."
+
+"She-cat!" exclaimed Vergilius.  "'Tis a yowling breed that haunts the
+house of Herod."
+
+They came soon to where a throng was gathered thick, so for a little
+they saw not a way to pass.  In the midst were three men sitting upon
+tall, white camels, their trappings rich with colored silk and shining
+metal.
+
+"They speak, to the people," said David.  "It must be their words are
+as silver and gold."
+
+"I doubt not they be story-tellers from the desert," said one behind.
+
+The press parted; the camels had begun to move slowly.  One of their
+riders hailed the young commander, saying, in a voice that rang like a
+trumpet:
+
+"Where is he that is born king of the Jews?"
+
+"I would I knew," was the answer of Vergilius.
+
+"So shall ye soon," said the stranger.  "We have seen his star in the
+east and have come to worship him."
+
+The camels passed with long, stately strides.  The horsemen resumed
+their journey.
+
+"Strange!" thought Vergilius, turning his charger and looking back.
+"They be surely those who have travelled far."
+
+The squad of cavalry, under plume and helmet, moved on, passing the
+Joppa gate and riding slowly down a long hill.
+
+"See the glowing clouds yonder," said Vergilius, pointing westward.
+
+"Ay, they be fair as the tents of Kedar," was the answer of David.
+
+"There is a great beauty in the sky and the blue hills," Vergilius
+remarked, thoughtfully.
+
+"And you would kill, look not upon them--they are so fair."
+
+"If I close my eyes, then, I do see a thing more fair."
+
+"What?"
+
+"The face of one I love.  It is a love greater than all other
+things--fame or king or fatherland."
+
+"Or revenge?" inquired David.
+
+For a little Vergilius made no answer; but presently he said: "I am a
+Roman; who seeks my life shall lose his own."
+
+They came upon a ewe lying in the roadway.  She looked up with a mute
+appeal, but moved not.  She seemed to reckon upon the kindness of them
+approaching.  The squad parted, passing on either side.  All drew rein,
+and one, dismounting, stood a moment looking down at her.  Then laying
+hold of her fleece, he moved the ewe tenderly aside.
+
+"A sign and a wonder!" said the Roman knight, as they continued their
+journey.  "That old fighter has no hand for kindness."
+
+"But mark this miracle of God," said the friend of Vergilius.  "He
+softens the heart of those with young and makes gentle the hand that
+touches them.  Ay, has he not softened the heart of the world?  'Tis
+like a mother whose time is near."
+
+Soon a purple dusk had overflooded the hills and risen above the
+splendor of Jerusalem.  The old capital was now like a dim, mysterious,
+golden isle in a vast, azure sea.  Vergilius thought, as he went on, of
+those camel-riders.  He seemed to hear in the lift and fall of hoofs,
+in the rattle of scabbards, that strange cry: "Where is he that is born
+king of the Jews?"
+
+Darkness fell upon those riding in silence on the lonely road.
+Suddenly they drew rein, listening.
+
+Said Vergilius, whispering: "I thought I heard voices."
+
+"And I," said David, his words touched with awe.  "'Twas like tens of
+thousands singing in some distant place."
+
+Again they listened, but the song, if song it was, had ceased.
+
+Then, boldly, as one who would put down his fear, the color-bearer
+spoke up; "'Tis a band of shepherd folk on some far hill.  Never saw I
+so dark a night.  By the curtains of Solomon, I cannot see my horse!"
+
+"There is no star in the sky," said another.
+
+Then said the young commander, whist with awe: "Look yonder!  A light
+on the hills!  I saw it appear."
+
+Amazement was in the tone of David: "Nay, 'tis a window of paradise!
+Or maybe that time is come when the three great stars should gather
+side by side.  Do you not remember the talk of the astrologers?"
+
+"I say 'tis a light on the hills."  Vergilius now spoke in a husky,
+solemn whisper.  "See, 'tis larger; and I would think it near the
+village of Bethlehem."
+
+After a moment of silence he added, with a laugh: "Why stand we here
+and whisper, like a lot of women?  Let us move on."
+
+Again he seemed to hear peals of song in the sky and their rhythm in
+hoof and scabbard.  It put him in mind of that strange, mysterious
+chant of the old singer.
+
+Soon he drew rein, saying: "Halt and listen!"  They stopped, conscious
+only of the great silence of the night.  Vergilius felt for the arm of
+his friend.
+
+"What think you?" said he, his voice full of wonder.  "I doubt not the
+sound is in our fancy."
+
+"See!  The star!  It grows!" said David, eagerly.  "'Tis like a mighty
+lantern hung in the dome of the sky."
+
+Then said Vergilius, a pagan fancy filling his mind: "It may be God is
+walking upon the earth."
+
+A moment they rode on, looking up at the heavens.  Suddenly Vergilius
+bade them halt again, saying: "Hist!  What is that cry?"
+
+Now they could hear a faint halloo far behind them.
+
+Then the bearer of the colors remarked: "It might be the squad of
+Manius."
+
+"God curse him!" said Vergilius, quickly, his heart filling with
+passion dark as the night around.  He heard no more the great song, but
+only the smite of steel in deadly combat.  He seemed to see his enemy
+fall bleeding at his feet.  "I will take what Herod offers," he
+thought.  "I will make war on the cats and the serpents."
+
+He had forgotten everything now save his bitterness.
+
+"See!  'Tis gone!" said his friend, in a loud whisper.  "The star is
+gone!  I saw it disappear as if a cloud were suddenly come over it."
+
+All drew rein, looking into the sky.  Many stars were now uncovered in
+the vault above them.
+
+"'Twas a light on the hills," said Vergilius, with a vague fear in him.
+"Yonder I can see a smaller one.  'Tis a lantern.  Look!  It moves."
+
+Suddenly they were startled by a mighty voice that seemed to travel far
+into dark and lonely caverns of the sky.  Like a trumpet-call it
+resounded over the gloomy hills---that cry of the camel-rider:
+
+"Where is he that is born king of the Jews?"
+
+Vergilius whispered, his awe returning: "They are coming--those men who
+rode the camels."
+
+Said David, his voice trembling: "They are like many who have gone
+abroad with that ancient hope in them."
+
+The horsemen now stood, breathing low as they listened.  Vergilius was
+full of wonder, thinking of the awe which had fallen upon him and the
+others.  He tried to throw it off.  "We waste time," said he, starting
+his charger.  "Come, good men, we have work to do."
+
+Awhile they rode in silence, their eyes on the light of the lantern.
+Slowly they came near, and soon saw its glow falling upon rocks and
+moving shadows beneath it.
+
+Then said David, turning to Vergilius: "The battle--suppose it goes ill
+with you?"
+
+"Ill!" said the Roman, with rising ire.  "Then Jehovah is no better
+than Mars."
+
+They could now see people standing in the light of a lantern which hung
+above the entrance of a cave.  Its opening was large enough to admit a
+horse and rider.
+
+"Soldiers of Caesar!"--the whisper went from mouth to mouth there in
+the light of the lantern.
+
+The horsemen halted.
+
+"I shall soon be done with this traitor to friend and king," thought
+the tribune, dismounting and approaching the cave.
+
+That group of people under the light, seeing symbols of Roman authority
+and hearing its familiar voice, fell aside with fear in their faces.  A
+woman standing in the entrance of the cave addressed Vergilius, her
+voice trembling with emotion.
+
+"Good sir," said she, "if you mean harm to those within I pray you go
+hence."
+
+"I know not who is within," he answered, as both he and David passed
+her.  Fearing treachery, they drew their swords.  Just beyond the
+entrance of the cave both halted.  A man stood before them, his face
+full of high authority, his hand raised as if to command silence.  He
+was garbed like a toiler and somewhat past middle age, his beard and
+eyebrows long and gray.  A lantern hung near his head, and well beyond
+him, resting peacefully on the farther floor of the cave, were horses,
+sheep, and oxen.  The man spoke not save by the beckon of his hand.
+Without a word they followed him.  The light of the lantern seemed now
+to glow with exceeding brightness.  They stopped.  On the straw before
+them lay a beautiful young maiden, a child upon her breast.  Her arms,
+which encircled the babe, her hands, her head, her whole body, and the
+soul within had a glow of fondness.  Nature had clothed her for its
+great event with a fulness of beauty wonderful and yet familiar.  In
+her soft, blue eyes they saw that peace and love which are a part of
+the ancient, common miracle of God.  They saw more, even the light of
+the world, but were not able to understand.  Calmly she looked up at
+them.  Waving strands and masses of golden hair lay above her shoulders
+and about the head of the child upon her bosom.  It was lustrous,
+beautiful hair, and seemed to glow as the bearded man came near with
+the lantern.  What was there in the tender, peaceful look of the
+mother, what in her full breasts, what in the breathing of the child,
+what in the stir of those baby hands to make the soldier bare and bow
+his head?  He leaned against the rock wall of the cave and covered his
+eyes and thought of his beloved Arria, of his dream of home and peace
+and little children.  The sword fell from his hand.  A great sickness
+of the soul came on him as he thought of those evil days in Jerusalem
+and of his part in their bloody record.  There and then he flung off
+the fetters of king and emperor.
+
+He knew not yet who lay before him.
+
+As he looked through tears upon them they seemed to be covered with
+light as with a garment.  David knelt before the mother and child in
+adoration.
+
+Vergilius, full of astonishment, turned to look around him, and saw
+Manius, who stood near, trembling with superstitious awe.  The wonders
+of the night, the great star and song in the heavens, the glowing cave,
+the mysterious child and mother had wrought upon him.  Were they omens
+of death?
+
+"Apollo save me!" he whispered, turning to go.
+
+David rose and approached Manius, and spoke with lifted hand.
+
+"Apollo cannot save you," said he.  "Kneel! kneel before the sacred
+mother and put all evil out of your hearts!"
+
+Vergilius knelt, and then his enemy.  Manius began to weep.
+
+"O God! who hast softened the heart of the world, give us peace!" said
+David.
+
+Again they heard that voice which had greeted their ears in Jerusalem.
+It spoke now at the entrance of the cave, saying again: "Where is he
+that is born king of the Jews?"
+
+David, going to the door of the cave, answered: "Here, within."
+
+"Tis he--the new king!" the tribune whispered.  "I thought kings were
+born in palaces, and here are they so near the beasts of the field."
+
+Soon came David, and behind him, following in single file, three men, a
+God-sent majesty in step and countenance.  Vergilius and Manius moved
+aside, saluting solemnly as the men passed.  The young tribune turned
+to his friend and to Manius.
+
+"Come," he whispered.  "The Judge of all the earth is here, and, as for
+me, I dare not remain."
+
+Softly, silently, they departed, their hearts lifted to that peace none
+may understand.  Gently, gently, Vergilius took the hand of him who had
+been his enemy.  They had forgotten their bitterness and the touch of
+awe had made them kin.
+
+"All debts are paid, my brother," said Vergilius.  "I forgive you."
+
+He struck his sword deep in the earth.  "Henceforth it shall be for a
+ploughshare," he added.
+
+The assessor bowed low, kissing the hand of Vergilius, who quickly
+mounted horse.
+
+Then said the latter, turning to his followers: "Come, let us make
+haste.  Before the gold is shining in the great lantern of Shushan.  I
+must be on my way to the sea."
+
+"On your way to the sea!" said his friend.
+
+As he answered, the voice of Vergilius had a note of longing and
+beloved memories: "Yes, for the day is come when I return to the city
+of Caesar.  Nothing shall separate me longer from my beloved.  But
+come, let us seek Appius at the beacon-fire."
+
+On all sides the great shadow was now thick-sown with stars.  The group
+of horsemen, with colors flying, rode swiftly down the broad way to
+Jerusalem.  Suddenly they drew rein.  Great surges of song were rolling
+in upon this rounded isle from off the immeasurable, mighty deep of the
+heavens.  Beating of drums, and waving of banners, and trumpet-sounds,
+and battle-cries of them unborn were in that new song--so it seemed to
+those who heard it.  Winding over the gloomy hills near them under the
+light of the great star, they could see a long procession of shepherds
+bearing crooks.  Awhile the horsemen looked and listened.  The host of
+the dead now seemed to cry unto the host of the living:
+
+"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good-will towards men."
+
+Slowly the song diminished.
+
+"The everlasting gates are lifted up," said David, thoughtfully.  Then,
+thinking of the perils of the new king, he added: "I beseech you, say
+nothing of these things abroad."
+
+The song had ceased.  A cloud, with all its borders bright, now
+curtained the great star.  Another band of horsemen were descending the
+hill from Bethlehem.  Swiftly they came near and halted.
+
+"God send you peace," said the voice of a maiden.  "We seek one
+Vergilius, officer of the cohort."
+
+"And who is he that you should seek him?" said the young tribune,
+dismounting quickly.
+
+"My lover," said she, a note of trouble in her voice, "and I do fear
+his life is in peril."
+
+Vergilius was at her side.  Now the light of the great star shone full
+upon them.
+
+"Blood of my heart!" he whispered, lifting the maiden from her horse.
+
+"Oh, you that have made me love you with the great love!" she cried,
+pressing her cheek upon his.  "I have been as one lost in the desert,
+and I thank the one God he has led me to you."
+
+A moment they stood together and all were silent.
+
+"God has answered my prayer," said he.  "But how came you here?"
+
+Then she whispered: "I came with Appius, and the emperor has written
+that we are to bring you home."
+
+"And we shall live no more apart," said he.  "'Tis a night of ten
+thousand years, dear love.  The Christ is come."
+
+"The Christ is come!" she repeated.  "How know you?"
+
+"Have you not seen his light in the heavens nor heard the mighty song?"
+
+"Yes, and all the night we have been full of wonder.  Listen!"
+
+Again the air trembled with that peal of song:
+
+"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards
+men."
+
+Slowly it sank into silence.  Vergilius drew the maiden close and
+touched her ear with his lips and whispered: "Love has opened our
+hearts to the knowledge of mighty things.  It has led us to the Prince
+of Peace."
+
+Then said the maiden: "Let us build a temple wherein to worship him,
+and make it a holy place."
+
+"And call it home," said the young knight, as he kissed her.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vergilius, by Irving Bacheller
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VERGILIUS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16491-8.txt or 16491-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/9/16491/
+
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+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vergilius, by Irving Bacheller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Vergilius
+       A Tale of the Coming of Christ
+
+Author: Irving Bacheller
+
+Release Date: August 8, 2005 [EBook #16491]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VERGILIUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Vergilius
+
+A Tale of the Coming of Christ
+
+
+By
+
+Irving Bacheller
+
+
+
+
+
+Author of
+
+"Eben Holden" "D'ri and I" "Darrel of the Blessed Isles"
+
+
+
+
+
+New York and London
+
+Harper & Brothers Publishers
+
+1904
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1904, by IRVING BACHELLER.
+
+
+All rights reserved.
+
+Published August, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+Vergilius
+
+A Tale of the Coming of Christ
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+Rome had passed the summits and stood looking into the dark valley of
+fourteen hundred years.  Behind her the graves of Caesar and Sallust
+and Cicero and Catullus and Vergil and Horace; before her centuries of
+madness and treading down; round about her a multitude sickening of
+luxury, their houses filled with spoil, their mouths with folly, their
+souls with discontent; above her only mystery and silence; in her
+train, philosophers questioning if it were not better for a man had he
+never been born--deeming life a misfortune and extinction the only
+happiness; poets singing no more of "pleasantries and trifles," but
+seeking favor with poor obscenities.  Soon they were even to celebrate
+the virtue of harlots, the integrity of thieves, the tenderness of
+murderers, the justice of oppression.  Leading the caravan were types
+abhorrent and self-opposed--effeminate men, masculine women, cheerful
+cynics, infidel priests, wealthy people with no credit, patricians,
+honoring and yet despising the gods, hating and yet living on the
+populace.  Here was the spectacle of a republican empire, and an
+emperor gathering power while he affected to disdain it.
+
+The splendor of the capital had attracted from all nations the idle
+rich, gamblers, speculators, voluptuaries, profligates, intriguers,
+criminals.  To such an extreme had luxury been carried that nothing was
+too sacred, nothing too costly to be enjoyed.  Digestion had become a
+science, courtship an art, sleep a nightmare, comfort an
+accomplishment, and the very act of living an industry.  Almost one may
+say that the gods lived only in the imagination of the ignorant and the
+jests of the learned.  In a growing patriciate home had become a
+weariness, marriage a form, children a trouble, and the decline of
+motherhood an alarming fact.  Augustus tried the remedy of legislation.
+Henceforth marriage became a duty to the state.  As between men and
+women, things were near a turning-point.  Woman cannot long endure
+scorn nor the absence of veneration.  A law older than the tablets of
+stone shall be her defence.  Love is the price of motherhood.  Soon or
+late, unless it be mingled in some degree with her passion, the
+wonderful gift is withdrawn and men cease to be born of her.  Slowly,
+both the bitterness and the understanding of its loss turn the world to
+virtue.  A new and lofty sentiment was appearing.  Woman, weary of her
+part in the human comedy, had begun to inspire a love sublime as the
+miracle in which she is born to act.
+
+Happily, there were good people in Rome, even noble families, with whom
+sacrifice had still a sacred power, and who practised the four virtues
+of honor, bravery, wisdom, and temperance.  In rural Latium, rich and
+poor clung to the old faith, and everywhere a plebeian feared alike the
+assessor and the gods, and sacrificed to both.
+
+It is no wonder the gods were falling when even Jupiter had been
+outdone by a modest man who dwelt on the Palatine.  One might have seen
+him there any day--a rather delicate figure with shiny blue eyes and
+hair now turning gray.  He flung his lightning with unerring aim across
+the great purple sea into Arabia, Africa, and Spain, and northward to
+the German Ocean and eastward to the land of the Goths.  The genius of
+this remarkable man had outdone the imagination of priest and poet.  A
+genius for organization, like that of his illustrious uncle, gave to
+Augustus a power greater than human hands had yet wielded.
+
+A bit of gossip had travelled far and excited his curiosity.  It spoke
+of a new king, with power above that of men, who was to conquer the
+world.  Sayings of certain learned men came out of Judea into the land
+of lost hope.  They told of the king of promise--that he would bring to
+men the gift of immortal life, that the heavens would declare his
+authority.  Superstitious to the blood and bone, not a few were
+thrilled by the message.
+
+The minds of thinking men were sad, fearful, and beset with curiosity.
+"If there be no gods," they were wont to ask, "have we any hope and
+responsibility?"  They studied the philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Zeno,
+Epicurus, and were unsatisfied.
+
+The nations were at peace, but not the souls of men.  A universal and
+mighty war of the spirit was near at hand.  The skirmishers were
+busy--patrician and plebeian, master and slave, oppressor and
+oppressed.  Soon all were to see the line of battle, the immortal
+captains, the children of darkness, the children of light, the
+beginning of a great revolution.
+
+Rome was like a weary child whose toys are gods and men, and who, being
+weary of them, has yet a curiosity in their destruction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+Those days it was near twelve o'clock by the great dial of history.
+One day, about mid-afternoon, the old capital lay glowing in the
+sunlight.  Its hills were white with marble and green with gardens, and
+traced and spotted and flecked with gold; its thoroughfares were bright
+with color--white, purple, yellow, scarlet--like a field of roses and
+amarantus.
+
+The fashionable day had begun; knight and lady were now making and
+receiving visits.
+
+Five litters and some forty slaves, who bore and followed them, were
+waiting in the court of the palace of the Lady Lucia.  Beyond the walls
+of white marble a noble company was gathered that summer day.  There
+were the hostess and her daughter; three young noblemen, the purple
+stripes on each angusticlave telling of knightly rank; a Jewish prince
+in purple and gold; an old philosopher, and a poet who had been reading
+love lines.  It was the age of pagan chivalry, and one might imperil
+his future with poor wit or a faulty epigram.  Those older men had long
+held the floor, and their hostess, seeking to rally the young knights,
+challenged their skill in courtly compliment.
+
+"O men, who have forgotten the love of women these days, look at her!"
+
+So spoke the Lady Lucia--she that was widow of the Praefect Publius,
+who fell with half his cohort in the desert wars.
+
+She had risen from a chair of ebony enriched by cunning Etruscan
+art--four mounted knights charging across its heavy back in armor of
+wrought gold.  She stopped, facing the company, between two columns of
+white marble beautifully sculptured.  Upon each a vine rose, limberly
+and with soft leaves in the stone, from base to capital.  Her daughter
+stood in the midst of a group of maids who were dressing her hair.
+
+"Arria, will you come to me?" said the Lady Lucia.
+
+The girl came quickly--a dainty creature of sixteen, her dark hair
+waving, under jewelled fillets, to a knot behind.  From below the knot
+a row of curls fell upon the folds of her outer tunic.  It was a filmy,
+transparent thing--this garment--through which one could see the white
+of arm and breast and the purple fillets on her legs.
+
+"She is indeed beautiful in the yellow tunic.  I should think that
+scarlet rug had caught fire and wrapped her in its flame," said the
+poet Ovid.
+
+"Nay, her heart is afire, and its light hath the color of roses," said
+an old philosopher who sat by.  "Can you not see it shining through her
+cheeks?"
+
+"Young sirs," said the Lady Lucia, with a happy smile, as she raised
+her daughter's hand, "now for your offers."
+
+It was a merry challenge, and shows how lightly they treated a sacred
+theme those days.
+
+First rose the grave senator, Aulus Valerius Maro by name.
+
+"Madame," said he, stepping forward and bowing low, "I offer my heart
+and my fortune, and the strength of my arms and the fleetness of my
+feet and the fair renown of my fathers."
+
+The Lady Lucia turned to her daughter with a look of inquiry.
+
+"Brave words are not enough," said the fair Roman maiden, smiling, as
+her eyes fell.
+
+Then came the effeminate Gracus, in head-dress and neckerchief, frilled
+robe and lady's sandals.  He was of great sires who had borne the Roman
+eagles into Gaul.
+
+"Good lady," said he, "I would give my life."
+
+"And had I more provocation," said Arria, raising a jewelled bodkin, "I
+would take it."
+
+Now the splendid Antipater, son of Herod the Great, was up and
+speaking.  "I offer," said he, "my heart and wealth and half my hopes,
+and the jewels of my mother, and a palace in the beautiful city of
+Jerusalem."
+
+"And a pretty funeral," the girl remarked, thoughtfully.  "Jerusalem is
+half-way to Hades."
+
+The Roman matron turned, and put her arm around the waist of the girl
+and drew her close.  A young man rose from his chair and approached
+them.  He was Vergilius, son of Varro, and of equestrian knighthood.
+His full name was Quintus Vergilius Varro, but all knew the youth by
+his nomen.  Tall and erect, with curly blond locks and blue eyes and
+lips delicately curved, there was in that hall no ancestral mask or
+statue so nobly favored.  He had been taught by an old philosopher to
+value truth as the better part of honor--a view not common then, but
+therein was a new light, spreading mysteriously.
+
+"Dear Lady Lucia," said he, "I cannot amuse you with idle words.  I
+fear to speak, and yet silence would serve me ill.  I offer not the
+strength of my arms nor the fleetness of my feet, for they may fail me
+tomorrow; nor my courage, for that has never been tried; nor the renown
+of my fathers, for that is not mine to give; nor my life, for that
+belongs to my country; nor my fortune, for I should blush to offer what
+may be used to buy cattle.  I would give a thing greater and more
+lasting than all of these.  It is my love."
+
+The girl turned half away, blushing pink.  All had flung off the mask
+of comedy and now wore a look of surprise.
+
+"By my faith!" said the poet, "this young knight meant his words."
+
+"A man of sincerity, upon my soul!" said the old philosopher.  "I have
+put my hope in him, and so shall Rome.  A lucky girl is she, for has he
+not riches, talent, honor, temperance, courage, and the beauty of a
+god?  And was I not his teacher?"
+
+"My brave Vergilius," the matron answered, "you are like the knights of
+old I have heard my father tell of.  They had such a way with
+them--never a smile and a melancholy look in their faces when they
+spoke of love.  I give you the crown of gallantry, and, if she be
+willing, you shall walk with her in the garden.  That is your reward."
+
+Vergilius, advancing, took the girl's hand and kissed it.
+
+"Will you go with me?" said he.
+
+"On one condition," she answered, looking down at the folds of her
+tunic.
+
+"And it is?"
+
+"That you will entertain me with philosophy and the poets," she
+answered, with a smile.
+
+"And with no talk of love," the matron added, as Arria took his arm.
+
+They walked through the long hall of the palace, over soft rugs and
+great mosaics, and between walls aglow with tints of sky and garden.
+These two bore with them a tender feeling as they passed the figures of
+embattled horse and host in carven wood, and mural painting and colored
+mosaic and wrought metal--symbols of the martial spirit of the empire
+now oddly in contrast with their own.  They came out upon a peristyle
+overlooking an ample garden wherein were vines, flowers, and fruit
+trees.
+
+"You have a way of words," said she.  "It is almost possible to believe
+you."
+
+He stopped and for a long moment looked into her eyes.  "I love you,
+sweet girl," he said, softly; "I love you.  As I live, I speak the
+truth."
+
+"And you a man!" she exclaimed, incredulously.
+
+"Ay, strange as it may be, a Roman."
+
+"My mother has told me," said she, looking down at her sandal, "that
+when a man speaks, it is well to listen but never to believe."
+
+"They are not easy to understand--these men and women," said he,
+thoughtfully.  "Sometimes I think they would be nobler if they were
+dumb as dogs.  Albeit I suppose they would find a new way of lying.
+But, O sweet sister of Appius, try to believe me, though you believe no
+other, and I--I shall believe you always."
+
+"You had better not," said she, with a merry glance.
+
+"I must."
+
+"But you will doubt me soon, for I shall say that I do not love you."
+
+For a little he knew not how to answer.  She turned away, looking off
+at the Capitoline, where the toil and art of earth had wrought to show
+the splendor of heaven.  Its beautiful, barbaric temples were glowing
+in the sunlight.
+
+"Life would be too serious if there were no dissimulation."  She looked
+up at him as she spoke, and he saw a little quiver in her curved lips.
+
+"That bow of your lips--I should think it fashioned by Praxiteles--and
+it is for the arrows of truth."
+
+"But a girl--she must deceive a little."
+
+They were now among the vines.
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"Stupid fellow!" said she, in a whisper, as she turned, looking up at
+him.  "Son of Varo, lovers are not ever to be trusted.  Shall I tell
+you a story?  One day I was in the Via Sacra and a young man caught and
+held me for a moment and tried to touch my lips--that boy, Antipater, a
+good-looking wretch!"
+
+She gave her shoulders a little shrug and drew her robe closer.  "He
+had come out of the Basilica Julia, and I am sure he had been
+over-drinking.  I cried 'Help!' and quickly a man came and stood
+between us; and oh! young sir, as I live, it was our great father
+Augustus, and Antipater knelt before him.
+
+"'Young man,' said the father--and his eyes shone--'rise and look
+yonder.  Do you see the citadel?  Under its marble floor there is a
+grave.  It is that of one who kissed a vestal and was buried alive.
+There are sacred people in Rome, and among them is this daughter of my
+beloved Publius.  Go you to your palace, son of Herod, and, hereafter,
+forget not that you are in Rome.'
+
+"He was angry, and I, so frightened!  Then he took me home and said he
+would be my father, and that in good time he would choose a husband for
+me."
+
+"The gods grant that he choose me."
+
+"The gods forbid it, son of Varro."
+
+"And why?"
+
+Slowly and with assumed severity she spoke.
+"Because--I--do--not--love--you."
+
+"Cruel one!" said he, turning and biting his lips.  "Your words are as
+the blow of the pilum."
+
+"Have they indeed wounded you?"  She touched his hand with a look of
+sympathy.
+
+"They have made me sick at heart."
+
+"Then would I not believe them," said she, tenderly, slipping her
+slender fingers into his.
+
+He pressed her hand.  "And do you, then, love me?"
+
+"No--I--do--not--love--you."
+
+"You are a strange people--you maidens of the capital," said he, taking
+her hand in both of his.  "Rome has conquered everything save its
+women."
+
+She parted her tunic and stood looking down at her white bosom, and
+with her delicate fingers brushed off a bit of dust which had fallen
+from the vine above them.
+
+"I do think much of love," said she, thoughtfully, still looking down
+at her breast.
+
+"And of me," he insisted.
+
+"Nay, not of you," she answered, without delay.
+
+"I shall know," said he, wistfully, "for I shall consult the fates.  I
+have here a sacred coin.  An old dame found it when she was digging in
+the side of Soracte.  See, it has on its face the head of Apollo, and
+opposite is an arrow in a death-hand.  And the hag had an odd dream of
+this coin, so she told me--that it fell out of the sky, and was,
+indeed, from the treasury of the gods, and had in it a wonderful power
+in all mysteries.  And one might tell by tossing it in the air and
+noting its fall, if he were loved or hated by the first one he should
+see after learning its answer.  I have never known it to fail.  If the
+head is up you love me," said he, tossing the disk of metal.
+
+It fell and lay at his feet.
+
+"The head!" he exclaimed, with joy.
+
+"Is it really blest of the gods?" she inquired, eagerly, her cheeks
+aflame.  "Is it indeed blest?"
+
+"So said the woman who gave it me."
+
+"Now I shall toss it," said she, taking the coin.
+
+"Ah! you would know if I love you," he answered.
+
+The coin leaped high and fell and rolled along the marble walk.  Both
+followed eagerly, he leading, and, as it stopped, he quickly covered
+the bit of metal with his hand.
+
+"Let me see!" said she, her hand upon his wrist.
+
+"Do not look."
+
+"Let me see it!" she insisted.
+
+"Sweet sister of Appius, I beg of you, here on my knees, do not look at
+the coin!  I will give you the white steeds from Cappadocia, but do not
+look."
+
+"Let me see it, I say, son of Varro!"  She was tugging at his wrist,
+and now, indeed, there was a pretty pleading in her voice.  The words
+were to him as pearls strung on a silken thread.
+
+"Wait a little."
+
+"I shall not wait."
+
+"Sweet flower of Rome," said he, looking into her eyes, "I know that
+you are mine now!  Your voice--it is like the love-call of the robin!"
+
+"Stubborn boy!  Do you think I care for you?"  She stopped and looked
+into his eyes.
+
+"Else why should you wish to see the coin?" said he.  "But, look!  Upon
+my soul it is false!"  A little silence followed.
+
+"'Tis false!" he repeated.  "I swear the coin lies, for I do love you,
+dearly."
+
+"It does not lie," she whispered.
+
+He put his arm about her.
+
+"And I know," he answered, "why you think it cannot lie.  It said,
+before, that you love me, and it was right."
+
+She thrust him away gently, and, rising, as if stricken with sudden
+fear of him, ran a few paces up the walk.  She turned quickly, and
+looked back at him as he approached.  Her face had grown pale.
+
+"I--I shall never speak with you again," she whispered.
+
+"Oh, have mercy upon me, beautiful sister of Appius!" said the young
+knight, and there was a note of despair in his voice.  "Have mercy upon
+me!"
+
+"Young sir," said she, retreating slowly, as he advanced, "I do not
+love you--I do not love you."
+
+She turned quickly, and ran to the peristyle, and, stopping not to
+glance back at him, entered the great marble home of her fathers.
+
+He stood a moment looking at the sun-glow behind roof and dome and
+tower.  A bridge of light, spanning the hollow of the city, had laid
+its golden timbers from hill to hill; and for a little the young man
+felt as if he were drowning in the shadows under it.  He turned
+presently and hurried into the palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+"He is more honored than Jupiter these days," the philosopher was
+saying as Vergilius re-entered.
+
+"Who?" inquired the young man.
+
+"Who else but Caesar, and it is well.  The gods--who are they?"
+
+"The adopted children of Vergil and Homer," said Appius, brother of
+Arria, who had just returned from the baths.
+
+"But our great father Augustus--who can doubt that he deserves our
+worship?" said the philosopher, a subtle irony in his voice.  It was
+this learned man who had long been the instructor of Vergilius.
+
+"Who, indeed?" was the remark of another.
+
+"But these gods!"
+
+"At least they are not likely to cut off one's head," said Aulus.
+
+"Speak not lightly of the gods," said Vergilius.  "They are still a
+power with the people, and the people have great need of them.  What
+shall become of Rome when the gods fall?"
+
+"It shall sicken," said the philosopher, with a lift of his hand.  "You
+that are young may live to see the end.  It shall be like the opening
+of the underworld.  Our republic is false, our gods are false, and,
+indeed, I know but one truth."
+
+"And what may it be?" said another.
+
+"We are all liars," he quickly answered.
+
+"O tempora!" said the Lady Lucia.  "It is an evil day, especially among
+men.  When Quinta Claudia went with her noble sisters to meet the
+Idaean mother at Terracina they were able to find in Rome one virtuous
+man to escort them.  But that was more than two hundred years ago."
+
+"If one were to find him now, and he were to go," said the philosopher,
+"by the gods above us!  I fear he would return a sad rake indeed."
+
+"'Tis not a pleasant theme," said the Lady Lucia, by way of introducing
+another.
+
+"The dear old girl!" said young Gracus, in a low tone, as he turned to
+the senator.  "Her hair is a lie, her complexion is a lie, her lips are
+a lie."
+
+"And her life is a lie," said the other.
+
+"You enjoyed your walk?" asked the mother of Arria, addressing
+Vergilius.
+
+"The walk was a delight to me and its end a sorrow," he answered.
+
+"And you obeyed me?"
+
+"To the letter."  It is true, he thought, we are a generation of liars,
+but how may one help it?  Then, quickly, a way seemed to suggest
+itself, and he added: "Madame, forgive me.  I do now remember we had a
+word or two about love; but, you see, I was telling the legend of this
+coin.  It has the power to show one if he be loved."
+
+"By tossing?"
+
+"By tossing.  Head, yes; the reverse, no."
+
+"Let me try."  She flung it to the oaken beams and it fell on the great
+rug beside her.
+
+"Madame, the hand is up," said Vergilius.  "I fear it is not
+infallible."
+
+"Let me see," she answered, stooping gravely to survey the coin.
+Something passed between her and her pleasure, and for one second a
+shadow wavered across her face.
+
+"It is Death's hand, of course," she remarked, sadly.  "Love is for the
+young and death is for the old."
+
+"Old, madame!  Why, your cheeks have roses in them."
+
+"Good youth, you are too frank," said she, with a quick glance about
+her.  "Did the coin say that she loved you?"
+
+"It did."
+
+"And what did she say?"
+
+The young man hesitated.
+
+"Come, you innocent!  Of course, I knew that you would talk of nothing
+but love.  What said she?"
+
+"That she does not love me; but I am sure it is mere coquetry."
+
+"Dear youth!  You have a cunning eye.  This very day speak, my brave
+Vergilius--speak to her brother Appius.  To-night take him to dine with
+you."
+
+"I had so planned."
+
+A gong of silver rang in the palace halls.  It was the signal to
+prepare for dinner, and the guests made their farewells.  Soon Appius
+and the young lover walked side by side in the direction of the
+Palatine.
+
+"And what have you been doing?" the former inquired, presently.
+
+"Only dreaming."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of love and happiness, and your sister."
+
+"My sister?"
+
+"Yes; I love her and wish to make her my wife."
+
+"You have wealth and birth and wit and good prospects.  I can see no
+objection to you.  But love--love is a thing for women to talk about."
+
+"You are wrong, Appius.  I can feel it in my soul.  And, believe me, I
+am no longer in Rome.  I have found the gateway of a better world--like
+that heaven they speak of in the Trastevere--full of peace and beauty."
+
+"You have, indeed, been dreaming," said the other.  "But, Vergilius,
+there is one higher than I who shall choose her husband--the imperator.
+Does he know you?"
+
+"I have met him, of course, but do much fear he would not remember me."
+
+"We may know shortly.  Every seventh day this year he has sat, like a
+beggar, at his gate asking for alms.  To-day we shall see him there."
+
+"It is an odd whim."
+
+"Hush! you know the people as well as I, and he must please them," the
+other whispered.  "He must conceal his power if he would live out his
+time.  I will present you, and perhaps he may be gracious--ay, may even
+bid you to his banquet."
+
+"A modest home," said young Vergilius.
+
+Now they were nearing the palace of that mild and quiet gentleman whose
+name and title--Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus--had terrified
+the world; whose delicate hands flung the levin of his power to the far
+boundaries of India and upper Gaul, to the distant shores of Spain and
+Africa, and into deserts beyond the Euphrates.
+
+"Many a poor patrician has better furniture and more servants and a
+nobler palace," said Appius.  "Rather plain wood, divans out of
+fashion, rugs o'erworn; but you have seen them.  He alone can afford
+that kind of thing."
+
+"He has a fondness for old things."
+
+"But not for old women, my dear fellow."
+
+"Indeed!  And he is himself sixty-one."
+
+"Hist--the imperator!  There, by the gate yonder."
+
+An erect figure of a man rather above medium height, in a coarse, gray
+toga, stood by one of the white columns.  Three Moorish children were
+playing about his knees, and a senator was talking with him.
+
+"My public services are familiar to you," said the senator, as the
+young knights waited some twenty paces off.  "A gift of two hundred
+thousand denarii would be fitting, and, if you will permit me to say
+so, it would delight the populace.  Indeed, 'tis generally believed you
+have already given me a large sum."
+
+"But see that you do not believe it," blandly spake the strange
+emperor, for albeit Rome was then a republic in name it was an empire
+in fact, and Augustus, wielding the power of an emperor, refused the
+title.  Turning, he began to play with the children.
+
+"Great and beloved father!  I hope, at least, you will consider my
+prayer."
+
+"Good senator, I have considered.  You ask for two hundred thousand
+denarii.  I can give you only the opportunity of earning them.  As to
+myself, I am poor.  Look at me.  Even my time belongs to the people.
+and it is passing, my dear senator--it is passing."
+
+The importunate man saw the subtle meaning in these words and went his
+way.
+
+The emperor sat down, a child upon each knee, as the young men
+approached him.  His head was bare and his fair, curly locks, growing
+low upon his forehead, were now touched with gray.  He looked up at the
+two, his eyes blue, brilliant, piercing.
+
+"My beloved Appius," said he, in a gentle tone, as he rose.  "And
+this--let me think--ah, it is Vergilius, the son of Varro."
+
+"It is wonderful you should remember me," said Vergilius.
+
+"Wonderful?  No.  I could tell your age, your misdeeds, your virtues,
+and how often you failed to answer the roll-calls in Cappadocia.  Well,
+I dare say they were pretty girls.  But I forget; I am to-day seeking
+alms, my good children, for the poor of Rome.  I am as ten thousand of
+the hungry standing before you here and asking for bread.  In their
+name I shall receive, thankfully, what you may bestow."
+
+Appius gave a handful of coins; Vergilius emptied his purse.
+
+"'Tis not enough," said the latter.  "Your words have touched me.
+To-night I shall send five thousand denarii to your palace."
+
+"Well given, noble youth!  It is generous.  I like it in you.  Say that
+I may have you to feast with me the first day before the ides--both of
+you.  Say that I may have you."
+
+"We humbly wait your commands," said Vergilius, kissing his hand.
+
+"Now tell me, handsome son of Varro, have you found no pretty girl to
+your liking?  Know you not, boy, 'tis time you married?"  He held the
+hand of the young knight and spoke kindly, his cunning eyes aglow, and
+smiled upon him, showing his teeth, set well apart.
+
+"Such an one I have found, good sire.  Under the great purple dome
+there is none more beautiful, and with your favor and that of the gods
+I hope to make her my wife."
+
+"Ah, then, I know her?"
+
+"It is Arria, sister of Appius."
+
+"And daughter of my beloved prefect.  You are ambitious, my good youth."
+
+The emperor stood a moment, looking downward thoughtfully.  He felt his
+retreating chin.  His smooth-shaven face, broad from bone to bone above
+the cheeks, quickly grew stern.  His mind, which had the world for its
+toy and which planned the building or the treading down of empires, had
+turned its thought upon that little kingdom in the heart of the boy.
+And he was thinking whether it should stand or fall.
+
+"It may be impossible," said he, turning to the young man.  "Say no
+more to her until--until I have thought of it."
+
+And Appius observed, as he went away with his friend: "You will be a
+statesman, my dear Vergilius; you gave him just the right dose of
+religion, flattery, and silver."
+
+"I must succeed or I shall have no heart to live," said the other,
+soberly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+That evening Vergilius went to feast with the young Herodian prince,
+Antipater of Judea.  The son of Herod was then a tall, swarthy, robust
+young man, who had come to see life in Rome and to finish his
+education.  He would inherit the crown--so said they who knew anything
+of Herodian politics; but he was a Jew, and deep in the red intrigue of
+his father's house.  So, therefore, he was regarded in Rome with more
+curiosity than respect.  Augustus himself had said that he would rather
+be the swine of Herod than Herod's son, and he might have added that he
+would rather be the swine of Antipater than his father.  But that was
+before Augustus had learned that even his own household was unworthy of
+full confidence.
+
+Antipater had brought many slaves to Rome, and some of the noblest
+horses in the empire.  He had hired a palace and built a lion-house,
+where, before intimates, he was wont to display his courage and his
+skill.  It had a small arena and was in the midst of a great garden.
+There he kept a lion from northern Africa, a tiger, and a black leopard
+from the Himalayas.  He was training for the Herodian prize at the
+Jewish amphitheatre in Caesarea.  These great, stealthy cats in his
+garden typified the passions of his heart.  If he had only fought these
+latter as he fought the beasts he might have had a better place in
+history.
+
+Antipater had conceived a great liking for the sister of Appius.  Her
+beauty had roused in him the great cats of passion now stalking their
+prey.  He had sworn to his intimates that no other man should marry
+her.  His gallantry was unwelcome, he knew that, and Appius had assured
+him that a marriage was impossible; but the wild heart of the Idumean
+held to its purpose.  And now its hidden eyes were gazing, catlike, on
+Vergilius, the cause of its difficulty.  In Judea he would have known
+how to act, but in Rome he pondered.
+
+It had been a stormy day in the palace of Antipater.  He had crucified
+a slave for disobedience and run a lance through one of his best horses
+for no reason.  He came out of his bath a little before the hour of his
+banquet, and two slaves, trembling with fear, followed him to his
+chamber.  They put his tunic on him, and his sandals, and wound the
+fillets that held them in place.  One of the slaves began brushing the
+dark hair of his master while the other was rubbing a precious ointment
+on his face and arms.
+
+"Fool!" he shouted.  "Have I not told you never to bear upon my head?"
+
+He jumped to his feet, black eyes flashing under heavy brows, and,
+seizing a lance, broke the slave's arm with a blow and drove him out of
+the chamber.  A few minutes later, in a robe of white silk and a yellow
+girdle, he came into his banquet-hall with politeness, dovelike,
+worshipful, and caressing.
+
+"Noble son of Varro!" said he, smiling graciously, "it is a joy to see
+you.  And you, brave Gracus; and you, Aulus, child of Destiny; and you,
+my learned Manius; and you, Carus, favored of the Muses: I do thank you
+all for this honor."
+
+It was a brilliant company--gay youths all, who could tell the new
+stories and loved to sit late with their wine.  As they waited for
+dinner many tempting dishes were passed among them.  There were
+oysters, mussels, spondyli, fieldfares with asparagus, roe-ribs,
+sea-nettles, and purple shellfish.  When they came to their couches,
+the dinner-table was covered with rare and costly things.  On platters
+of silver and gold one might have seen tunny fishes from Chalcedon,
+murcenas from the Straits of Gades, peacocks from Samos, grouse from
+Phrygia, cranes from Melos.  Slaves were kept busy bringing boar's head
+and sow's udder and roasted fowls, and fish pasties, and boiled teals.
+Other slaves kept the goblets full of old wine.  Soon the banquet had
+become a revel of song and laughter.  Suddenly Antipater raised a calix
+high above his head.
+
+"My noble friends," he shouted, "I bid you drink with me to Arria,
+sister of Appius, and fairest daughter of Rome--"
+
+Vergilius had quickly risen to his feet.  "Son of Herod," said he, with
+dignity, "I am in your palace and have tasted of your meat, and am
+therefore sacred.  You make your wine bitter when you mingle it with
+the name of one so pure.  Good women were better forgotten at a
+midnight revel."
+
+A moment of silence followed.
+
+"My intention was pure as she," Antipater answered, craftily.  "Be not
+so jealous, my noble friend.  I esteem her as the best and loveliest of
+women."
+
+"Nay, not the loveliest," said the young Manius, an assessor in Judea.
+"I sing the praise of Salome, sister of our noble prince.  Of all the
+forms in flesh and marble none compare with this beautiful daughter of
+the great king."
+
+"May fairest women be for the best men," said Antipater, drinking his
+wine.
+
+In a dim light along the farther side of the dining-hall was a row of
+figures, some draped, some nude, and all having the look of old marble.
+Two lay in voluptuous attitudes, one sat on a bank of flowers, and
+others stood upon pedestals.
+
+There were all the varying forms of Venus represented in living flesh.
+None, save Antipater and the slaves around him, knew that under each
+bosom was a fearful and palpitating heart.  They were beautiful
+slave-girls captured on the frontiers of Judea.  In spite of aching
+sinew and muscle, they had to stand like stone to escape the
+observation of evil eyes.  There was a cruelty behind that stony
+stillness of the maidens, equal, it would seem, to the worst in Hades.
+
+Slaves kept the wine foaming in every goblet, and fought and danced and
+wrestled for the pleasing of that merry company, and the hours wore
+away.  Suddenly the sound of a lyre hushed the revels.  All heard the
+voice of a maiden singing, and turned to see whence it came.  A sweet
+voice it was, trembling in tones that told of ancient wrong, in words
+full of a new hope.  Had life and song come to one of those white
+marbles yonder?  Voice and word touched the heart of Vergilius--he knew
+not why; and this in part is the chant that stopped the revels of
+Antipater:
+
+
+  "Lift up my soul; let me not be ashamed---I trust
+      in Thee, God of my fathers;
+  Send, quickly send, the new king whose arrows
+      shall fly as the lightning,
+  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
+      low and the wicked to tremble.
+  Soon let me hear the great song that shall sound
+      in the deep of the heavens;
+  Show me the lantern of light hanging low in
+      the deep of the heavens."
+
+
+The voice of the singer grew faint and the lyre dropped from her hands.
+They could see her reeling, and suddenly she fell headlong to the rug
+beneath her pedestal.  Antipater rose quickly with angry eyes.
+
+"The accursed girl!" said he.  "A Galilean slave of my father.  She is
+forever chanting of a new king."
+
+Hot with anger and flushed with wine, he ran, cursing, and kicked the
+shapely form that lay fainting at the foot of its pedestal.
+
+"Fool!" he shouted.  "Know you not that I only am your king?  You shall
+be punished; you shall enter the cage of the leopard."
+
+He went no further.  Vergilius had rushed upon him and flung him to the
+floor.  Antipater rose quickly and approached the young Roman, a devil
+in his eyes.  Vergilius had a look of wonder and self-reproach.
+
+"What have I done?" said he, facing the Jew.  "Son of Herod, forgive
+me.  She is your slave, and I--I am no longer master of myself.  I
+doubt not some strange god is working in me, for I seem to be
+weak-hearted and cannot bear to see you kick her."
+
+The declaration was greeted with loud laughter.  Antipater stood
+muttering as he shook the skirt of his toga.
+
+"'Tis odd, my goodfellows," said Vergilius, "but the other day I saw a
+man scourging his lady's-maid.  Mother of the gods!  I felt as if the
+blows were falling on my own back, and out went my hand upon his arm
+and I begged him--I begged him to spare the girl."
+
+All laughed again.
+
+"You should have a doll and long hair," said Antipater, in a tone of
+contempt.
+
+The proud son of Varro stood waiting as the others laughed, his brows
+and chin lifting a bit with anger.  When silence came he spoke slowly,
+looking from face to face:
+
+"If any here dare to question my courage, within a moment it shall be
+proved upon him."
+
+None spoke or moved for a breath.  Antipater answered, presently:
+
+"I doubt not your courage, noble Vergilius, but if you will have it
+tried I can show you a better way, and one that will spare your
+friends.  Come, all of you."
+
+As they were rising, the young Gracus remarked: "By Apollo!  I have not
+taken my emetic."
+
+"To forget that is to know sorrow," said another.
+
+Slaves brought their outer robes and they followed the young prince.
+He led them, between vines and fruit trees and beds of martagon and
+mirasolus, to the lion-house in his garden.  Vergilius now understood
+the test of courage to be put upon him.  The great beasts were asleep
+in their cages, and Antipater prodded them with a lance.  A thunder in
+their throats seemed to fill the air and shake the flames in the
+lampadaria.  With sword and lance Antipater entered the arena, a space
+barred high, about thirty feet square, upon which all the cages opened.
+
+"The tiger!" he commanded.
+
+Keepers lifted a metal gate, and the huge cat leaped away from their
+lances, backed snarling to the end of his cage, and with a slow,
+creeping movement put his head and fore-paws into the arena; then a
+swift step or two, a lowering of the great head, and side-long he
+stood, with eyes aglow and fangs uncovered, a low mutter in his mouth,
+like the roar of a mighty harp-string.  Some fifteen feet away stood
+the son of Herod, his lance poised.
+
+"Never strike while your beast has a foot to the ground," said he,
+keeping his gaze on the face of the tiger.  "He will be quick to move
+and parry.  Wait until he is in the air, and then thrust your lance."
+
+He made a feint with his weapon; the tiger darted half his length
+aside, with a great, bursting roar, and, crouching low, stealthily felt
+the ground beneath him.
+
+"Watch him now," said the tall Antipater.  "He will leap soon."
+
+Again he drove him forward, and then the beast turned, facing his
+tormentor, and crouched low.  There, in a huge setting of bone and
+muscle strangely fitted to its fierceness, with eyes of fire and feet
+of deadly stealth, its back arched like a drawn bow, the wild heart of
+the son of Herod seemed to be facing him.
+
+"Look!" a slave shouted.  "He has bent his bow."
+
+The haired lip of the beast quivered; great cords of muscle were drawn
+tense.  Like a flash the bow sprang and the columns of bone beneath him
+lifted, flinging his long, striped body in the air.  With cat-like
+swiftness Antipater stepped aside, and while the huge beast was in
+mid-air, thrust the lance into his heart.  He bore with all his
+strength and rushed away, seizing an other weapon.  The big cat fell
+and rose and struck at the clinging lance, and stood a second flooding
+the floor with blood.  Then down he went shuddering to his death.  The
+young men shouted loud their applause in honor of Herod's son.  While
+the beast was dying slaves came and sanded the floor.  Then, presently,
+they swept up the red sand, and tying a rope to the legs of the limp
+tiger, dragged him away.  They had done this kind of work before, and
+each knew his part.  Presently Antipater called two of them.
+
+"Bring that girl Cyran--she that chants of her new king," said he, as
+they ran to do his bidding.
+
+"Noble prince, the strange god is again at work in me," said Vergilius,
+with rising ire.  "I could not bear to see you put her with the
+leopard; I should rather face him myself."
+
+"You!" said the other, tauntingly, and with a shrewd purpose.  The
+youths turned to see if Vergilius would really accept the challenge.
+No man had ever faced a black leopard at close quarters without
+suffering death or injury.
+
+"I," said Vergilius, promptly.  "If it is amusement you desire, I can
+supply it as well as she.  Surely I have more blood in me.  If you wish
+only to feed the leopard--will I not make a better feast?"
+
+A sound hushed them.  It was the slave-girl, singing as she came near:
+
+
+  "Send, quickly send, the new king whose arrows
+      shall fly as the lightning,
+  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
+      low and the wicked to tremble.
+  Soon let me hear the great song that shall sound
+      in the deep of the heavens;
+  Show me the lantern of light hanging low in
+      the deep of the heavens."
+
+
+She was fair to look upon as she came, led by the carnifex, her form,
+draped in soft, transparent linen, like that of a goddess in its
+outline, her face lighted even with that light of which she sang.
+
+"The girl against a hundred denarii that you cannot live an hour in the
+arena with him," said Antipater, hotly.
+
+"I accept the wager," Vergilius calmly answered, laying off his robe
+and seizing a lance.  He entered the arena and closed its gate behind
+him.  "Drive the beast in upon me, son of Herod; and you, Gracus, be
+ready to hand me another lance."
+
+The black leopard spat fiercely and struck at the points that were put
+upon it, the deep rumble in its throat swelling into loud crescendos.
+Of a sudden it bounded through the gateway and stood a moment, baring
+great fangs.  The animal threatened with long hisses.  Vergilius held
+its eye, his lance raised.  The hissing ceased, the growl diminished,
+the stealthy paws moved slowly.  Soon it rolled upon its side, purring,
+and seemed to caress the floor with head and paws--a trick to divert
+the gaze of Vergilius.  The Satanic eyes were ever on its foe.  As the
+beast lay there, twisting and turning, the black fur seemed to wrap it
+in the gloom of Tartarus, and the fire of the burning lake to shine
+through its eyes.  While Vergilius stood motionless and alert, a slave
+hurriedly entered the lion-house and spoke to Antipater.
+
+"The imperator!" whispered the slave.  "He cannot wait; he must see you
+quickly."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the palace hall."
+
+Antipater hurried away.
+
+The slave-girl went close to the barred arena.
+
+"Young master," said she, in quick and eager words, "the lamps are
+burning dimmer.  They will go out soon.  It is a trick.  You will not
+be able to see and the leopard will rend you."
+
+Antipater ran to the banquet-hall of his palace, where sat the emperor,
+his chin resting thoughtfully on his hand.  The great Augustus did not
+look up nor even change his attitude as the son of Herod came near and
+bowed low and called him father.
+
+"I have a plan," said the emperor thoughtfully, "--a pretty plan, my
+young prince of--of--"
+
+"Judea?" suggested the young prince.
+
+"Oh, well, it matters not," the great father went on.  "You know that
+fair Vergilius, son of Varro?  A headstrong, foolish youth he is, and I
+fear much that he is like to die shortly.  What think you?"
+
+The piercing eyes of Augustus were looking into those of the young man.
+
+"My great father," said the latter, "I do not know."
+
+"'Tis gross ignorance and unworthy of you," said Augustus, quickly, as
+he rose.  "Well, I have bethought me of a pretty plan.  Your funeral
+and his shall occur on the same day--a fine, great, amusing funeral,"
+he added, thoughtfully.  "It shall be so.  Do not worry, I shall see
+you well buried.  Ah, you are most impolite.  Why do you not ask me to
+drink your health?  My pretty prince, you look most ill and have need
+of my good wishes."
+
+"Dominus!" said the other, trembling with anxiety.
+
+"Dominus!" the old emperor shouted, angrily.  "Call me ass, if you
+dare, but never call me 'Dominus.'"
+
+"You honor me, great father," said the young man, his eyes staring with
+terror, "but I beg you to excuse me for a little time."
+
+"Ah, so you would leave me," said the sly emperor, in his mildest
+tones.  "A most inhospitable wretch, indeed."
+
+The tall Jew was now pale with fright.  His feeling showed in great
+beads of perspiration.  He dared not to stay; he dared not to go.  He
+was in a worse plight than Vergilius, now standing in the leopard's
+cage.
+
+"A most inhospitable prince," the bland emperor repeated, smiling with
+amusement.  "You are in a hurry?"
+
+"I am ill."
+
+The emperor stood smiling as Antipater glided away.
+
+"Run, you knave!" said the former to himself, with a chuckle of
+satisfaction.  "Upon my soul! the Jew has already set his snare."
+
+Then the gentle and cunning man, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
+Augustus, made his way to the entrance where lecticarii were waiting
+with his litter.
+
+"Can you hear the sound of running feet?" he inquired of the lady who
+sat beside him as they went away.
+
+"Yes.  What means it?"
+
+He turned with a smile and a movement of his hand.  Then he answered
+calmly:
+
+"Death is chasing a man through the garden yonder."
+
+While Antipater was running towards the lion-house, that small tragedy
+of the arena was near its end.
+
+The lights are burning low.  Two have flickered for a little and gone
+out.  The young men are watching with eager eyes.
+
+"I can bear it no longer," says one, rushing to the gate of the arena,
+only to find that he could not open it.
+
+The slave-girl utters a cry and steps forward and is caught and held by
+the carnifex.
+
+Vergilius urges the leopard.  He steps quickly, feinting with his
+lance; the cat darts along the farther side of the arena, roaring.  Its
+eyes glow fiery in the dusk.  The beast is become furious with
+continued baiting.  Half the lamps are out and the light rapidly
+failing as Antipater rushes through the door.  He falls beside the
+arena, rises and opens the gate.
+
+"A lance," he whispers, and it is quickly put in his hands.  "Come,
+come quickly, son of Varro," he whispers again.  "The light is failing.
+He will tear you into shreds.  Come through the gate here."
+
+Vergilius had stopped, facing the leopard with lance raised.
+
+"Not unless I have the wager," says he, calmly.
+
+"You have won it," Antipater answers.  "Come, good friend, be quick, I
+beg of you!"
+
+Both moved backward through the gate, and before it closed there came a
+fling of claws on the floor.  A black ball, bound hard with tightened
+sinew, rose in the air and shot across the arena and shook the gate
+which had closed in time to stop it.
+
+"You are living, son of Varro, and I thank the God of my fathers,"
+Antipater shouted, as he flung himself on a big divan, his breath
+coming fast.  "I forgot the lights.  I thought of them suddenly, and
+ran to save you.  If I had been running in the games I should have won
+the laurel of Caesar."
+
+"I was wrong--he could not have meant to slay me," thought Vergilius.
+"Not by the paws of the leopard."
+
+Cyran stood near the door, weeping.  Antipater rose and led her to
+Vergilius.
+
+"The girl is yours," said he.  "I am glad to be done with her.  Come,
+all."
+
+They followed him to the palace, and Vergilius bade the girl dress and
+be ready to join his pedisequi in the outer hall.  She knelt before him
+and kissed the border of his tunic.
+
+"Oh, my young master!" said she, "I shall be of those who part the
+briers in your way."  Then she hurried to obey him.
+
+"I would speak with you, noble son of Varro," said Antipater, beckoning.
+
+Vergilius followed to the deep atrium of the palace, where they stood
+alone.
+
+"You have one thing I desire, and I will pay you five thousand aurei to
+relinquish it--five thousand aurei," the Jew whispered.
+
+"And what is it you would buy of me, noble prince?"
+
+"A mere plaything!  A bouquet that will fade shortly and be flung
+aside.  The thing happens to suit my fancy, and--and I can afford it."
+
+In the moment of silence that followed this remark a stern look of
+inquiry came into the face of Vergilius.
+
+"Man, do you not know?  'Tis the sister of Appius," Antipater added,
+lightly.
+
+"Cur of Judea!" hissed the knight, his sword flashing out of its
+scabbard, "I shall cut you down and fling you out to the dogs.  Fight
+here and now.  I demand it!"
+
+The young Roman spoke loudly and stood waiting.  Those others had heard
+the challenge and were now coming near.  Antipater stood silent,
+glaring, as had the leopard, with an evil leer at his foe, and thinking
+no doubt of the warning of Augustus.  The stiff, straight hairs in his
+mustache quivered as he turned slowly, watchfully, towards the others,
+who were now standing near.  Since his funeral should occur on the same
+day, how could he fight with Vergilius?
+
+"You dare not," the latter added, fiercely; "and before these men I
+denounce you as a coward--a coward who fears to raise a hand."
+
+His arm was extended, his finger at the face of the Jew, now white with
+passion.  Half a moment passed in which there was no word.
+
+"You living carrion!" said the young knight, turning and walking away.
+"I am done with you."
+
+He took the hand of the poor slave Cyran, and walked to the farther
+side of the atrium.  He turned, still white with anger as if
+unsatisfied.
+
+"Pet of harlots!" said he, fiercely.  "It is time for some one to stand
+for the honor of good women.  If you do but speak her name again before
+me I will run you through."
+
+Receiving no answer, he departed with Cyran, while the others gathered
+about their host.
+
+There was a heavy rumble in the throat of Antipater--a tiger-like,
+Herodian trait--and then a volley of oaths came out of it.  He trembled
+with rage and flung his sword far across the dim atrium with a shout of
+anger.  Like the great cats in his rage, he was like them also in his
+methods of attack--sly and terrible, but with a deep regard for the
+integrity of his own skin.  Sure of his advantage, he could be as brave
+as when he faced the tiger.
+
+He sat awhile muttering, his face between his hands.  Soon, having
+calmed his passion, he rose and snarled: "Good sirs, never quarrel with
+the pet of an emperor, for if one spares you the other will not."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+Arria and her mother sat with the emperor.  He was at home and in a
+playful humor.  The hour of his banquet was approaching.  Soon he would
+be summoned to receive his guests.
+
+"Nay, but I am sure he loves me," the girl was saying.
+
+The cunning emperor smiled and spoke very gently.  "Think you so, dear
+child?  I will put him to the test.  Soon we shall know if he be worthy
+of so great a prize.  I will try both his wit and his devotion, but
+you--you cannot be here."
+
+"And why, great father?"
+
+"Think you it could be a test with your eye upon him?"
+
+"Oh, but I must see it," said the girl.  "Unless I see it I shall not
+know.  Let me be your slave and stand behind you in gray cloth.
+Beloved father, I implore you, let me see the test."
+
+"Ah, well," said the emperor, rising, with a smile.  "I shall know
+nothing but that you have gone above-stairs to find Clia, mistress of
+the robes.  Tell her to give you a box of tablets, and when I raise my
+finger--so--they are to be delivered.  Away with you."
+
+Arria left with a cry of joy, and presently Augustus went with the Lady
+Lucia to meet his guests.
+
+The "commands" of the emperor had given the hour of the banquet and
+prescribed the dress to be worn.  Vergilius had waited anxiously for
+the moment when he should again see the great god of Rome, who could
+give or take away as he would.  Standing at the door of Caesar, he
+wondered whether he were nearing the end of all pleasure or the gate of
+paradise.  A plate of polished brass hung on its lintel, bearing in
+large letters the word Salve.  A slave opened the door and took his
+pallium.  Julia, that wayward daughter of Augustus, now three times
+married but yet beautiful, met him in the inner hall, and together they
+walked to the banquet-room.  There the emperor, limping slightly, came
+to meet Vergilius, and there, also, were the guests, seven in number:
+Appius and his mother, the Lady Lucia; Terentia, wife of the late
+Maecenas; Manius, an assessor in Judea; Hortensius, legate of Spain;
+Antipater, son of Herod the Great; and Aulus Valerius Maro, the senator.
+
+"It enters my thought to say to you," said the emperor, aside, as he
+put his hand upon the shoulder of Vergilius, "keep the number one in
+your mind, so that by-and-by you can tell me what you make of it."
+
+Slaves had covered the table with fish and fowl in dishes of unwrought
+silver.  The guests reclined upon three great divans set around as many
+sides of the table.  They ate resting on their elbows, and were so
+disposed that each could see the host without turning.  The emperor
+asked only for coarse bread, a morsel of fish, two figs, and a bit of
+cheese.
+
+"My good friends," said he, in a low voice, when the wine was served,
+"we have with us an able officer in this young Manius, one of our
+assessors in Jerusalem.  I ask you to drink his health.  Though I can
+drink no wine, I can feel good sentiments."
+
+One could not help remarking his fixed serenity of face and voice and
+manner as he went on:
+
+"Some time ago it came to my ear that he thought me a tyrant wallowing
+in vulgar and ill-gotten luxury."
+
+There was a little stir in those heads around the table, and in every
+hand and face one might have seen evidence of quickened pulses.  The
+young officer was now staring through deathly pallor.
+
+"My friends, it is not strange," said the great Augustus, mildly.  "To
+Jerusalem is quite two thousand miles; and, then he was very young when
+he left the home of his fathers.  Am I not right, Manius?"
+
+"Your words are both true and kindly," said the young man.
+
+"And you are discerning," said the emperor, with a smile.  "Now, good
+people, observe that I have invited our young officer to Rome for two
+purposes: to show him, first, that I live no better than the poorest
+nobleman; secondly, that I am only a servant of the people; for, since
+he is an able officer, I shall resist my own will and keep him in the
+public service."
+
+"Bravo!" said they all, and clapped their hands.
+
+A strange, inscrutable man was the emperor at that moment, the mildness
+of a lamb in his voice and manner, the gleam of a serpent's eye under
+his brows.  And that right hand of his, clinched now and quivering a
+little, had it grasped a reaching, invisible serpent within him?
+Kindly?  Yes, but with the kindness of a deep and subtle character who
+saw in forbearance the best politics and the most effective discipline.
+Lights were now aglow in a great candelabrum over the table and in many
+tall lampadaria.
+
+A slave, who was a juggler, came near and began to fill the gloom above
+him with golden disks.  From afar came the music of flutes and
+timbrels.  Julia retired presently, and returned soon with her pet
+dwarf Cenopas.  She stood him on a large, round table, and the guests
+greeted him with loud laughter as he looked down.  He had a hard,
+unlovely face, that little dwarf.  He suggested to Vergilius unwelcome
+thoughts of a new sort of Cupid--deformed, evil, and hideous--typifying
+the degenerate passions of Rome.  There were in the quiver of this
+Cupid arrows which carried the venom of the asp.  Some at the table
+mocked his grinning face and made a jest of his deformity.  When he
+could be heard he mimicked the speech and manners of public men.
+
+"A Cupid with a knot in his back," said one.
+
+"And if I were to aim an arrow at you," said the dwarf, quickly, "I'm
+sure you'd have a pain in yours."
+
+"My dear," said the gentle-mannered emperor, when the laughter had died
+away, "I think we shall now give him the crown of folly and let him go."
+
+"Between the greatest and the least of Romans," said his daughter,
+rising and pointing at her father and then at the dwarf, "I am lost in
+mediocrity."
+
+A slave took the little creature in his arms and bore him away as if he
+had been a pet dog.
+
+"Tell me, young men," said the emperor, "have you no lines to read
+us--you that have youth and beauty and sweethearts?  How is it with
+you, good Vergilius?"
+
+The young man shook his head.  "No," said he; "I have youth and a
+sweetheart, but not the gift of poesy."
+
+"No lines!  What are we coming to in this Rome of ours?  Are there no
+more poets?  My dear friends, tell me, in the baths or the forum or the
+theatre, or wherever the people congregate, do you hear of no youth
+that has the divine gift of song?"
+
+He paused for a little, but there was no reply.
+
+"Then Rome is in evil days," said the great father, sadly.
+
+"Why?"  It was the question of Gracus.
+
+"Why, young man?  Because in every land there should be those who can
+cherish the fear of the gods and make honor beautiful and love sacred
+and valor a thing of imperishable fame.  I assure you, good people, one
+poet is better," he paused, thoughtfully--"than ten thousand soldiers,"
+he added.  "Who will bring me a poet?"
+
+The gods are indeed helpless, thought Vergilius.  They must have poets
+to do their work for them?  But he said nothing.
+
+"The streets are full of poets," said Gracus.
+
+"Those old men with long beards and stilted rubbish!" said Augustus,
+"with tragedies that slay the hero and the hearer!  Bring me a poet,
+and, remember, I shall honor him above all men.  Once I invited Horace
+to dine with me, and got no answer.  He was a proud man"--this with a
+merry smile.  "Again I invited him, and then he deigned to write me a
+sentence, merely, and said: 'Thanks, I am happy out here on my farm.'
+I did not know what to do, but I wrote a letter and said to the great
+man: 'You may not desire my friendship, but that is no reason for my
+failing to value yours.'  I am proud to say that he was my friend ever
+after.  But I weary you."
+
+A female slave, thickly veiled, stood behind him.  He made a signal and
+she quickly put in his hand a little box of ivory, finely wrought.
+
+"I have here," said the great father, "nine disks of wax.  You see they
+are very small, but so they shall serve my purpose the better.  Will
+each of you take one and retire from the table and write upon it the
+thing he most desires?  Now, my dear friends, brevity is ever as the
+point of the lance.  Wit is blunt and Truth half armed without it.  I
+lay a test upon you."
+
+All retired quickly, and, soon returning, dropped their wishes in the
+box.  The playful emperor closed and shook it and withdrew a disk.
+
+"I find here the word 'preference,'" said he, and all observed that his
+keen eyes were calmly measuring the prince Antipater.  "It is a poor
+word, and does you little honor, my young friend.  In mere preference
+there is no merit.  Here is another, and it says 'more wine.'  Keep his
+goblet full," he added, pointing to that of the senator, as all
+laughed.  "Here is one says 'rest.'  Have patience, my good daughter, I
+shall soon be done talking.  Another has on it the words 'your
+health'--a charming compliment, dear Lady Lucia.  'Courage,' 'wisdom,'
+'success,'" he added, reading from the tablets.  "Naturally, and who,
+indeed, does not desire those things?  Here is one that says 'help'--a
+great word, upon my soul!  He that prays for help and not for favor, if
+he do his best, may have many good things--even 'courage,' 'wisdom,'
+'success.'  Keep at work and you shall have my help, Appius, and, I
+doubt not, that of the gods also.  Here is one--I like it best of
+all--it is that of the modest young Vergilius.  He would have a
+priceless thing.  And do you," he inquired, turning to the young
+knight, "desire this above all things?  Think; there is the distinction
+of place and power and honor--the ring of a legate would become you
+well!"
+
+"But, above all," said Vergilius, "I desire that I have written."
+
+"Beautiful boy!" said the cunning emperor.  "'Tis so great a prize,
+give me another test of your quality.  With one word you ask for one
+thing.  To try your wit, I give you a theme so small it is next to
+naught--the number one.  Tell us, and briefly as you may, what is in
+it."
+
+The young man rose and bowed low.  "One is in all numbers," said he,
+"and unless all numbers are as one they are nothing.  I desire one
+mistress for my heart, one purpose for my conduct, and one great master
+for my country."
+
+"The gods grant them!" said Augustus, leading the applause.
+
+"And now I shall proclaim the word he has written.  It is 'Arria,' and
+stands, I know well, for the sister of Appius."
+
+He turned quickly to the still and silent figure of the slave behind
+him.  All eyes were now watching her.
+
+"Are you content?" he inquired.
+
+Gray veil and robe fell away, revealing the beautiful sister of Appius.
+Vergilius went quickly to her side.
+
+"I declare them for each other!" said the emperor, as all rose and
+gathered around the two.  He took the boy's hand.  "Come to me at ten
+to-morrow," he added.
+
+"But, O father of Rome!" said Arria, looking up at the great man, "how
+long shall you detain him?"
+
+"Give me half an hour, you love-sick maiden," said Augustus.  "He shall
+be at your palace in good time."
+
+"Come at the middle hour," said the Lady Lucia, her hand upon the arm
+of Vergilius.
+
+"The gods give you sleep," said the great father, as he bade them
+good-night.
+
+Beneath the laurels on their way to the gate, Gracus, who rode with
+Antipater, said:
+
+"And what of your oath, son of Herod?"
+
+"But they are not yet married," the other answered, malevolently.
+"Vergilius!  Bah!  He is the son of a praetor and I am the son of a
+king.  Curse the old fox!  He never spoke to me after greetings, and
+once when I glanced up at him I thought his keen eyes were looking
+through me.
+
+"Those eyes!  Jupiter!" said Gracus, "they drop a plummet into one."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+Now there were few barriers between the emperor and the people.  He
+went to work in his study at an early hour and gave a patient hearing
+to any but foolish men.  This morning he had been reading a long
+address from the legate of Syria.  He had a way of dividing his thought
+between reading and small affairs of the state.  His legate recited all
+he had been able to learn of the new king they were now expecting in
+Judea.  He told also of a plot which had baffled all his efforts and
+which aimed to take the life of Herod and crown the king of prophecy
+and divine power.
+
+"We must have a spy of noble blood and bearing, of unswerving fidelity
+and honor, and with some knowledge of the religion of Judea," said the
+legate.  "Of course, you will not be able to find him, for where in all
+the world, save yourself, good father, is there such a man?"
+
+Augustus dropped the sheet of vellum and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
+
+"How about this young Vergilius--the handsome, clever, woman-loving
+Vergilius?" he thought.  Then for a moment the cunning emperor laughed
+silently.
+
+Ever since he began to read the letter he had been conversing with his
+daughter Julia.
+
+"If you can propose a better candidate for the girl, I--" he paused,
+looking intently at the letter--"I shall consider him," he added,
+presently.
+
+"She is beautiful," his daughter whispered.  "I know one who will give
+to the state many thousand aurei."
+
+"No need of hurry.  The young Vergilius will give what is better than
+money, and then--"
+
+The emperor paused again.
+
+"And then?" it was the inquiry of Julia.
+
+"He will forget her and she will grow weary and yield.  There's time
+enough, and time"--he took a little mirror from the table and looked
+down upon it--"can accomplish many things," he added.  "It will have
+the assistance of fame and honor and new faces.  Now go, I beg of you,
+and leave me to my work."
+
+
+A delegation of Jews--petty merchants of the Trastevere--were leaving
+as Vergilius entered.  The emperor, now alone save for his young
+caller, rose and gave him a sprig of laurel.
+
+"Sit here," said he, resuming his seat and pausing for a little to
+study a sheet of vellum in his hands.  He continued, without raising
+his eyes: "I have another test for you, my fair son.  You shall be
+assistant procurator in Jerusalem, with rank of tribune.  It may be you
+shall have command of the castle.  Three days from now take the south
+road with Manius and a troop of horse.  This court of Herod--of course,
+I am speaking kindly, my dear Vergilius--but, you may know, it is a
+place of mysteries, and there are many things I do not need to _say_ to
+_you_."
+
+The old emperor, leaning forward, touched the arm of the young man and
+gave him a cunning glance.
+
+"A cipher," he added, passing the sheet of vellum.  "It will be known
+to you and to me only.  You will understand what I wish to know.  You
+shall have command of a cohort."
+
+Vergilius thought for a second of that strange overhauling of Manius
+the night before, and of the shrewdness of the great father in
+returning him, kindly, to his task, with a pair of eyes to keep watch
+of him.
+
+"With all my heart I thank you," said the young knight.  "But--my
+beloved father--I was hoping to marry and--and know the path of peace."
+
+"But I am sure you will wait two years--only two years," said the
+other, rising with extended hands.  "There is time enough; and
+remember, whether to peace or war, your path is that of duty.
+Farewell!"
+
+It was a way he had of commanding, kindly but inexorable, and Vergilius
+knew it.  Again he spoke as the knight turned away.
+
+"This young Antipater--do you know him?"
+
+"Not well."
+
+"But, possibly, well enough," said the emperor, with a knowing look.
+Then, casually: "Oh, there is yet a little matter--that new king the
+Jews are looking for--if he should come, I suppose he will report to
+me, but--but let me know what you learn.  Study the Jewish faith and
+discover what this hope is founded upon."  Then he turned quickly and
+went away.
+
+This "little matter" counted much with the shrewd emperor.  Kings were
+his puppets, and if there were to be a new one he must, indeed,
+consider what to do with him.  Yet he had shame of his interest in
+"that foolish gossip" of an alien race.  Therefore he put it only as a
+trifling after-thought.  But he had a way of talking with his eyes, and
+the alert youth read them well.
+
+That elation of the young lover now had its boundary of thoughtfulness.
+Going down the Palatine, he was also descending his hill of happiness.
+Below him, in the Forum, he could see the golden mile-stone of
+Augustus, now like a pillar of fire in the sunlight; he could see the
+beginning of those many roads radiating from it to far peripheries of
+the empire.  Tens of thousands had turned their backs upon it, leaving
+with slow feet, some to live in distant, inhospitable lands, some to
+die of fever and the sword, some to return forgotten of their kindred,
+and some few with laurels of renown; but all of these many who went
+away were leaving, for long or forever, love and home and peace.
+
+"The army is sucking our blood, and Hate grows while Love is starving,"
+Vergilius reflected, as he went along, while a hideous, unwelcome
+thought grew slowly, creeping over him.  This golden mile-stone was the
+centre of a great spider-web laced by road and sea way to the far
+corners of the empire; and that cunning, alert man--who was he but the
+spider?
+
+"And I--what am I, now, but one of his flies caught in the mighty web?"
+he thought.  "Love and its peace have come to me and I shall know
+them--for three days--and perhaps no longer."
+
+His wealth and rank and influence might, if used with diplomacy, have
+kept him at home, for, after all, he was a Varro; but Arria had been
+used to press him into bondage.
+
+"Another test!"  he said to himself.  "Ah, what a cunning old fox!  He
+needed a spy, and one of character and noble blood.  How well he tested
+my cleverness!  And now I am his, body and soul."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+While Vergilius, going slowly, was thinking of these things, Vanity,
+the only real goddess who, in Rome, managed the great theatre of
+fashion, had her stage set for a love scene.  It was to occur in the
+triclinium, or great banquet-hall, of a palace--that of the Lady Lucia.
+There were portrait-masks and mural paintings on either wall; ancestral
+statues of white marble stood in a row against the red wall; there were
+seats and divans of ebony enriched by cunning hands; lamp-holders of
+wrought metal standing high as a man's head, and immense violet rugs on
+the floor.  The heroine wore a white robe banded low with purple, and
+her jewelled hair was in fillets of gold.  There was always a pretty
+artfulness in the match-making of a patrician beauty and her mother.
+Indeed, life had grown far from elemental emotions.
+
+"Now, when he enters," said the girl, turning to the Lady Lucia, "I
+shall bring him here at once and sit down by this heap of cushions, and
+then--Oh, god of my heart!  What shall I do with that big man--what
+shall I say to him?"
+
+"My dear, he will speak, and then you will know what to say," said the
+matron.  "Only do not let him know that you love him--at least, not for
+a time yet."
+
+"Too late; I fear he knows it now--the wretch!" said Arria, rubbing her
+cheeks to make them glow.
+
+"But mind you hold him off, and do not let him caress you for an hour
+at least.  One kiss and one only."
+
+"One!" the girl repeated, with contempt.  "How ungenerous are the old!"
+
+"Hard to count are a lover's kisses," her mother answered, with a sigh.
+"But you can use them up in a day.  Really, you can use them up all in
+a day."
+
+"A day full of kisses!  Oh, heart of me!  Think of it!" said the
+beautiful girl, covering her face a moment.  "I will not have the
+yellow cushions," she added, quickly.  "Here, take these and bring me
+two violet ones, and that cushion of gauze filled with rose leaves.  I
+will have that in my lap when we are sitting here.  Now what do you
+think of the colors?" she demanded.
+
+"Beautiful!  And best of all that in your cheeks.  I doubt not he will
+worship you."
+
+"Or he is no kind of a man," said Arria, thoughtfully.  "Oh, son of
+Varro! come, I am waiting.  If he takes me in his arms, what shall I
+do?"
+
+"Thrust him aside--tell him that you do not like it."
+
+"And what shall I do if he does not?"
+
+"Bid him go at once.  We have no need of any half-men."
+
+"But he will," said the girl, with a worried look.  "He shall embrace
+me--he shall, or--or I will bid my brother kill him.  Oh, wretch!"  She
+jumped to her feet with a merry cry.  "I have an idea," she added,
+clapping her hands.  "When the sunlight falls on the floor yonder, I
+will get up and dance in it."
+
+"A pretty trick!" said her mother.
+
+"Oh, son of Varro! why do you not come?" said the girl, impatiently.
+"I love him so I could die for him--I could die for him!  Perhaps he
+loves me not and I shall never see him again."
+
+She hurried to the outer court, whispering anxiously: "Come, son of
+Varro.  Oh, come quickly, son of Varro!"
+
+When Vergilius arrived Arria was waiting for him there in the court of
+the palace.  Her white silk rustled as she ran to meet him.  Her cheeks
+had the pink of roses and her eyes a glow in them like that of
+diamonds.  She stopped as he came near, and turned away.
+
+"Tears?" said he, leaning down, with his arms about her.  "Oh, love,
+let me see your face!"
+
+She turned quickly with a little toss of her head and took a step
+backward.
+
+"You shall not call me love," said she--"not yet.  You have not told me
+that you love me."
+
+"I told all who were at the palace of the great father."
+
+"But you have not told me, son of Varro."
+
+"I do love you."  He was approaching.
+
+"Hush!  Not now," she answered, taking his hand in hers--temporizing.
+"Come, I will race with you."
+
+She ran, leading him, with quick, pattering feet through an inner hall
+and up the long triclinium.  There, presently, she threw herself upon
+the heap of cushions.
+
+"Now, sit," said she, draping her robe and then feeling her hair that
+was aglow with jewels.
+
+A graceful and charming creature was this child of the new empire, a
+noble beauty in her face and form, the value of a small kingdom on her
+body.  "Not so near," said she, as he complied.  "Now, son of my
+father's friend, say what you will and quickly."
+
+"I love you," he began to say.
+
+"Wait," she whispered, stopping him as she turned, looking up and down
+the great hall.  "It is for me alone.  I will not share the words with
+any other.  Now tell me--tell me, son of Varro," she whispered, moving
+nearer; "tell me at once."
+
+"I love you, sweet girl, above gods and men.  You are more to me than
+crowns of laurel and gold, more than all that is in the earth and
+heavens.  My heart burns when I look at you."
+
+He hesitated, pressing her hand upon his lips.
+
+"Is that all?" said she, with a pretty sadness, looking down at the
+golden braces on her fan.  "Now, say it again, all, slowly."
+
+She might as well have told a bird how he should sing.
+
+He went on all unconscious of her command, his words lighted by the
+fire in his heart.  They were as waters rippling in the sun-glow.
+
+"Without you there is no light in the heavens, no beauty in the earth,
+no hope or glory in the future, no joy in my heart.  My sword threatens
+me, dear love, when I think of losing you."
+
+She turned, quickly, with almost a look of surprise.
+
+"It is beautiful," said she, with a sigh; "but is there no more?
+Think, dear, noble knight; do think of more!"
+
+She was near forgetting her plan.  He took her in his arms and kissed
+her.
+
+"Think--think of more," said she, "and I will dance the tourina."
+
+There was a note of gladness in her voice.  It rang merry as a girdle
+of silver bells.  Now, on the floor near them was a golden square of
+sunlight, and, tabret in hand, she sprang up and began to dance in it.
+She moved swiftly back and forth, her arms extended, her white robe
+flowing above the sapphires in each purple fillet on her ankles.
+
+"Now, dear Vergilius, tell me, why do you love me?" she said, throwing
+herself upon the cushions near him with glowing cheeks.
+
+"Because you are Arria.  Because Arria is you.  Because I must, for
+your pure and noble heart and for your beauty," said he.  "When I look
+upon you I forget my dreams of war and conquest; I think only of peace
+and love and have no longer the heart to slay.  Oh, sweet Arria!  I
+feel as if I should fling my swords into the Tiber."
+
+"Oh, my love! could I make you throw your swords into the Tiber I
+should be very happy."  Her eyes had turned serious and thoughtful.
+Her girlish trickery had come to an end.  Vanity retired, now, and Love
+had sole command.
+
+He put his arms about her and rained kisses upon her face, her hair,
+her eyes.  "Say it all again, dear Vergilius--say it a hundred times,"
+she whispered.
+
+"My dear one, I love you more than I can say.  Now am I prepared to
+speak in deeds, in faithfulness, in devotion."
+
+"But, once more, why do you love me?  Why me?" said she, moving aside
+with an air of preoccupation, her chin resting upon her hand, her elbow
+upon the gauze pillow of rose leaves in her lap.  "Is it my beauty more
+than myself?"
+
+"No," he answered; "your beauty is intoxicating, and I thank the gods
+for it, but your sweet self, your soul, is more, far more to me than
+your grace and all your loveliness."
+
+She had dreamed of such love but never hoped for it, and now all the
+pretty tricks she had thought of had become as the mummery of fools.
+She sat in silence for a little space, her eyes upon her girdle, and a
+new and serious look came into her face.
+
+"I shall try, then," said she, presently--"I shall try to be noble.
+But shall you--shall you truly throw your swords into the Tiber?"
+
+"Would I might," said he, sadly.  "And now I must tell you--"  He
+paused, and Arria turned quickly, her lips trembling as her color faded.
+
+"In three days I go to Jerusalem," he added, "by command of the
+emperor."
+
+"For how long?" she whispered, her eyes taking years upon them as the
+seconds flew.
+
+"For two years."
+
+Quickly she hid her face in the cushions and her body quivered.  That
+old, familiar cry, which had in it the history and the doom of Rome,
+rang in the great halls around them--that cry of forsaken women.
+
+"The iron foot is upon us," said he.  "Do not let it tread you down as
+it has other women.  Be my vestal and guard the holy fire of love."
+
+Then he told of Cyran, the slave-girl, and added: "I leave her in your
+care.  Every day she will cause you to think of me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+It was near the middle hour of the night.  Many, just out of
+banquet-hall, theatre, and circus, thronged the main thoroughfares of
+the capital.  Cries of venders, ribald songs, shouts of revelry, the
+hurrying of many feet roused the good people who, wearied by other
+nights of dissipation, now sought repose.  They turned, uneasily,
+reflecting that to-morrow they would have their revenge.
+
+Antipater had dined with but a single guest--a young priest, who,
+arriving that very day from Damascus, had sought the palace of his
+countryman.  The service at his table had not pleased the prince.
+Leaping from his couch, he struck down a slave and ordered his
+crucifixion.  It was a luckless Arab, who many times had unwittingly
+offended his master.
+
+Now the son of Herod lay asleep where, a little time ago, he had been
+feasting.  Manius, who had just entered the palace of his friend, came
+into the banquet-hall.  He touched the arm of Antipater, who started
+with a curse and rose with an apology.
+
+"I was dreaming of foes and I see a friend," he muttered.  "Forgive me,
+noble Manius."
+
+The prince pulled a golden bell-cord that shone against the green
+pargeting of the wall.
+
+"Now to our business," he whispered, turning to the officer.
+
+They crossed the atrium, descended a stairway, and threw open a barred
+door.  They were now in a gloomy passage between walls of marble.
+Antipater halted, presently, and tapped with his seal ring on a metal
+door.  Then a rattle of bolts and the door swung open.
+
+"Now," Antipater whispered, "are you of the same mind?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"And again you swear secrecy?"
+
+"I do."
+
+Without more delay they entered a room walled with white marble and
+lighted by candles.  A bearded Jew, in a scarlet cloak embroidered with
+gold, rose to greet them.
+
+"To John ben Joreb I present the noble Manius," said Antipater.
+
+"Blessings of the one God be upon thee," said Ben Joreb, bowing low.
+
+"And the favor of many gods on thee," said the assessor.  "From
+Jerusalem?"
+
+"Nay, from Damascus."
+
+Antipater stirred the fire in iron braziers on either side of the room,
+and then bade them recline beside him at a small table whereon a supper
+waited.
+
+"Ben Joreb has good news of our plan," said he, turning to Manius.
+
+"It prospers," said the priest.  "Our council is now in thirty cities."
+
+"And the king is better," said Manius.  "He will not soon perish of
+infirmity."
+
+"But you tell me that my father suffers?"
+
+Antipater started nervously.  A long, weird wail from the Arab dying on
+a cross in the garden flooded down the flues.
+
+"A hundred deaths a day," said Ben Joreb.
+
+"I have been talking with Manius," Antipater answered.  "He thinks it
+would be a mercy to--"
+
+He was interrupted again.  That tremulous, awful cry for mercy found
+its way to his ear.  It seemed to mock the sacred word.  Antipater
+jumped to his feet, cursing.
+
+"I will put an end to that," said he, rushing to the door and flinging
+it back and running down the passage.
+
+Manius turned to Ben Joreb.
+
+"What is there in the howling of that slave?" he whispered.  "I am
+weak-hearted."
+
+"I take it for a sign," the other answered, gravely.  "It is written,
+'Thy spirit shall be as the candle of the Lord,' and, again, 'Thou
+shall hearken to the cry of anguish.'"
+
+In a few moments Antipater returned.
+
+"I have summoned the carnifex," said he, bolting the door and resuming
+his place at the table.  "I was saying to you, good Manius, that my
+friend here, Ben Joreb, would think it a great mercy to remove him."
+
+"A great mercy!" Ben Joreb answered; "a man's mercy to him; a God's
+mercy to his people."
+
+"And what think you?" said Antipater, turning to Manius.
+
+"I agree; 'twould be a mercy, but a risky enterprise," said the Roman.
+
+"I would risk my head to save him a day of pain," said the treacherous
+son of Herod.  "You love him not as I do or you would brave all to end
+his misery."
+
+There was now half a moment filled with a long, piercing cry from
+beyond the walls of the palace until Antipater spoke, a tiger look in
+his face again.  "Put the lance into him, my good carnifex," he
+growled, striking with clinched fist.  "Again, now; and again, and
+again."
+
+He listened for a breath, and as silence came he added, "There, that
+will do."
+
+Neither spoke for a little time.
+
+"I wish I could make you feel how dearly I love my father," he went on,
+addressing his friends now and hiding his claws with revolting guile
+and all unconscious that he had shown them.
+
+Again a breath of silence, in which Manius thought of the black leopard
+when he lay making those playful and caressing movements on the floor.
+And there came to the heart of Ben Joreb a fear that this man might
+prove more terrible than his father.
+
+"We feel it," said Manius, with inner smiles that showed not upon his
+face.
+
+"Then be servants of my love."
+
+"And of our own welfare?"
+
+"Certainly!  You shall each have a palace in Jerusalem and fifty
+thousand aurei; and you, Manius, shall command the forces on land and
+sea, and you, John ben Joreb, of the tribe of Aaron, shall be
+high-priest."
+
+"I agree," said Manius, an overwhelming cupidity in the words.
+
+"And I agree," said the Jew, who had entered upon this intrigue with
+motives of patriotism, and now, although suspicious of the result, was
+committed beyond a chance of turning.
+
+"Angels of mercy!" Antipater exclaimed, rising and taking a hand of
+each in his.  "My love shall be ever a shield and weapon for you.  One
+other thing.  The couriers who bring to Rome news of my father's
+death--bid them hurry and take with them, also, word of the illness of
+that dog Vergilius.  After they leave let him not linger in needless
+pain--do you understand me?  For that, I say, each of you shall have
+five thousand aurei added to his wealth."
+
+The others nodded.
+
+"Now take this--it may be useful," whispered the prince of Judea,
+handing a little golden box to the assessor.  "There is something in it
+will hasten the effect of wine--a fine remedy for a weary land, good
+Manius.  He that makes it a friend shall have no enemies.  Hold, let me
+think.  That old fox on the hill yonder has a thousand eyes and his
+ears are everywhere.  Not a word, Manius, after we leave this door.  In
+yon passage turn to the right.  Walk until your head touches the
+ceiling, then creep to the door.  Open it and use your ears.  If no one
+is passing, go straight ahead.  You will come to a gate on the Via
+Sacra.  You," he added, turning to Ben Joreb, "shall leave by the main
+gate."
+
+When both had gone, this prince of Judea walked across the inner hall
+of his palace and flung himself on the cushions of a great divan.
+
+A swarthy eunuch came near him on tip-toe.
+
+"Begone!"  The word burst from the lips of Antipater in a hoarse growl,
+and, like a tiger's paw, his hand struck the cushions in front of him.
+As he lay blinking drowsily, his chin upon his hands, there was still
+in his face and attitude a suggestion of the monster cat.
+
+And he thought fondly of his wreaking of vengeance when he should be
+crowned the great king of prophetic promise--of the fury of armies, of
+the stench of the slain, of the cry of the ravished, of "mountains
+melting in blood."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+It was the fifth anniversary of that resolution of the senate fathers
+to consecrate the altar of Peace.  Pilgrims thronged the city, and some
+had journeyed far.  Tens of thousands surrounded the great monument,
+immense and beautiful beyond any in the knowledge of men.  It
+signalized a remarkable state of things--the world was at peace.  More
+than seven centuries before that day an idea had entered the heart of a
+prophet; now it was in the very heart of the world.  This heap of
+marble, under pagan gods, had given it grand, if only partial,
+expression.  There was no symbol of war in the long procession of its
+upper frieze, and its lower was like a sculptured song of peace wrought
+in fruits and bees and birds and blossoms.  Here was a mighty plant
+flowering twice a year and giving its seed to the four winds.  Every
+July and January its erection was celebrated in the imperial republic.
+
+Vergilius stood beside the emperor that day when, at the Ars Pacis
+Augustas, he addressed the people.
+
+"I have been reading," he said, "the words of a certain dreamer of
+Judea, who, in the olden time, wrote of a day when swords should be
+beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks, and when peace
+should reign among the nations of the earth.  Well, give me an army for
+a hundred years, good people, and then I may voice the will of the gods
+that iron be used no more to plough its way in living flesh, but only
+to turn the furrow and to prune the tree.  Meanwhile, believe me, every
+man must learn to love honor and virtue, and to respect his neighbor,
+and the gods above all."
+
+A hundred years!  The playful emperor knew not how quickly a man passes
+and how slowly, how exceeding slowly, moves the great procession of
+mankind.  But so it befell; the very right hand of Jupiter had helped
+in the sowing of that seed which, as it grew, was to lift the
+foundations of his power.
+
+Vergilius left the scene with Augustus.  They rode away in the royal
+litter.
+
+"In all the great cities men are speaking to-day of the value of peace
+and honor," said the subtle emperor--a sceptic in religion, a cynic in
+philosophy, a rake in private life, and a conqueror who commanded
+"peace" with a trained army of four hundred and fifty thousand men.
+
+"It is a great thing to do," said the young knight.
+
+"Give me men enough to say it, and if they grow not weary I will bring
+the world to believe that the sun is only the breast-plate of Jupiter,"
+said Augustus.  "Honor and peace are good things--do not forget that,
+my young friend.  Give the words to your tongue, not flippantly, but
+with a sober eye, and often, my brave knight--often.  You leave
+to-morrow--have you made ready?"
+
+"Ready but for the leave-taking;" this with a sigh.
+
+"It ill becomes you to be cast down.  Shake your heart with
+laughter--it will roll away the stone of regret.  Buy a fool, my young
+friend.  For five thousand denarii you may obtain a most excellent
+fool."
+
+He knew the price of all, from the hewer of wood to the crowned king,
+but only he could afford a slave like that.
+
+"I should prefer a wise man," said the young knight.
+
+"Philosophers are more expensive," the father continued,
+craftily--"twenty thousand denarii, and dear at that.  They will teach
+you little but discontent.  I recommend a grammarian."
+
+The old emperor turned his cunning eyes upon the face of Vergilius.
+
+"Forty thousand, at least, for a good one," he added; "but a youth of
+your talent should remember the value of immortal fame."  Word and look
+were a hint to the young man that he should prepare himself with all
+diligence for an active career in the senate.  The youth understood
+their meaning and was a trifle comforted.  There was no promise nor the
+least warrant for a claim--it was only the emperor's way of guiding.
+
+They were now passing a row of shops on the Via Claudia.  The emperor,
+putting his hand out of the door, motioned to his lecticarii and they
+halted.
+
+"Come with me," said the great man.  They left the litter and entered a
+large shop.  There Augustus bought many gifts for the young man--new
+arms, a beautiful corselet, a girdle of the look of knitted gold--for
+the Roman wore a girdle in Judea--articles of apparel suited to the
+climate of the Far East.  The shop had filled with people, who tried to
+cover their curiosity by the purchase of trifles.
+
+"This cloth would make a fine toga," said the shopkeeper.
+
+The emperor surveyed it closely.
+
+"Let me hold it up to the light and then you will see its texture," the
+other continued.
+
+"You are a hard master," said Augustus.
+
+"You would have us walk on the house-tops to show the fineness of our
+togas?  It is enough.  Let us pass, good people."
+
+A cheer, starting at the shop door, went to the far sides of the city.
+It signified that the emperor was out among the people and in his best
+mood.
+
+Their nomenclator cleared a way for them to the litter and they sat
+down again, facing each other, the emperor and the boy.
+
+"If I had your riches," the great man remarked, as they went on, "I
+wonder what I should do with them."
+
+"You jest with me, good father," said Vergilius.
+
+"Nay, but I envy you; for have you not youth and love and the beauty of
+Apollo?"
+
+He laid his hand upon the arm of the boy, and there was in his voice
+and manner a gentleness to make one regret that he lived not in a
+better time; for, perhaps, after all, he was what he had to be as the
+ruthless conqueror of a savage world.
+
+"And I--what have I but burdens I dare not lay aside?  When I sleep,
+even, they press upon me.  I am weary--but if I should let them fall,
+what, think you, would happen?"
+
+His keen eyes, seeing before them, possibly, the great down-rush to
+madness, pressed a glance into the very soul of the young man.  The
+latter started to reply, but with a look the emperor forbade him.
+
+"Think, good youth--learn to think.  It will profit you--there is so
+little competition.  By-and-by Rome will need you."
+
+Gently, forcefully this teacher of statesmen had given the young knight
+his first lesson.  It was nearing its end now.  The litter had stopped
+hard by the gate of the Lady Lucia.
+
+"I wonder how you knew my destination," said Vergilius.
+
+"You credit me with small discernment.  Learn to know things that are
+not told you--it is the beginning of wisdom."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+Arria met them in the atrium.  She saw not the great father of Rome,
+but only her lover, and ran to him with a little cry of delight.
+
+The playful emperor mounted a chair and stood looking down at them.
+
+"I am so small here in the presence of this great king," said he, as
+they turned to him.  "Were my head as high as the ceiling I am sure I
+should not be seen."
+
+"What long, good father?" said Arria, bowing low.
+
+"Love!  'Tis better, I have heard, to be ruler of one than of many.
+You give him kisses, little tyrant, and me not a glance."
+
+He looked down, smiling at the pretty maiden.
+
+"Because 'tis he I love," said she, her cheeks red with blushes, her
+eyes upon her sandals.  "You--you have been cruel."
+
+"I am sadly out of favor," said Augustus, playfully, stepping to the
+floor.  "If the great king dared, I am sure he would cut off my head,
+now.  Let him not condemn me without trial.  Remember the law of Rome."
+
+"You are sending my love away."  Her voice trembled as she spoke.
+
+"And happy are you, sweet girl, to have so much to give to your
+country."
+
+There was a moment of silence.  Then said the emperor: "Be merry.  'Tis
+not for long."
+
+"'Tis a thousand years!" said she, sadly.
+
+He was fond of the young, and her frank innocence appealed to all best
+in the heart of the old emperor.  He turned to greet the Lady Lucia.
+
+"Come with me, son of Varro," said Arria, taking the arm of her lover
+and leading him away.  "It will soon be to-morrow."
+
+"And I am acquitted?"  So spoke the emperor.
+
+"You are condemned to the company of my mother," said Arria, quickly.
+
+She wore a tunic of the color of violets, with not a jewel.  Now she
+led her lover to a heap of yellow cushions in the triclinium.
+
+"Dear Vergilius," said she, turning to him with a serious look as they
+sat down; "tell me again--say to me again how you love me."  She held
+his hand against her cheek and her eyes looked into his.
+
+"Oh, my beloved!  I have thought of naught else since I saw you.  I
+have heard your pretty feet and the rustle of your tunic in my dreams;
+I have felt the touch of your hands; every moment I have seen your
+face--now glowing with happiness, now white and lovely with sorrow.
+And, dear, I love its sorrow--I confess to you that I love its sorrow
+better than its happiness.  I saw in your sad eyes, then, a thing
+dearer than their beauty.  It told me that you felt as I feel--that you
+would live and, if need be, die for the love of me."
+
+The girl listened thoughtfully, and moved close to her lover; he took
+her in his arms.  She had dreamed of many things to say, but now she
+only whispered to him, her lips against his ear, the simple message: "I
+love you, I love you, I love you."  Then: "But I forgot," said she,
+pushing him away, a note of fear in her voice.  She straightened the
+folds of her tunic, and drew the transparent silk close to her full,
+white bosom.  It was all unconscious as the trick of a wooing bird.
+
+"And what did you forget?" he inquired.
+
+"That you are you, and a man," said she, sighing.  "In some way it
+is--it is such a pity, I dare not suffer you to caress me.  And
+yet--and yet, I do love it."
+
+"And your lips," said he, embracing her, "they are to me as the gate of
+Elysium!"
+
+"It may be we are now in the islands of the blest and know them not,"
+she whispered.
+
+She tried to draw herself away.
+
+"I will not let you go.  Indeed, I cannot let you go."
+
+"And I am glad," she answered, with a little laugh, her hand caressing
+his brow.  "I do love the feel of your arms and your lips--beautiful
+son of Varro!"
+
+"I will not let you go until--until you have promised to be my bride.
+Think, the term is only two years."
+
+"Be it one or many, I will be your bride," said she.  "And although you
+were never to return, yet would I always wait for you and think of this
+day."
+
+She drew herself away and sat thoughtful, her chin upon her hands.
+
+"Now are you most beautiful," said he, "with that little touch of
+sorrow in your face.  It gives me high thoughts to look at you."
+
+While they were thus sitting a woman, well past middle age, came into
+their presence.  She stopped near the feet of Arria.  It was her
+grandmother, the Lady Claudia, once a beauty of the great capital, now
+gray and wrinkled, but still erect with patrician pride.
+
+Vergilius had risen quickly, bowed low, and kissed her hand.
+
+"I often saw you, son of my friend, when you were a child," said she.
+"I remember when you were young you went away with the legions."
+
+"To learn the art of war," he answered.
+
+"Sit down, dear grandmother," said the girl, as he brought a chair.
+"Now let her hear you tell me why it is that you have chosen me, dear
+Vergilius--let her hear you."
+
+"I know not.  Perhaps because your beauty, sweet girl, is like the
+snare of the fowler and brought me to your hand.  Then something in
+your eyes captured the heart of me--something better than beauty.  It
+is the light of your soul.  Love and peace and innocence and gentleness
+and all good are in it.  That is why."
+
+The two embraced each other.  The Lady Claudia rose and came and put
+her hands upon them, and her voice trembled with emotion.
+
+"They are beautiful," said she, "the kisses of the young, and their
+words are as the music of Apollo's lyre.  I thank the gods I have seen
+it all again.  But you are going away to-morrow.  Son of Varro, be not
+as other men.  Remember it is not well for women to live apart from the
+men they love."
+
+"I leave at daybreak," said the young knight.  "'Tis for two years, so
+said the emperor; for 'only' two years."
+
+"She shall not be as others I have known," said the Lady Claudia.  "It
+is an evil time, good youth; but, remember, as men are so are women.
+Last night I dreamed a wonderful dream of you two, and of a sweet,
+immortal love between men and women.  Some say the dreams of men are,
+indeed, the plans of the gods.  Pray to them.  It may be they will give
+you this great love."
+
+"It is here--it is in her soul and mine!" the youth declared, his arm
+about Arria.  "It has prepared us for any trial--even parting."
+
+"I have so much happiness already," said the girl.  "So much--it will
+keep me through many years."
+
+"Then it is the great love, and I thank the gods I have seen it," said
+the Lady Claudia.  "Who may say where it shall end?"  She came near
+them as she spoke and offered her cheek to the boy.  He kissed her, and
+she went away with tears upon her face.
+
+"Now you are brave and strong with this great love in you," said
+Vergilius.  "Let it bear you up as I leave the palace.  Promise you
+will not cry out.  If you do, my beloved, I shall hear always the sound
+of mourning when I think of you."
+
+"Then I shall not weep," said she, bravely, but with a little quiver in
+her voice.
+
+She knew the old story of a young man's love--how often he went away
+with sweet words, to return, if ever, hardened to stern trials and
+bloody work, his vows long forgotten.
+
+"For your sake, dear Vergilius, I will be calm," she added.
+
+"Now sit here," said he, as he led her to the heap of cushions, "just
+as I saw you a little time ago.  Rest your chin upon your hands.
+There; now your soul is in your eyes.  Let me see only this picture as
+I go."
+
+He took a handful of her curls and let them fall upon her shoulders.
+Then he crowned her with a sprig of vervain from a vase near by.
+
+"I will not weep--I will not weep," she repeated, her voice trembling
+as he touched her hair.
+
+He moved backward slowly, as one might leave a queen.  Her eyes
+followed him, and suddenly she rose and flew to his arms again.
+
+"I will not weep--I will not weep," said she, brokenly.  Again he held
+her to his breast.
+
+"Though you get fame and glory, forget not love," she whispered.
+
+"Dear one," he exclaimed, kissing her, "this hour shall be in every day
+of my life."
+
+"But with adventures and battles and the praise of kings it is so easy
+to forget."
+
+"But with one so noble and so beautiful at home it will be easy to
+remember.  Let us be brave.  I am only a woman myself to-day.  Help me
+to be a man."
+
+He led her again to the cushions, and she sat as before--a picture,
+now, beyond all art, sublime indeed with love and sorrow and
+trustfulness and repression.  It was that look of abnegation upon her
+that he remembered.
+
+"I shall not rise nor speak again, dear son of Varro," said she.  "You
+shall know that my love for you has made me strong.  See, dear love.
+Look at my face and see how brave I am."  Her voice, now calm, had in
+it some power that touched him deeply.  It was the great, new love
+between men and women---forerunner of the mighty revolution.
+
+He stood silent, looking down at her.  The song of a nightingale rang
+in the great halls.  He turned and brought a lyre that lay on a table
+near them.  She took it in her hands.  Then it seemed as if her sorrow
+fell upon the strings, and in their music was the voice of her soul.
+
+He bowed before her, whispering a prayer; he put all his soul into one
+long look and quickly went away.
+
+Then she rose and ran to the end of the banquet-hall.  "I can hear his
+voice," she whispered.  "No, I must not go--I must not go."
+
+A moment followed in which there came to her a sound of distant voices.
+She stilled her sobs and listened.  She ran towards the loved voice and
+checked her eager feet.
+
+She stood a moment with arms extended.  The sound grew fainter and a
+hush fell.  She ran to the white statue of the little god Eros, and,
+kneeling, threw her arms around the shapely form and wept bitterly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+The dark was lifting as Vergilius entered the Field of Mars.  There
+were lanterns about his litter, and far and near, in lines and
+clusters, he could see lights on the plain, some moving, some standing
+still.  Hard by the Tiber he joined a small troop of horse, and
+vaulting on the shaft of his lance, mounted a white charger.  Manius
+wheeled into place beside him at the head of the column.  A quaestor
+called the roll.
+
+"Ready?" Vergilius inquired, turning to Manius.
+
+"All ready," the other answered.
+
+Then a trumpet sounded and those many feet had begun the long journey
+to Jerusalem.  They made their way to the Forum.  Scores of women and
+children of the families of those departing had gathered by the golden
+mile-stone.  The troop halted.  Those who had been waiting in the dank,
+chill air sought to press in among the horses.  It was hard to keep
+them back.  Vergilius, full of his own sorrow, felt for them and gave
+them good time.  A little group, in gray paenula and veils, were
+watching from without the crowd.  He moved aside, beckoning to them.
+
+"Make your farewells," said he, as they came near.  "We shall be off in
+a moment."
+
+A beautiful white hand was extended to him.  He took it in his, and
+then quickly pressed it to his lips.
+
+"Farewell, dear love!" he whispered.
+
+A quick pressure answered him, and the veiled figure turned away.  Then
+a trumpet-call, a flash of blue vexilla and silver eagles in the air,
+and, a moment later, some eighty hoofs were drumming in the Appian Way.
+For a little the horsemen heard them that were left behind, wailing.
+
+"It is like a sticking of pigs to leave a lot of plebeian women," said
+Manius, when the sound was far out of hearing.
+
+"An arrow in the heart of the soldier, but I think it good," said
+Vergilius.  "For a time, at least, Rome will be dear to him."
+
+There were forty men riding in the troop, all lancers, saving a few
+slingers and bowmen.  They rattled over the hard Way at a pace of
+fifteen miles an hour.  It was an immense, rock-paved road--this Appian
+Way--straight, wide, and level, flinging its arches over fen, river,
+and valley, and breaking through hill and mountain to the distant sea.
+No citizen might bring his horse upon it unless a diploma had been
+granted him--it was, indeed, for the larger purposes of the government.
+After two hours they drew up at a posting-house and changed horses.
+They rode this mount some forty miles, halting at a large inn, its
+doors flush with the road.  A transport and postal train bound for Rome
+was expected shortly, and, before eating, Vergilius wrote a letter and
+had it ready when the wagons came rattling in a deep-worn rut, behind
+teams of horses moving at a swift gallop.  There were five wagons in
+the train, bearing letters and light merchandise from the south.  Hard
+by was one of the wheelwright-shops that lined the great thoroughfare.
+The train stopped only a moment for water and a new wheel, then rushed
+along on its way to the capital.  A light meal of bread and porridge,
+half an hour of rest, and again, with new horses, the troop was in full
+career.  A sense of loneliness grew in the heart of the youth as he
+journeyed.  Lover and soldier had fought their duel, and the latter was
+outdone.  But the lover's courage was now sorely tried.  Every mounted
+courier hastening to Rome on the south road bore a letter from the
+young man to her he loved.  He met a legion of infantry going north,
+and envied every soldier, sweating under a set pace of four miles to
+the hour and a burden of sixty pounds--shield, helmet, breast-plate,
+pilum, swords, intrenching tools, stakes for a palisade, and corn for
+seventeen days.
+
+A trireme was waiting for them on the Adriatic Sea, and Vergilius,
+Manius, and their escort sailed to northwestern Macedonia, mounted
+horses again, galloping over the great highway to Athens; crossed by
+trireme to Ephesus, thence to Antioch by the long sea-road, and,
+agreeably with orders, they began to leave their men at forts along the
+frontier.
+
+Events on the way filled him with contempt for his country and for
+himself.  Here and there he met people travelling under imperial passes
+that gave them the use of the road and a right of free levy for
+subsistence, often much abused.  These travellers were people of
+leisure from the large cities, wont to stretch their power to the point
+of robbery.  He saw them seizing slaves and cattle from terrified
+agrarians; he saw Manius strike a man down for resenting insults to his
+daughter; he saw the deadly toil of the oarsmen, the bitter punishment
+of the cross.
+
+His heart was now sore and sensitive.  Was it the new love which had
+flung off its shield of sternness and left it exposed to every lash
+that flew?  The misery of others afflicted him.  Thoughts of injustice
+grew into motives of action, the loss of faith into the gain of
+unutterable longing.  Who were these gods who heard not the cry of the
+weak and were ever on the side of the strong?  Were they only in those
+hands of power that flung their levin from the Palatine?  Could he, who
+had learned to love innocence and purity, love also the foul harpy
+which Rome had become?  It seemed to him difficult to reconcile the
+love of Arria and the love of Rome.  Was the time not, indeed, overdue
+when the wicked should tremble and the proud should bow themselves,
+according to that song of the slave-girl?
+
+From Antioch they turned southward, passing the cloistered plain paved
+with polished marble, and hurried to Damascus.  Thence they rode to
+Jerusalem.  The troop had dwindled to a squad of six, and came slowly
+into the ancient capital at dawn.  From afar they could hear bugles at
+the castle of Antonia.
+
+"They are changing the guard," Manius remarked.
+
+Having entered the city gates, they passed throngs of cattle and their
+drivers and many worshippers hurrying to the temple.  One of the latter
+stopped, and, pointing to the eagles and the medallion of Augustus on
+their signa, shouted loudly:
+
+"I thank Thee, O God, and the God of my fathers, that I am not of them
+who provoke Thine anger with the graven image."
+
+A chant of many voices from the temple roof floated over the plain,
+saying:
+
+"The light has come as far as Hebron."
+
+Vergilius turned, looking up at the splendid Doric temple of Jerusalem.
+As he looked, the sun's rays fell on a great, golden lantern before a
+thicket of high columns in its eastern portico.  It was the signal for
+another outburst of trumpets.
+
+"They are now making incense for the nostrils of Jehovah," said Manius.
+"Soon they will offer him one of the most beautiful lambs in Judea."
+
+In a few moments they drew up at the castle of Antonia.  News of their
+coming had reached Jerusalem by courier, three days before.  The
+captain of the guard repeated part of the introduction.
+
+"Vergilius, son of Varro, sent by the great father?" said he, in a tone
+of inquiry.
+
+"And worn with much riding," said the young knight.
+
+"I have a message for you.  It is from the king."
+
+"He would see me at once," said Vergilius, having read it.
+
+"The sooner you go the more gracious you will be like to find him,"
+said Manius, with a smile.
+
+"My apparel!  It is on the transport and has not yet arrived."
+
+"But you have arrived, and forget not you are in the land of Herod--a
+most impatient king."
+
+"He will not know, however, that we have come," Vergilius answered.
+
+"Friend of Caesar," said the captain of the guard, "within an hour he
+will know everything you have done since you entered the city--whither
+you went, to whom you spoke, and what you said, and perhaps even what
+you thought."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+The characters of Herod and Augustus were as far apart as their
+capitals.  Extremes of temperament were in these two.  The Roman was
+cold, calm, of unfailing prudence; the Jew hot-blooded, reckless, and
+warmed by a word into startling and frank ferocity.  The one was keen
+and delicate, the other blunt and robust.  The emperor was a fox, the
+king a lion.  Herod and his people were now worried with mutual
+distrust.  He had no faith in any man, and no man--not even the emperor
+by whose sufferance he held the crown--had any faith in him.  The king
+feared the people and the people feared the king.
+
+Herod began his career with good purposes.  An erect, powerful, and
+handsome youth of Arabic and Idumaean blood, brave with lance and
+charger, he raided the bandit chieftain Hezekias and slew him, with all
+his followers.  The Sanhedrim thought not of his valor but only of the
+ancient law he had broken.  They put him on trial for usurping the
+power of life and death.  In the midst of his peril he escaped, taking
+with him the seed of those dark revenges which, when he got the crown,
+destroyed all save a single member of the old court of justice and the
+confidence of his people.
+
+His household became the scene of bloody intrigues which even stirred
+the tongue of Caesar with contempt.  Herod became the dupe of a
+designing sister, of base flatterers, and of an evil and ambitious son.
+They undermined his confidence in all who deserved it.  His beloved
+wife Mariamne, his two sons Alexander and Aristobulus, and many others
+of exceptional good repute in the kingdom were unjustly put to death.
+Then, swiftly, as he penetrated the maze of plot and counterplot, those
+who had fooled him began to fall before his wrath.  He was now, indeed,
+a forlorn, loveless, and terrible creature.
+
+Many thought him afflicted with madness.  There were noble folk in
+Jerusalem who said they had seen the body of Mariamne embalmed in
+honey, above the king's chamber, where every day he could look upon it.
+Some had seen him wandering about the palace at night with a candle,
+mourning over his loss and raging at his own folly.  Some had seen him
+so shaken by remorse that he roared like a lion goaded by hunger and
+the lance.  At such a time it was, indeed, a peril to come before him.
+Plots against his life had worried him, and, distrusting his helpers,
+he was wont to go about the city in disguise seeking information.
+Twice he had forgiven Antipater, his favorite son, for crimes in the
+royal household.
+
+Now, in his seventy-sixth year, the king was, indeed, sorely pressed
+with trouble.  Jerusalem was the centre of a plot formidable and
+far-reaching.  Its object was, in part, clear to him, or so he thought,
+and with some reason.  It seemed to aim at his removal and the crowning
+of a mysterious king of prophecy, who, many said, was now waiting the
+death of Herod.  It baffled him.  He saw signs that many had their
+heads together in this plot.  So far, however, he had not been able to
+lay hands upon them.  There were many theories about the new king.
+They were strange and conflicting and zealously put forth.  They
+differed as to whether he were yet born and as to his divinity, his
+character, and his purposes.  The Sanhedrim held that when he came into
+the world there would be certain signs and portents seen of all men.
+This conflict of authority increased the confusion of Herod.  When
+Vergilius came to his capital the king was mired on the very edge of
+the great mystery.
+
+Powers of darkness ruled the city of Jerusalem.  The sword, the lance,
+the dagger, and the wheel were wreaking vengeance and creating new
+perils while they were removing old ones.  The king had tried vainly to
+repair the past.  He gave freely to the poor; he erected gorgeous
+places of amusement; he built the new temple and a great palace in the
+upper city.  The splendor of the latter structures had outdone the
+imperator.  No shape born of barbaric dreams, to be slowly spread upon
+the earth in marble and gold, had so taxed the cunning and the patience
+of human hands.  Such, in brief, were the character, the troubles, the
+home, and the city of Herod.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+In travel-worn garb Vergilius went early to see the king.  Accustomed
+to the grandeur of Rome itself, he yet saw with astonishment the
+beautiful groves, the lakes, canals, and fountains sparkling in the
+sunlight which surrounded the great marble palace of Herod.  In the
+shadow of its many towers, each thirty cubits high, Vergilius began to
+feel some dread of this terrible king.  At least fifty paces from the
+door of his chamber, in the great hall above-stairs, he could hear the
+growl of the old lion.  In Herod was the voice of wrath and revenge and
+terror.  His words came rolling out in a deep, husky, guttural tone, or
+leaped forth hissing with anger.  Some officials stood by the king's
+door with fear and dread upon their faces.  A young woman of singular
+beauty was among them.
+
+"O Salome, daughter of Herod," said one, "the king would have you come
+to-morrow.  He is in ill humor with the plotters."
+
+"And I with him," said she, stamping her foot.
+
+An usher had presented Vergilius at the door.  As Herod's daughter
+proudly turned away, she came face to face with the young Roman noble.
+For one moment their eyes held each other.  A chamberlain approached
+Vergilius, whispered a few inquiries, and then led him before the king.
+Herod was having a bad day.
+
+"Traitors!" he hissed.  In a voice like the menacing growl of a savage
+beast he added: "May their eyes rot in their heads!  Go!  I have heard
+enough, bearer of evil tidings."
+
+Far down the great chamber in which half a cohort could have stood
+comfortably, in a carved chair on a dais, under a vault and against a
+background of blue, Babylonian tapestry, sat the king.  A priest had
+bowed low and was now leaving his presence.  The chamberlain announced,
+in a loud voice, "Vergilius, son of Varro, of Rome, and officer of the
+fatherly and much-beloved Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus."
+
+The king sat erect, a purple tarboosh and crown of wrought gold upon
+his head.  As Vergilius approached, the dark, suspicious eyes of Herod
+were surveying him from under long, quivering tufts of gray hair.  His
+great body, in its prime, must have been like that of Achilles.
+
+"Stand where you are, son of Varro," said the king, as he moved
+nervously.  His broad shoulders were beginning to bend a little under
+their burden of trouble and disease.  The harrow of pain and passion
+had roughened his face with wrinkles.  His manner was alert and
+watchful.
+
+"Have you seen my son?" he inquired, quickly.
+
+"Yes, great sire, and he was well."
+
+"And is he not comely?"
+
+"Ay, and brave with his lance."
+
+"And a born king," said Herod.  "I have fixed my heart upon him.  I
+have no other to love--but the great imperator.  And how is he?"
+
+"I left him well, good sire."
+
+"Stand a moment, son of Varro," said the king, with an impatient
+gesture.  An attendant approached him and spoke in a low tone.  Herod,
+snarled like a huge cat when the lance threatens.
+
+"Break him on the rack," he muttered; "and unless he tell, crucify
+him--crucify him.  He shall do me no further injury.  That priest
+Lugar, bring him back to me.  Quickly now, bring him to me!"
+
+The attendant hurried away, soon returning with him who had retired as
+Vergilius entered the king's chamber.
+
+"Saw you the men of learning in Ascalon?" the king demanded.
+
+"I did."
+
+"What said they?"
+
+There was a moment of silence.
+
+"Out with it," said the king, fiercely.  "Must I put every man upon the
+rack?  Speak, and that you may tell the truth I shall not demand their
+names."
+
+"They, also, look for the new king," said Lugar.  "Many believe he is
+already born.  They say that on your death he will declare himself."
+
+"And they, too, pray for my death?"
+
+"Most earnestly, my beloved king."
+
+"Traitors!" said Herod, and as he spoke his powerful hands were tearing
+his kerchief into rags.  "I shall soon change the burden of their
+prayers.  Go tell them this: the day I die two of the wisest men from
+every city in the kingdom shall die also.  Go everywhere, and tell
+these learned doctors they had best pray for my good health."
+
+The priest bowed before his king and retired.  The pagan noble looked
+up at this ruler of the land of the one God and felt a thrill of
+horror.  Herod, turning quickly, beckoned to the young knight, his
+wrinkles quivering with anger.  Now, indeed, he was like a lion at bay.
+
+"Ha-a!" he roared, and his head bent slowly and his voice fell to a low
+rumble as he continued.  "'Tis an evil time in Jerusalem.  I weary of
+this long fight with traitors.  They grind their points; they stir
+poison; they swarm in the streets.  They rob me of my friends, and
+now--now they seek alliance with Jehovah to rob me of my throne.  'Tis
+well you should know and beware.  I have a plan which will make them
+desire my good health.  Report to Quirinus, and remember"--he took a
+hand of the youth in both of his with a fawning movement--"I have need
+of friends."
+
+That very day an order went forth that certain of the learned men of
+every city be assembled in the amphitheatre at Jericho, and be there
+confined to wait the further pleasure of the king.  It was a bold plan
+through which Herod hoped to confound his enemies and insure his
+safety.  He decreed that on the day of his death all these men should
+be executed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+Among the orderlies at the castle was one David, a young Jew, whose
+face and bearing had attracted the eye of Vergilius.  There was in both
+something admirable  and familiar.  Straightway the tribune chose the
+young Jew for his own service, and soon held him in high esteem.
+Together they set out one morning, with a troop of horse, bound for the
+southern limit of Samaria.  Thus quickly orders had arrived from the
+emperor.  They sent Vergilius on a journey to inspect roads and report
+"as to hopes, plans, and theories of import to the king."
+
+That morning as they left the old city, Vergilius and the young Jew
+rode abreast.
+
+"Tell me," said the former, presently, "what know you of the new king?"
+
+"Of him I have thought much and know little," said David.  "My mother
+taught me to look for him.  That was before the evil days."
+
+"And you learned what of her?"
+
+"Little save the long hope.  She taught me an old chant of the coming.
+If you wish, I will sing it."
+
+Being bidden, he sang, as she had sung who hushed the revels of
+Antipater, of signs and fears and of arrows to fly as the lightning.
+Words, melody, emotion, the note of inveterate wrong, were those of the
+slave-girl.
+
+"The same nose and blue eyes, and fair, curly locks--the same feeling
+and chant of faith," said Vergilius, thoughtfully.  "Did you not live
+in Galilee and suffer ill fortune?"
+
+"We lived in Galilee, and, by-and-by, were as those hurled into
+Gehenna."
+
+"And have you a sister in Rome?"
+
+"I have a sister, but know not where she may be.  Cyran the Beloved, so
+my mother called her."
+
+Then Vergilius told his companion how he had won her from the son of
+Herod and left her in the keeping of Arria.  David wept as he listened.
+
+When the tale was finished he spoke bitterly: "'Twas she--the Beloved.
+My father was put to death, his property seized, his wife and children
+dragged to captivity.  My heart is faint with sorrow.  God!  I weary of
+thy slowness.
+
+  "Send, quickly send the new king, whose arrows
+      shall fly as the lightning
+  Making the mighty afraid and the proud to bow
+      low and the wicked to tremble."
+
+
+For a moment they rode in silence.  David was first to speak.
+
+"Forgive me," said he, with fear of his imprudence.  "My tongue has
+gone too far.  I am true to Herod, being his debtor, for he gave me
+freedom.  But I am of the house of David."
+
+"Fear not," said Vergilius.  "Never shall I betray the broken hearted.
+I give you friendship."
+
+"And I give you gratitude," was the answer of the Jew.
+
+"I am as a child here in Judea and seek understanding.  You shall be my
+teacher."
+
+For a time neither spoke; soon David asked: "Will you tell me of her my
+sister is now serving?"
+
+"Of all the daughters of Rome she is noblest.  We love each other.  Ah,
+friend!  'Tis a wonder--this great love.  My tongue halts when I think
+of it."
+
+He paused, in meditation.
+
+"I have heard much of it here in Judea--a love that exalts the soul,"
+said David.
+
+"And changes the heart of man with all that is in it.  My love has
+filled me with a tender feeling for all women; it has made me to hate
+injustice and even to complain of the gods."
+
+"To complain of the gods!" said David, turning and looking into the
+face of his friend.
+
+"It does seem to me they set a bad example and are too childish for the
+work they have to do, but still--still I bow before them."
+
+"I do not understand you," said David.
+
+"They are given to spite, anger, vanity, lust, revenge, and idleness.
+Caesar is greater than they.  He has learned self-control.  And this
+new king of your faith, who, you tell me, is to conquer the world--he
+is no better."
+
+"And why think you so?"
+
+"He is to conquer the world.  Good sir, it has been conquered--how many
+times!  He shall make the mighty afraid--have they not often trembled
+with fear and perished by the sword?  He shall fling arrows of just
+revenge, as if our old earth were not already soaked in the blood of
+the wicked.  Ah, my David, I wonder not you long for a king of the
+sword and the arrow.  Revenge is ever the dream of the oppressed.  But
+I have dreamed of a greater king."
+
+"Tell me who?"
+
+"He would be like this love in me," said Vergilius.  "If it were to go
+abroad--if it were only to find the hearts of the mighty--what, think
+you, would happen?"
+
+"Ay, if it were to go from friend to friend and from neighbor to
+neighbor," said the young Jew, "it would indeed conquer the world."
+
+"And there would be neither war nor injustice."
+
+"Tell me," said David.  "Are there many lovers like you in Rome?"
+
+"Some half a score that I have heard of, and I doubt not there be many."
+
+"'Tis the candle of the Lord--the preparation of the heart of man,"
+said David.  "I do believe his arrow shall be that of love."
+
+"This feeling in me has kindled a great desire," said Vergilius.  "I
+burn for knowledge."
+
+Then said the young Jew: "Let us find my kinsman, Zacharias--a priest
+of holy life and great learning.  Through his aged wife a miracle has
+been accomplished.  I learn that she has given birth, and many have
+journeyed far to see the child.  There be some who say that he is,
+indeed, the king of promise, albeit I have no such opinion."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"There shall be signs in the deep of the heavens, and we have not seen
+them."
+
+"Where may we find the priest?"
+
+"In the village of Ain Karim, yonder."
+
+They could see its low dwellings and the dome of its synagogue.  The
+Roman halted near the abode of Zacharias, while David took their
+followers to the inn.  Suddenly the young Roman saw an aged priest
+approaching with a child in his arms.
+
+"I have a message for you," said the man of God, stopping near the
+Roman officer.
+
+"And I seek it," said Vergilius, looking at the long, gray beard of the
+venerable priest.
+
+"It is borne in upon me to say to you that the kingdom of heaven is at
+hand."
+
+"Tell me of the king," said Vergilius.  "I do thirst for knowledge."
+
+"He shall be the prince of peace."
+
+Vergilius looked thoughtfully at the old priest, who now sat down as if
+weary.
+
+"And he shall conquer with the sword?"
+
+"Nay, but as it is written, 'he shall judge among the nations and shall
+rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares
+and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword
+against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'"
+
+Now the Roman was alert to hear.  His ideal, which had taken form at
+the altar of peace and grown with his love, was being set up before him.
+
+"But the nations are stubborn," said he.  "Tell me, O wise and learned
+man, how shall he subdue them?"
+
+"By the love of God, almighty and ever-lasting."
+
+"God, almighty and everlasting," said Vergilius.  "I know him not."
+
+"I do but defile myself to speak with you, worshipper of idols,"
+sternly spake the priest.  "And yet I am constrained to instruct you.
+Listen--there is a power which even Rome has not been able to conquer.
+Know you what power it is?"
+
+The young tribune was recounting the peoples of the earth, when
+Zacharias continued:
+
+"'Tis the God of the Jews.  Rome has conquered his people, but mark how
+he stands.  And what is there of wrong that his law cannot remedy?
+Tell me, is there no injustice in your land?"
+
+"There is much," said the young Roman.
+
+"And so I know--but name it."
+
+"Well, for one thing, men torture and kill their slaves."
+
+"And in the law of the one God 'tis written, 'Thou shalt not kill.'"
+
+After a thoughtful moment Vergilius added: "And the strong prey upon
+the weak, seizing their property and holding it for their own."
+
+"And the one God commands, 'Thou shalt not steal'; and again, 'Thou
+shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
+neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox,
+nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.'"
+
+"But you have injustice, also, in Judea."
+
+"Ay, because there be evil men who obey not the law of God.  But
+presently they shall be put to shame.  Here is he that is come to
+prepare the way of the Lord."
+
+The child was now asleep, his head on his father's knee.
+
+"John," said the priest, tenderly looking down.
+
+But the little one continued to sleep, and a wonderful peace and beauty
+had come upon him.
+
+"And this new king--whence shall he come and how shall we know him?"
+the young Roman persisted.
+
+"Conceived of God, he is now in the womb of his mother," said the
+priest.  "Soon--very soon, he shall enter the gate of the world.  The
+ground is ready and he shall be like a sower, and his seed shall be
+love, and peace shall be his harvest.  If ye would know him, behold
+this face."
+
+He touched the brow of the child.  "Son of darkness," he continued,
+"look upon the son of light!  The faith of Mizraim or the wisdom of
+Hillel could show you no more.  Do you see the new light shining within
+this lovely veil of flesh?  Look, and you shall know the fashion of his
+countenance, and that his hand shall make no wound."
+
+The priest rose, and, lifting the child in his arms, went away, saying,
+"His peace be with you."
+
+The young Roman stood looking at the sweet face that lay on the
+shoulder of him departing.  The great hope of Judea had entered his
+heart--the hope of a just king to rule the nations and point the way to
+eternal life.
+
+On his return he bought a statue representing a beautiful young boy.
+He set it up in his chamber, and, kneeling, prayed to it as the one God
+who forbade killing and theft and every evil practice of men.  He
+prayed for understanding; he prayed, also, that he might see her he
+loved.  But this new God seemed as deaf to his entreaty as had been
+those of the pagan temples.  Groping for light, he turned to the young
+David.  Then first he learned that God, being jealous, hated the image
+of everything that has the breath of life.  His understanding had
+diminished, for, in this matter, the one God was like the many.  He
+questioned the Jew.  "Wonder not," said his friend, "that God hates the
+symbol of ancient error.  It has been as a cloud upon the sun."
+
+Vergilius had taken a palace and filled it with treasures, for,
+possibly, he had thought, some day she would see all.  Now its noble
+statues were sent away--a kind of sacrifice to the God of the Jews.
+But there was one he could not part with--a copy of the lovely Venus of
+Alcamenes which his mother had sent to him.  He concealed her in a
+closet, contenting himself with a furtive glance at her now and then.
+He set up in his fancy a giant of benevolent face, and humbly sought
+his favor.  Still he had no success.
+
+Lying at table one night with Manius and Ben Joreb, he sought counsel
+of the latter.
+
+"He that hath his prayer hath prayed wisely," said the priest.  "You
+have much to learn."
+
+"How, and of whom?" said Vergilius.
+
+"There is in Jerusalem a council of learned men.  They expound the
+Scripture and study all mysteries of the faith."
+
+"And who are they?"
+
+"I would I knew.  Being wise, they are unknown."
+
+"Unknown!"
+
+"So I have heard.  They have knowledge of him who is to come, and Herod
+is very jealous."
+
+"True," said Vergilius.  "I would I were of them who know."
+
+"If it may be so you shall have word tomorrow," said the priest.
+
+Promptly Manius relieved the tension of curiosity.
+
+"Vergilius, I drink to you--the new commander of the cohorts," said he,
+rising.
+
+"I reserve my thanks for more information," said Vergilius.
+
+"It will come," said Manius, who then left with the priest in his
+company.
+
+Soon the former added, in a low tone: "He may be of some value before
+he dies."
+
+"Ah, yes, but he will die young," said the other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+Next day among his letters were two of value in the history of
+Vergilius--one from the procurator, apprising him of his appointment to
+command the cohorts, the other a communication with no signature, the
+source of which was, in his view, quite apparent.  This latter one gave
+him the greater satisfaction.  It conveyed, in formal script, the
+following message:
+
+
+"TO ONE SEEKING WISDOM IN PRAYER
+
+"If you would share in the deliberations of the Council of the
+Covenant, be at the well of Nicanor, which is opposite the tenth column
+in the king's portico of the temple, at the second sounding of the
+sacred horns on the Day of Atonement.  There wait until one shall come
+and ask what you are seeking, and you shall answer, 'Knowledge of the
+one God.'  Then, if he turns away, follow him and do as he bids you."
+
+
+His opportunity had come.  He waited with the curiosity of a child.
+Soon, possibly, he should see the face of the great Lawgiver and learn
+of things beyond the valley of death.  If all went well he would amaze
+the people of Rome with wonder stories and give them assurance of
+immortal life.
+
+The city had been thronged with pilgrims that day of the ancient
+festival.  It was turning dusk when Vergilius made his way through
+crowded streets to the well of Nicanor.  Suddenly he heard a trumpet
+signal, and then followed that moment of silence when every tongue and
+foot and wheel stopped, quickly, and all stood listening for the awful
+name spoken but once a year.
+
+Presently the shout of the high priest rang like a trumpet-peal above
+the roofs of the city.  Then Jerusalem was all begirt and overflooded
+with song.  Maidens, white robed, were singing in distant vineyards;
+people were singing in the streets; trained devotees were whirling and
+dancing and chanting psalms in the court of the Temple, while priest
+and Levite followed, blowing, with all their power of lung, upon the
+sacred horns.
+
+In the midst of this outbreak a stranger approached Vergilius at the
+well, saying, "What seek you?"  The young Roman gave his answer, but
+was unable to see the face of him who questioned.  The stranger turned
+away and bade him follow.  Without more ceremony Vergilius walked
+behind him through narrow streets, wholly unfamiliar, and presently
+descending a stairway, came into a dark passage.  They halted, after a
+few paces, whereupon a loud rap startled the new-comer.  Soon he could
+hear a door open.  The stranger, taking his hand, led him into some
+dark place.  It was all very strange, and like tales long familiar,
+relating to the city of mysteries.  Standing there in the dark and
+silence, he had some misgivings which gave way when a voice addressed
+him as follows:
+
+"You are now in the council-chamber of the Covenant.  We meet in
+darkness, so that no shape or form or image may turn our thought from
+the contemplation of him who is most high and who hath his dwelling in
+black darkness.  Moreover, those who are not seen shall have neither
+vanity nor the will to deceive.  Would you share in our deliberations?"
+
+Vergilius answered yes, and one of the council then took his hand and
+administered the oath of secrecy, and led him to what seemed to be a
+large divan, where he sat, shoulder to shoulder, between other members
+of the council.  He listened long to the casuistry of learned men
+touching prayer, atonement, and sacrifice.  It led at last to some
+discussion of the new king.
+
+"Is there one here can tell me where and when he shall be born?" was
+the query of Vergilius.
+
+"We believe the Messiah is already born," said a councillor.
+"Moreover, some here have beheld his face."
+
+"And where, then, does he dwell?" Vergilius inquired.
+
+"That you shall know some day.  At the next meeting of the council it
+may be told.  We wait only for the fulness of time.  He dwells in a
+distant city, and not long ago I spoke with him.  He sent his love and
+greeting to every member of our council.  He bids you wait his time,
+when all your prayers shall be answered."
+
+"Shall there be signs of his coming?"  So spoke Vergilius.
+
+"There shall be signs, and you shall hear of them in this chamber."
+
+"And what shall be the aim of the king?"
+
+"To establish the reign of justice."
+
+Vergilius queried much regarding the government of the new king, and
+got replies adding more to his curiosity than to his knowledge.
+
+It was near the middle hour of the night when a voice announced: "The
+keeper of the new door will now leave the council."
+
+Vergilius heard a stir coming near him in the darkness.  Hands were
+laid upon him, and, presently, one took his arm and led him away.  The
+two climbed a long flight of stairs and made hastily across a broad
+roof.  At a railed opening they came to other stairs, and, descending,
+entered a passage, dark as had been the chamber.  At its end the Roman
+received a password.  Then a door swung and again he was on the
+pavements of Jerusalem, and, far away, could see the lights of Temple
+Hill.
+
+His conductor, returning, announced the departure of "the new voice."
+
+"We will now hear from the keeper of records," said one.
+
+A voice quickly answered: "He secured a lock of his hair."
+
+"And what says the keeper of the hidden light?"
+
+Then said another voice: "He now sees but one obstacle."
+
+"And what says the Angel of Death?"
+
+A low, deep tone broke the silence in which all waited.  "The sixth day
+before the kalends, he shall claim his own," so it answered.
+
+"Enough," said the questioner.  "The ways lead to safety.  I bid you
+go."
+
+One by one the councillors began to leave.  There was no treading upon
+heels, for one was well out of the way before another was allowed to
+go.  So cunningly was their room devised that half the exits led to one
+thoroughfare and half to another; and so many were they, it was said,
+no more than two councillors came or went by the same door.  And of all
+who came, so say the records, not one knew another to be sure of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+For the king there were three great perils: the people, Caesar, and his
+own family.  The descendant of old John Hyrcanus of Idumaea--a Jew only
+by compulsion--had no understanding of the children of Moses.  He
+tripped every day on the barriers of ancient law, and often his
+generosity was taken for defiance.  Caesar was not so hard to please.
+He had vanity and laws not wholly inflexible.  Herod's family, with its
+evil sister, its profligate sons, its voluptuous daughters, its wives,
+of whom it is enough to say they were nine, its intrigues and
+jealousies, gave him greater trouble than either the kingdom or the
+emperor.  He built a city near Jerusalem, on the sea.  Magnificent in
+marble and gold, Caesarea stood for a monument of Herodian troubles.
+Therein he sought to amuse the people, to pacify his kindred, and to
+flatter Caesar.  Its vast breakwater; its great arches through which
+the sea came gently in all weather; its mosaic pavements washed daily
+by the salt tide; its palaces of white marble; its great, glowing
+amphitheatre--these were unique in their barbaric splendor, albeit, in
+the view of the people, an offence to God.
+
+Among those who dwelt in Caesarea was Elpis, eighth wife of the king,
+with her daughter Salome, whose praises had been sung at the banquet of
+Antipater.  Both were renowned for beauty and the splendor of their
+dress.  Salome had the colors of the far north, and that perfect and
+voluptuous contour found only in marble figures of Venus, above the
+great purple sea, and, below it, in the daughters of men.  She was
+tall, shapely, full blooded.  They called her Salome, child of the sun,
+because she had the dark of night in her large eyes, the tints of
+morning in her cheeks, and the gold of noonday in her hair.
+
+When Manius came to seek her hand the king said, with a smile: "My
+noble youth, she is for the like of Achilles--a man of heroic heart and
+size.  Have you no fear of her?"
+
+Quickly Manius replied: "Know you not, O king! my fathers fought with
+Achilles?"
+
+"But they had the protection of the gods," said Herod, with a smile.
+"However, you may find her favor sufficient.  I have heard her speak
+fair of you."
+
+Now a quarrel had arisen between Elpis and a sister of Herod.  So,
+therefore, to calm a tempest, the adroit king had sent his eighth wife
+to live by the sea.
+
+It was a day near the nones of October, when the tribune went to
+Caesarea with Manius.  There in a great palace, erected by the king,
+they met the two renowned women.  It was a fete day and the gay people
+of Herod's court were in attendance.  Salome was dancing, tabret in
+hand, her form showing through a robe of transparent silk as the two
+entered.  Once before, at the door of the king, Vergilius had seen her.
+
+"See the taper of arm and leg," said he, addressing his companion, "She
+is wonderful!"
+
+A lithe and beautiful creature, she swayed and bent, with arms
+extended, her feet, now slow as the pinions of a sailing hawk, now
+swift as the wings of a tilting sparrow.  She stopped suddenly, her
+form proudly erect, looking at her lover.  Now she had the dignity of a
+wild deer in the barrens.  With one hand she felt her jewelled hair,
+with the other she beckoned to him.  The young men approached her.
+
+"Children of Aeneas, I give you welcome," said she.  Then turning to
+Vergilius: "Did Manius tell you that I bade him bring you here?"
+
+"I knew not I was so honored."
+
+"He is jealous.  He will not permit me to embrace my little page.  I
+have wished to meet you, noble tribune, ever since I saw you in my
+father's palace."
+
+Her eyes were playful, as if they would try the heart of her lover.
+
+"And when I saw you," said Vergilius, "I--I knew you were the betrothed
+of the assessor."
+
+"And why?" she besought, with a smile.
+
+"Because I heard him say in Rome that, of all the daughters of Judea,
+you were most beautiful."
+
+Her eyes looked full upon his and he saw in them a glint of that fire
+which had begun to burn within her.  He said to himself, as he came
+away, "Here is another Cleopatra--a woman made to pull down the mighty."
+
+Next day from the daughter of Herod came a letter to the young tribune:
+
+
+"NOBLE SON OF VARRO,--I have much to say concerning your welfare, and I
+doubt not you will desire to hear it.  If I judge you rightly, come to
+the palace of my mother the second evening before the nones.  An hour
+after sunset I will meet you at the gate of bronze.  Say naught to
+Manius of your coming or of this letter."
+
+
+"Temptress!" said he, crushing the sheet of scented vellum.  "But she
+is beautiful," he added, wistfully.  "She is like the Venus of
+Alcamenes.  I would love well to look upon her again."
+
+He smoothed out the crumpled vellum.
+
+"'Say naught to Manius,'" he read again.  "I like it not.  I shall
+write to her that I have other business."
+
+And so did he, although in phrases of regret, as became one addressing
+a daughter of the great king.
+
+Sorely vexed, she thought ever of the noble beauty of the Roman youth,
+and became more eager to gain her purpose.  It may be the girl bore for
+him a better feeling than she had ever known.  She wished, if possible,
+to win him, knowing that her father would not be slow to help him
+forward.  The handsome youth had pleased her eye, and might, also,
+gratify her ambition.  Those days the art of intrigue was the study of
+a king's daughter; so, straightway, she invented a cunning plan.
+Knowing the great desire of Vergilius, she bribed the priest Lugar to
+give him crafty counsel.  On the very morning of that second day the
+priest came to him.
+
+"How fares your soul, noble tribune?" said Lugar.
+
+"I feel it strong in me," said Vergilius.
+
+"And you would know if it be strong unto salvation?"
+
+"That would I gladly know."
+
+"Come with me this night and you shall see your soul in the balance."
+
+"And whither shall we go?"
+
+"To the palace of Laban, steward of the king.  I shall come for you
+soon after the ninth hour."
+
+"And thereby increase my debt to you," said Vergilius.  "Remember my
+soul may not be rejected for lack of gratitude."
+
+Now in that hour which follows the beginning of night, Lugar and
+Vergilius were come to the place appointed.  Slaves led them through a
+great hall to the banquet-chamber.  There were the daughters of Laban,
+reclining in graceful ease.  The banquet-table had been removed.  Now
+they were taking their feast of old tales and new gossip.  They rose
+and came to meet the young men.  Tunics of jewelled gauze covered
+without concealing forms lovely as the sculptures of immortal Greece
+and redolent of all rare perfumes.
+
+"And you would see a maidens' frolic?" said one to Vergilius.
+
+Then said he: "Maidens are ever a delight to me."
+
+"Ay, they make you to forget," said the girl.
+
+He thought a moment before answering.  "It may be true," said he.  "But
+they keep you in mind of the power of woman."
+
+Strains of the lyre broke in upon them.  Suddenly the centre of the
+great room was thronged with maidens.  The young tribune was full of
+wonder, knowing not whence they had come.  There was a wreath of roses
+on each brow, and as they gathered in even rank with varicolored robes
+upon them, they reminded the knight of garden walls in Velitrae.
+Quickly they began to mingle, with feet tripping lightly, with bodies
+bending to display their charms.  Threadlike, wavering gleams of ruby,
+pearl, and sapphire seemed to weave a net upon them.  Such a scene
+appealed to the love of beauty in Vergilius.  It awoke dying but
+delightful memories of the pagan capital--splendors of form and color,
+glowing eyes and pretty frolic.
+
+"O Venus, mother of love!" he whispered, turning to admire a statue in
+the dim-lit corner where he stood.  Now the eyes of Venus were covered
+with an arm.  Out went his hand to feel the shapely marble.  It was
+warm, and slowly Venus began to move, as did the strains of music, and,
+presently, whirled away.
+
+"How beautiful!" he said.  "'Tis the magic of a dream."
+
+His eyes were upon the form of Venus, taller than the others and more
+nobly fashioned.
+
+"'Tis the great goddess come to earth," said he, turning to Lugar.
+
+The music had ceased.  The maidens, save two, had flung themselves upon
+rugs and couches.  Venus and another were approaching the Roman.
+
+"Daughter of Herod," said he, going to meet her, "I knew you not."
+
+She took his arm and led him to one of the couches.
+
+"You are very stubborn," said she, looking into his eyes.  "You had
+'business.'"
+
+"So have I.  We came here, as I thought, to confer with--with wise men."
+
+"And not with wise women?"
+
+"It may be.  I had not learned to look for wisdom where there is
+beauty."
+
+"And have I not wisdom?  Ah, son of Varro, my mother has taught me many
+mysteries.  I can read the future and the past."
+
+She leaned close to his ear and whispered, her arm against his: "I
+believe in the power of fate.  I had much to say and you had not the
+will to listen.  It has brought you and me together,"
+
+"To enchant me with your beauty?" he inquired.
+
+"Nay," said she, her cheek touching his shoulder.  "But to instruct you
+with my wisdom.  I see much in your face."
+
+"And what see you?"
+
+"Apollo!" she whispered, with a sigh; "and the power to be great."
+
+It flattered him, but he knew the sound of fair words.
+
+"In Rome," said he, laughing, "we belittle with compliments."
+
+"In Jerusalem we fill them with sincerity, and often--"
+
+He listened as the daughter of Herod drew closer.
+
+"They convey our love," she added, in a whisper.
+
+"I learn wonderful things every day.  But why think you I am to be
+great?"
+
+"I know the mysteries of fate," she answered, quickly, and with a
+little resentment of his coldness.  "But there is one thing in your
+way."
+
+"And what?"
+
+"Your work is to be in Judea, and you love, or think you love, a Roman
+maiden."
+
+"I know that I love her," said he, quickly.
+
+"But love is a great deceiver.  You shall not take her for your wife."
+
+"Why?" he demanded, turning and looking into the face of Salome.
+
+Her dark eyes were now gazing into his, her hand softly stroking his
+bare arm.
+
+"Because," she whispered, and now he could feel the motion of her
+shapely red lips upon his ear, "here, in Judea, you shall find one who
+loves you with a greater love."
+
+His pulses were quick with passion.  He rose, turning from the daughter
+of Herod.  To his amazement the others had all departed.  He and this
+living Venus of Judea were alone.
+
+She rose and spoke rapidly, her heart's fire in her words!  "Here the
+love of women is longer than their lives--greater than their prudence
+or their hope of heaven."
+
+She stood erect before him, her beauty striving with the ardor of her
+words.
+
+He looked down at her with a kind of fear in his eyes.
+
+She took his hand in hers.  "My father is fond of you," she continued.
+"Shall I tell your future?"
+
+"And I knew it for a moment hence I should know all," he answered;
+covering his eyes.  She came near, and, caressingly, put an arm about
+his neck.  He could hear a nightingale singing somewhere in the great
+palace.  It seemed to fling open the gates of memory.  He thought of
+his love--sacred now above all things.  His fear of it was like as the
+fear of the gods had been to his fathers.  For a moment honor, wisdom,
+and love trembled in the balance.  Suddenly he stood erect and put his
+hand upon the shoulder of Salome and gently pushed her aside.
+
+He turned away, his left arm covering his eyes and his right moving in
+a gesture of protest.  He staggered as one drunk with wine.  Slowly he
+crossed the chamber, struggling to defend his soul.
+
+"I dare not look upon your face again," said he, sternly.
+
+She ran before and tried to stop him.  "Hear me, son of Varro," said
+she.  "It is my will to help you."
+
+"I will not look upon your face again," he repeated.
+
+She struck at his hand fiercely, her foot stamping on the floor.  Now
+was she of the catlike tribe of Herod.
+
+"Go, stupid fool!"  The words came hissing from her lips.  "I hate
+you!"  She ran away, with impassioned laughter.  He passed the door.
+
+"To the evil honor is ever stupid," he said, to himself, as he left the
+palace.  By-and-by he added, thoughtfully, "'Tis a mighty friend--this
+great love in me."
+
+And said David, who was waiting when he returned: "They kept you long,
+my master."
+
+"Yes; I have been fighting!"
+
+"Fighting?"
+
+"For the prize of heaven in the amphitheatre of hell.  My love was my
+shield, the power of God my weapon."
+
+"Friend, what mean you?"
+
+"That an evil woman has tried to put the leash of fate upon me."
+
+"How fared the battle?"
+
+"It was my victory," said Vergilius; "and I do feel a mighty peace in
+me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+Vergilius had thought wisely of his temptation.  Fate rules them only
+who are too weak to rule themselves, and the great leash of fate is the
+power of evil women.  It was now to hasten the current of history in
+the old capital.
+
+Salome sat with Manius in the great picture-room of her mother's
+palace.  Guests had left the banquet-hall and gone to their homes.  It
+was near the middle hour of the night and Herod's daughter was alone
+with the young assessor of Augustus.
+
+"You shall choose," said she, "between the daughter and the son of
+Herod.  My brother hates me, and I fear him.  When he is king, what,
+think you, would happen to the husband of Salome, and what to her?  I
+should have to train my tongue to praise him and my knees to bend.  I
+should need to bow my head for fear of losing it.  Know you not of
+Alexander and Aristobulus and the dear, beloved Mariamne--how they
+died?  You--poor fool!--you would be lucky if he made you master of the
+stables!"
+
+"But he has promised--"
+
+"Promised!  If you care to live a day after he is king remind him not
+of his promises."
+
+"Think you Antipater would dare to take my life?  I am an officer of
+Augustus."
+
+"Oh, beautiful boy!" she laughed.  "He would be no toy of Caesar.  He
+dreams of conquest.  He will gather an army in Judea, Parthia, and
+Arabia.  He will attack Caesar, and Caesar is growing old.  Do you not
+know it is long since Actium?"
+
+Alarm had risen to the eyes of the young Roman, his lips were now
+trembling.  "What is your plan?" he whispered.
+
+"Betray the council," said she.  "Tell the king and write to Caesar
+about it.  So you will prove your faithfulness and devotion.  Loving
+Caesar, you have been a spy self-appointed.  Antipater shall be put to
+death, and we--we shall have honor and glory and, maybe, a palace of
+many towers."
+
+She put her arms about his neck and gave him a look whose meaning he
+understood.
+
+"By all the gods! you are worthy to be the wife as well as the daughter
+of a king," he whispered, his cheeks red with enthusiasm.  "But they
+will think me a poor spy if I give not the names of the conspirators,
+and how may I?"
+
+"But the God-fearing fool, Vergilius--you know he is of them?"
+
+"I am sure--I heard his voice, but I have not seen him."
+
+"You shall see him," said she, with rising fury in her eyes; "and I
+shall see him"--she paused, her hands clinched, her tongue sorting hot
+words--"melting in fire," she added, fiercely.  She clapped her hands;
+she leaned forward, her body shaking with a silent, horrible laughter
+of the spirit.
+
+A moment she seemed to dwell upon the awful picture.  Then, turning to
+Manius; "Give the password to my father and let him go and listen.  I
+promise you their names shall not be long a secret.  He must hear all.
+Give him plans of that chamber so he may guard the exits."
+
+"I will do my part, dear and wonderful daughter of Herod!  To-morrow I
+shall begin the good work."  So saying the Roman embraced Salome and
+spoke his farewell.
+
+Having left her, he went to his own palace and sat awhile pondering.
+
+"But if Herod is there," said he to himself, "and the soldiers come in
+with lights and the council members see me, they will learn that I have
+betrayed them.  And some may be there who know of my part in other
+enterprises.  By showing proof--Jupiter! they would bring confusion or
+death upon me.  I must not be there, and yet--and yet I must.  They
+wait for the shrill voice to declare the fulness of time.  Unless I be
+there the king may be no wiser for his coming.  I will go, but I will
+not tell Herod of the long way underground to the street of tombs.  I
+will announce the fulness of time and quit the council before its
+proclamation is made.  Then the old lion may spring his trap, and who,
+save Ben Joreb, will know that I ever sat with traitors.  And as for
+the priest, I shall warn him.  I know that he is weary of Antipater and
+will take a share in the new enterprise."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+It was the day before the nones of November in Rome.  The emperor had
+returned to his palace after opening the Ludi Plebeii.  The people had
+hailed him as father, forgiver, peace-maker.  A softened spirit,
+sweeping over the world, was come upon them.  That day they had put in
+his hands a petition for new laws to limit the power of men over
+slaves.  But in that matter he was bound to ancient custom by fetters
+of his own making.  Once--he was then emperor of Rome but not of his
+own spirit--he had punished a slave by crucifixion for killing a pet
+quail.  For that act, one cannot help thinking, he must have been
+harassed with regret.  The sting of it tempered his elation that
+November day.  He was, however, pleased with the spirit of the people
+and his heart was full of sympathy and good-will.
+
+On his table were letters from the south.  He lay comfortably in his
+great chair and began to read them.  Presently his body straightened,
+the wrinkles deepened in his brow.  Soon he flung the letter he had
+been reading upon his table and leaned back, laughing quietly as he
+remarked to himself:
+
+"Innocent, beautiful son of Varro!  He is making progress."
+
+An attendant came near.
+
+"Find my young Appius at once and bring him to me," said the emperor,
+as he went on reading his letters.
+
+Appius, quickly found, came with all haste to the great father of Rome.
+
+"I have news for you," said the latter, quietly, with a glance at his
+young friend.  He continued to read his letters.
+
+"News!" said Appius.
+
+"'Tis of Vergilius--the apt and youthful Vergilius.  How swift,
+industrious, and capable is he!  How versatile!  How varied his
+attainments!"
+
+"I am delighted."
+
+The emperor turned his keen eyes on the young man, with a smile of
+amusement.  Then he spoke, gently:
+
+"'Tis only four months, and he has become a conspirator, and also a
+prophet, and is likely soon to be--what is that word they use in
+Judea?--an angel.  You will start for Jerusalem to-morrow, my good
+Appius.  And when you arrive there convey to him my congratulations."
+
+"Your congratulations!"
+
+"That he is upon earth to receive them," said the great man.  He
+resumed his letters and continued speaking, slowly: "Tell him I have
+been asked to consider whether he should keep his head upon his
+shoulders, and that I have decided to refer the question to him.  It
+will not come back to me.  Say, also, that he should have more light
+upon his friends, and that I have withdrawn my consent to his marriage."
+
+The young man rose, a look of astonishment in his face.
+
+"But shall I be in time?" said he, with some excitement.
+
+"Learn composure, my good Appius.  Herod may not be extremely polite to
+him, but--but he will wait."
+
+That odd man, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, laughed silently
+as the youth was leaving.  He beckoned to a slave, who halted Appius
+and turned him back.
+
+"An escort will be on the campus at dawn," said the emperor.  "I wish
+you a pleasant journey and will write you when to return."
+
+Now there had been no changes of moment in the palace of the Lady
+Lucia, save one.  The slave-girl, Cyran, had brought to Arria the
+inspiration of a new faith.  The sister of Appius had begun to try it
+in secret prayers.  Her mother had fallen ill of a deadly fever so that
+none had hope of her recovery, and the girl had prayed, and, lo! her
+prayer had been answered.  Letters from Vergilius, full of the new
+light in him, had confirmed her faith.  And Arria confided to her
+family and intimates knowledge of her devotion to the one God.  Soon
+the religion of Judea had become a topic of patrician Rome.
+
+When Vergilius had left the capital, Antipater came every day for a
+time to the palace of the Lady Lucia, and brought with him many
+beautiful gifts.  But Arria refused to see him or to accept the gifts
+he had brought.  Now the stubborn prince had faith that when he was
+made king she would no longer be able to resist him.  If he failed with
+splendor, he was beginning to consider what he might do with power.
+
+That day of the interview between youth and emperor a letter came to
+Arria from her lover.  It began as follows:
+
+
+"DEAR LOVE,--It has been a day illumined with new honor and the praises
+of a king.  Now, before sleeping, I send these words to tell you that I
+have not forgotten.  Every day I think of you, and my love grows.  I
+see your face full of honor and the will to give all for me.  Because
+it is in you, I love honor beyond all my hope of it, and--that look in
+your eyes--oh, it has made me to think gently and be kind!  Now I tell
+you of a wonderful thing--this feeling is the very seed of friendship.
+The legate, the procurator, the high priest, and Herod himself, are my
+friends.  I had only the will to serve, and now they insist that I
+shall command.  After all, it is in no way remarkable--there be so few
+here who forget themselves for the good of the service.  It all leads
+to a new and a great law--think of the good of others and you need have
+no thought of yourself.  Consider this, my beloved, if every man loved
+a good woman as I love you a new peace would fill the world."
+
+
+Then he told her of his discovery of David, the brother of Cyran, and
+their friendship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19
+
+When Appius told his mother and his sister what Augustus had said to
+him, they were greatly distressed.  But Arria would not believe that
+Vergilius had been guilty of dishonor.  Such were her anxiety and her
+fear of injustice falling upon her lover, the girl would have it that
+she must go to Jerusalem with Appius.  She would neither be turned away
+nor bear with dissuasion.  Her brother told her not of the bitter
+message of Augustus, and, fearing the wiles of the Jewish prince,
+determined to take her with him.  So, therefore, as the sun rose on the
+nones of November in that year of the birth of Jesus, they set out with
+a troop of horse on the Appian Way.
+
+They were midland in Thrace on their way to Piraeus, where a ship
+waited them, when they were overtaken by the cavalcade of Antipater.
+The prince, summoned by Herod, was now returning, under royal banners,
+to receive his inheritance of glory and power.  A letter had started
+him, which, according to the great historian of that time, was warm
+with affectionate greeting.  Antipater, also, was to take ship for
+Judea.  He had learned of the departure of Appius and Arria, and had
+pushed his horses to the limit of their speed in order to overtake
+them.  When he first saw the troop of the young Roman, he left his
+column and came rushing on to greet them.
+
+The troop of Appius quickly faced about and stood with raised lances.
+
+"Proud son and daughter of Publius," said Antipater, drawing rein, "my
+heart, my horses, and my men are at your service!"  He was now splendid
+in royal vestments of purple and gold.
+
+"Our gratitude is not less than our surprise," said Appius.  "How came
+you flying out of the west like a bluebird?"
+
+"'Tis a winged foot that goes to meet a friend," said the prince.  "I
+left Rome far behind you and I go to Jerusalem."
+
+"We took you for a bandit."
+
+"And I am only a king," said Antipater, proudly.  "I am summoned to
+take the crown of my father."
+
+"And is he dead?"
+
+"Nay, but ill and weary of his burden."
+
+Appius removed his helmet as he made answer:
+
+"The gods give you health, honor, and wisdom, O king!  Will you ride
+with us?"
+
+"Already the gods give me honor," said the prince, bowing politely as
+the troop made way for him.  "I doubt not they will add health and
+wisdom.  But there is a blessing I put above either."
+
+They started slowly, Antipater riding between Arria and her brother in
+advance of the troop.
+
+"And shall we ask the gods to grant it?" said Arria.
+
+"Yes, for it is your favor, sweet girl.  I adore you, and shall have no
+other queen."
+
+"I cannot give you my heart," said she, frankly.  "It is impossible--I
+cannot bear to speak of it."
+
+"And you would not share my power and glory with me?" said Antipater,
+turning, with a look of surprise.
+
+Appius answered:
+
+"Once before I have told you, my worthy prince, that whom the emperor
+chooses she will wed."
+
+"Think not of that--I shall make terms with him," said Antipater.  "She
+shall never wed a weak-hearted tribune."
+
+"You speak lightly of my friend," said Appius.  "I like it not, good
+sire."
+
+"Son of Herod," said Arria, drawing rein, "we cannot longer enjoy your
+company."
+
+Appius halted the troop.
+
+For a little Antipater was dumb with astonishment.  He drew aside, and
+when he spoke his voice trembled with ire, it was near bursting into
+fury.
+
+"Sweet girl," said he, caressing the neck of his horse, "not even the
+power of Rome shall forbid me to love you, and I swear, by the god of
+my fathers, no man shall live between us!"  He turned quickly, and a
+fierce look came into his eyes and he added, in a hoarse half-whisper,
+"You shall be my wife, sister of Appius."
+
+The young Roman wheeled his horse between them.  Antipater backed away,
+threatening with his lance.  He shouted to his trumpeter, his troop
+being hard by, and quickly a call sounded.  Then spur went to flank,
+and the followers of the Jew passed in a quick rush and went thundering
+off, Antipater at the head of their column.  He rode to Athens in ill
+humor and was at Piraeus three hours in advance of Arria and Appius.
+The sun had set and the sea lay calm in a purple dusk.  He went aboard
+his trireme at once and called his pilot to him.
+
+"Go find the vessel waiting here for one Appius of Rome," he commanded.
+
+"It is she that lies near us," said the other.
+
+"And you know her pilot?"
+
+"Ay, 'tis Tepas the Idumaean.  He knows the broad sea as one may know
+his own vineyard."
+
+"Bring him to me."
+
+When Tepas came, Antipater took him aside and spread before him a chart
+of the vast, purple sea which beat upon the shores of Hellas.  He put
+his finger on a little spot some leagues from the coast of Africa.
+
+"Know you the Isle of Doom?" said he.
+
+"Ay, 'tis a lonely heap of rocks."
+
+"A roost of sea-birds," said the prince of Judea.  "Know you who am I?"
+
+"You are the son of Herod."
+
+"And I go to be king of the Jews."
+
+Antipater took from a bag many pieces of gold and heaped them on the
+chart above the Isle of Doom.
+
+"Would you earn this money, and much more?" he whispered.
+
+"If you will but show me how," said Tepas, the fire of greed now
+burning in his heart.
+
+"Sail close to the Isle of Doom.  There your trireme shall be leaking
+and you shall desert her and seek refuge on the isle and wait for me.
+You shall have ample store of provisions, and this treasure, and when I
+come you shall have, also, three talents more and a home in Jerusalem,
+and my favor as long as you live."
+
+"But how long must I wait?"
+
+"Not beyond, the ides of January, good man."
+
+"Then I agree," said Tepas.
+
+So was it with an evil man those days.  If he were armed with power he
+halted not between his plan and his purpose.  There were, indeed, few
+things so valued as to be above price.
+
+But the cunning of the tempter was to lead his prey into further depths
+of infamy.  The prince took the hand of the sailor and whispered to him:
+
+"If you would be a friend to me, then my enemies should be your
+enemies."  He paused a moment, looking into the eyes of the pilot and
+tenderly patting his shoulder.  It was like the guile of the black
+leopard.  Presently he continued:
+
+"Now this young Roman is my enemy.  If by any chance he, Appius, should
+die before I come, you shall have six instead of three talents.  He is
+fond of wine, and for such the sea has many perils.  Do you understand
+me?"
+
+"I do," said Tepas, nodding his approval, and then that heap of gold,
+lying on the chart, was delivered to him, and without more delay he
+went to his own vessel.  Antipater sat in silence, thinking for a
+moment, his chin upon his breast.  Soon the thought of his enemies and
+their doom brightened his eyes and lifted the corners of his mouth a
+little and set his lips quivering.  He leaned forward upon a table,
+softly, as if in fear that some eye would observe him.  One might have
+heard then that menacing, Herodian rumble in his throat.  He seemed to
+caress the table with his hands.
+
+"Dear Appius!  Good Vergilius!" he muttered, seizing a piece of vellum
+and crushing it in his hand.  "Soon my power shall close upon you.  And
+Arria, my pretty maiden, you shall repair my heart with kisses."
+
+A pet kitten leaped upon the table.  It seemed to startle him, and he
+struck it dead with his hand.
+
+Then he sprang up suddenly and looked about, a feline stealth upon him,
+and ran with catlike paces to the deck.
+
+"Get to work, you sea-rats!" he roared.  "Every man to his place.  If
+we are not gone to sea before the moon is up, some of you will be gone
+to Hades."
+
+In half a moment slaves were up in the rigging and rushing across the
+deck and tumbling into the galley.
+
+And that night Antipater pushed his prow into the deep sea.
+
+Meanwhile Arria and Appius, fearing the power of this new king of
+Judea, and thinking also of the peril of Vergilius, travelled slowly,
+considering what they should do.  Appius feared either to go or to
+return, but Arria was of better courage.
+
+"I must go to him," said she.  "You know not this love in me, dear
+brother.  I would give up my life to be with him.  If he is dead I
+shall never see the seven hills again.  I shall go--" she paused,
+covering her eyes a moment.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"To the city of God," she whispered.
+
+"May all the gods protect us," said her brother.
+
+And the day after Antipater had set sail, they, too, with Cyran, the
+slave-girl, were moving southward in the great, middle sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20
+
+Again the council of the covenant was in session.  Herod, unknown to
+all, sat in the darkness of the council chamber.  The intrigue of
+Salome and the treachery of Manius had led the Lion of Judea to his
+prey.  Swords of fate were in the gloom that surrounded the traitors.
+
+Now there had been, that night, a great discussion of the new king, and
+suddenly a man sitting by the side of Vergilius had risen.  He began
+speaking in a strange voice, which had, however, some quality familiar
+to the young Roman.  Shrill and trembling with emotion, it thrilled
+many with a feeling of religious awe.
+
+"The time is upon us," said he, "when the judges of the council have
+come to the end of their deliberations.  It is for me, therefore, to
+reveal it to you in part.  If there be any here who give not full
+approval, let them freely express their minds."
+
+He did not explain that such were, then and there, to be won by
+argument or put out of the way by daggers.
+
+"I speak of great things, but he that is to follow me shall speak of
+greater.  After weighing all the promises of Holy Writ, and enforcing
+their wisdom by the counsel of other learned men," he continued, "your
+judges declare the fulness of time."
+
+The speaker paused.  He heard a little stir of bodies, a rustle of
+robes in the darkness.
+
+The speaker went on:
+
+"When Herod dies you shall see a rider go swiftly through the streets
+bearing a red banner and crying, 'The king is dead.'  Then shall the
+commander of the cohorts go quickly and take possession of the royal
+palace and await the new king."
+
+Vergilius turned quickly in the direction of the fateful voice.  He had
+begun to suspect a plot.  In a moment he saw to the very depths of its
+cunning.  Here was a band of conspirators meeting in the darkness and
+speaking in disguised voices.  Probably no member had ever seen the
+face of another, and the betrayal of a name was, therefore, impossible.
+Vergilius, now commander of the castle, heard with consternation of his
+part in the programme.  By some movement of the speaker's body an end
+of his girdle was flung against the hand of Vergilius.  Immediately the
+young Roman laid hold of the silken cord.  Tracing it stealthily, to
+make sure of its owner, he drew his dagger and cut the girdle in twain,
+hiding an end of it in his bosom.
+
+"The new king is in Rome," the speaker added.  "Presently you shall
+hear the voice of his herald, whose face I know not, but of whose
+fidelity and wisdom.  I have long been sure.  He will give you further
+revelation of our purposes."
+
+It was cunningly said, for the speaker knew that such a promise would
+delay the vengeance of Herod.
+
+A little silence followed the ceasing of "the shrill voice."  Vergilius
+could hear its owner moving away in the darkness.  Fearful
+possibilities had begun to suggest themselves to the new convert.  Now
+had he the flinty heart and the cunning mind of his fathers.  The
+darkness had begun to smother and sicken him.
+
+"Hear me now, good friends," said a low, calm, but unfamiliar voice,
+"and let my words enter your hearts and be there cherished in secret,
+for I shall tell you a name, and for its safe-keeping you shall answer
+to the Most High.  Know you, then, that the new king is no other than
+the son of Herod and his name is Antipater--a man of great valor,
+learned in all wisdom and all mystery, who loves the people of God.
+His heart has suffered, feeling the wrongs of Israel.  He has the voice
+of wrath, the hand of power, and the claim of a just and natural
+inheritor.  I have his word that we who are bound in this council of
+the covenant shall share in the glory of his reign."
+
+Vergilius, hot with anger, rose to his feet.
+
+"Good sirs," said he, in a piping voice very unlike his own, "let us
+not approve without full understanding.  There may be some here who in
+their zeal have been deceived.  Let us be fair, and warn them that all
+who approve this plan are traitors.  I came here to study the mysteries
+of the one God, and I am learning the mysteries of an evil plot.  'Tis
+a great surprise to me.  I like it not, and shall have no part in it.
+I know not your names or your faces, but I know your plan is murder,
+and if the one God favor it, I can no longer honor Him."
+
+He paused, but there came no answer.  Again he heard a rustle of
+garments in the dark chamber, and, also, a stealthy and suggestive
+grating of steel upon scabbard.  He perceived now the imminence of his
+peril.  He could hear no sound in the darkness.
+
+He stepped quickly aside, hearing not the feet which followed, nor
+feeling him who clung to the skirt of his toga.  He stood silent, with
+dagger drawn.  As he felt about him, he touched a pair of great,
+trembling hands.  He stood motionless, expecting every breath to feel a
+point plunging into his flesh.  Suddenly some one blew a sharp whistle
+close beside him.  Then, for a little, it seemed as if the doors were
+being rent by thunderbolts.  Crowding forms and cries of terror filled
+the darkness.  The young Vergilius kept his place after the first
+outbreak.  Men, rushing past him, had torn the toga from his back.  The
+hands which had clung upon him now held his wrist with a grip
+immovable.  Doors fell and lights were flashing in.  He saw now, on
+every side, a gleam of helmet and cuirass.  Men, retreating from the
+lights, huddled in a dark corner.  Some began to weep and cry to God.
+The scene was awful with swiftness and terror.  The crowding group
+moved like caving sand.  It sank suddenly, every man going to his
+knees.  Quick as the serpent, a line of soldiers flung itself around
+them.  Vergilius, with the man who clung to him, stood apart near the
+middle of the chamber.
+
+Suddenly he heard an impatient, wrathful shout close beside him:
+"Lights here, ye laggards!"
+
+Vergilius jumped as if he had felt the prick of steel.  He turned,
+looking at the man who held his arm.  A squad with torches came
+swiftly, forming about them.  The powerful hands let go; a cloak and
+hood fell upon the floor.
+
+"The king!" said Vergilius, bowing low.
+
+"And you," said Herod, breathing heavily and leaning on the shoulder of
+the young man, "you are the only friend of the king.  To save you from
+the fate of those dogs yonder, I would not let you go."
+
+This unloved and terrible man, still leaning upon the shoulder of
+Vergilius, wept feebly.  It seemed as if the infirmity of old age had
+fallen suddenly upon him.  He muttered, in a weak and piping tone, of
+his great life weariness.  Then he seemed to hear those low cries of
+terror from beyond the line of guards.  He lifted his head, listening.
+He turned quickly, crouching low, and seemed to threaten the soldiers
+near him with his hand.  They stepped aside fearfully.  Then was he,
+indeed, the old lion of Judea, ready to spring upon his prey.
+
+"Stand them here before me," he growled, fiercely.
+
+The conspirators were drawn up in line.  Torches were held before their
+faces.  Vergilius looked with pity at the terrified throng.  There were
+Lugar and two merchants he knew, and that chamberlain of Herod's palace
+who had taken him before the king.  There was also a famous young Roman
+athlete, whom Vergilius had first seen and admired at the circus in
+Rome, and who had lately been a member of the castle guard.  But none
+wore the girdle which Vergilius had cut in twain.
+
+The king stood before them, raging like a man possessed of demons.
+Fate, which had whispered through lips of beauty in the palace at
+Caesarea, now thundered in the voice of power.
+
+"Serpents, murderers, children of the devil!" he roared.  "Soon shall
+your souls wander in hell and your bodies rot in the valley of Hinnom.
+Take them to the torture, and make it slow for such as give us no
+further knowledge.  Away with them!  Let their food be fear and their
+drink be the sweat of agony and their end be death at the games of
+Caesar!"
+
+The will of that graceful and voluptuous maiden had been well if only
+partially expressed.
+
+A guard of soldiers led the unfortunate men away.
+
+Herod, now weak and trembling, took the arm of Vergilius.
+
+"To my palace!" said he, and they made their way to his litter.
+
+"It will do no good to put them to torture," said Vergilius.  "You have
+heard all.  They have met in darkness and the leaders have disguised
+their voices.  No member could be sure of the identity of any save
+himself.  Only two or three, perhaps, could have betrayed other members
+of the order."
+
+"Fool! were they not sure of Vergilius, the commander of the cohorts?"
+said Herod.
+
+"But the plot is uncovered, and now, great sir, I implore you, try the
+remedy of Caesar."
+
+Herod ceased muttering and turned with a look of inquiry.
+
+"Forgive them," Vergilius added.
+
+The king answered with curses.  Then from his chamber, where they had
+now arrived, he drove all save the young Roman.  "Long ago I discovered
+evidence of the treachery of the prince," said he.  "To Antipater--foul
+son of Doris--I despatched this letter."
+
+He spread a sheet of vellum before Vergilius, bidding him read.  It was
+the copy of a letter addressed to his "dutiful and affectionate son
+Antipater."  It recited that, whereas he (Herod) was now become ill and
+weary under his many cares, and needed the companionship of them he
+loved, Antipater should ask, in the name of his father, for a goodly
+escort of cavalry and proceed at once to Jerusalem, there, shortly, to
+receive his inheritance.
+
+"Foul son of Doris!" the king growled, hoarsely, as the young Roman
+turned.  Then his voice broke into a shrill, piping laugh.  "Ha, ha!
+He is coming--even now he is coming to take the crown of his loving
+father!"
+
+Then he leaned forward with a savage leer, as if he saw the object of
+his wrath.  His lips were parted, his mouth open, his breath came
+hissing from his throat.
+
+"Foul son of Doris!" he repeated, beating the floor with his feet.
+"Your lies have drowned me in the blood of those I love.  Swamp plant!
+creeping asp!  Soon shall I put my foot upon you!"
+
+Turning to Vergilius, he continued, presently:
+
+"Be ready, my tribune, to go down to the sea with a cohort.  There meet
+him, as he comes, and let him fall quickly from his height of
+greatness, and chain him, hand and foot, and bring him hence.  You may
+go now."
+
+Vergilius bowed and left the home of Herod.  As he went away he fell to
+thinking of that girdle's end in his bosom.  Although it was past the
+middle hour of night, he hastened to the palace of Manius.  The
+assessor, distraught and pale, started as he met him, and Vergilius saw
+at once that an end of the other's girdle had been cut away.  The young
+tribune drew that piece of braided silk from under his tunic.
+
+"It is yours?" said he, tossing it to Manius.
+
+"I--I had not observed," said the other, nervously, "It is part of the
+girdle I wear in deference to the people among whom I live.  How came
+you by it?"
+
+"Fox!  Your cunning will not save you.  Tell me first how you escaped
+the peril into which you had drawn me."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"But I understand you," said Vergilius, with anger.  "There are but two
+places in the world for you.  One is beyond the boundaries of Rome, the
+other is the valley of Hinnom."  Having said which, he turned, quickly,
+and left the assessor's palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 21
+
+Arria and her brother were far from the shores of Hellas and near the
+Isle of Doom.  Tepas knew that a few leagues more would bring him in
+sight of the familiar cliffs.  Brother and sister were reclining on the
+deck of their trireme.  The tenth day of their journey was near its
+end.  The sun had sunk through misty depths of purple, and now seemed
+to melt and pour a flood of fire upon the waters.
+
+"I am weary," said the girl, looking thoughtfully at the calm sea.
+
+"Of me?" said her brother.
+
+"Nay, but of that groaning of the rowers.  It tells me of aching arms
+in the galley.  I cannot sleep at night, hearing it."
+
+Appius laughed with amusement.  "Little fool!" said he.  "The slaves of
+Tepas are all Jews."
+
+"But they are men," said the beautiful girl; "and do you not
+understand, dear brother?  I love a man."
+
+"Love!" exclaimed Appius, with contempt, "'Tis only as the longing of
+the bird for its mate."
+
+"Nay, I would give all for him I love."
+
+"Not all," said he, with a look of surprise.
+
+"Yes, all--even you, and my mother, and my home, and my country, and my
+life--I am sick with longing.  And when I think of him I cannot bear to
+see men suffer."
+
+"You are gone mad," said Appius, "and I pray the gods to bring you
+back.  It may be the fair Vergilius forgets you."
+
+She turned, quickly, and her voice trembled as she whispered: "Nay, he
+also has the great love in him.  He could not forget."
+
+Cyran, the pretty slave-girl, came soon with their evening repast.
+Arria bade her sit beside them.
+
+"Tell us, dear Cyran," said the Roman beauty--"tell us a tale of old
+Judea."
+
+"Beloved mistress," said Cyran, kneeling by the side of Arria and
+kissing the border of her robe, "listen; I will tell you of the coming
+of the great love.  Long ago there was a maiden of Galilee so beautiful
+that many came far to see her.  Now, it so befell, there came a certain
+priest, young and fair to look upon, who did love her and seek her hand
+in marriage.  And she loved him, even as you love, but would not wed
+him.  O my good mistress!  She knew that a mighty king was coming, and
+she was held of a great hope that God would choose her for the blessed
+mother.  And, still loving the priest, she kept herself pure in thought
+and deed.  Every day they saw each other, but stayed apart, and their
+love grew holier the more it was put down.  And oh, it was a wonder!
+for it filled their hearts with kindness and sent their feet upon
+errands of mercy.  And many years passed, and one day they sat together.
+
+"'My beloved, you are grown old and feeble, and so am I,' said she, 'We
+have pitied every child of sorrow but ourselves.'  And they rose and
+put their arms about each other and went into the dark valley of death,
+heart to heart, that very day, and were seen no more of men.  And they
+in the hills of Galilee, where the lovers dwelt, made much account of
+them, for while she had not borne the great king, still was she long
+remembered as the blessed mother of holy love.  Now, maidens, with
+youth and love and beauty strong upon them, gave all for the great
+hope.  And wonderful stories went abroad, and women were more sacred in
+the eyes of men, seeing that one of them, indeed, must be mother of the
+very Son of God."
+
+The slave-girl covered her face and her body shook with emotion.
+
+"Cyran, why are you crying?" said Arria.
+
+"Because," Cyran replied, her voice trembling--"because I can never be
+the blessed mother."
+
+"Tell me," said Arria, "have you never felt the great love?"
+
+Cyran rose and looked down at her mistress.
+
+"I have felt the pain of it," said she, sadly.  "And my heart--Oh, it
+is like the house of mourning where Sorrow has hushed the Children of
+Joy.  But the sweet pain of love is dear to me."
+
+"Tell me of it."
+
+"Good mistress, I cannot tell you."
+
+"Why, dear Cyran?"
+
+"Because--" the slave-girl hesitated; then timidly and with trembling
+lips she whispered, "because, dear mistress, I--I love you."  She
+seemed to bend beneath her burden and, knelt beside her mistress and
+wept.
+
+"Go--please go," said Appius, turning to Cyran.  "You irritate me, and
+I cannot understand you."
+
+But Arria divined the secret of the poor slave-girl, and pitied her.
+
+Cyran rose and left them.
+
+"The great love may come to you, and then you shall understand," said
+Arria to Appius.
+
+"The great madness!" her brother exclaimed.  "I like not these Jewish
+cattle.  The gods forgive me that we have fallen among them.  With a
+Jew for a pilot we should make a landing in Hades."
+
+Something in his manner alarmed the girl.
+
+"What mean you?" she inquired.
+
+"I will tell you to-morrow," said her brother.  "'Tis time you went to
+your couch and I to mine.  Have no fear."
+
+Now, the young Roman had begun to suspect the pilot of some evil plan.
+After the girl had left him he sat drinking wine for hours.  Soon he
+was in a merry way, singing songs and jesting with all who passed him.
+Long after the dark had come, when Tepas only remained upon deck,
+Appius reeled up and down, singing, with a flask in his hand.  The moon
+had risen.  Eastward her light lay like hammered silver on the ripples.
+
+Appius neared the tall, rugged form of Tepas.  Against the illumined
+waters he could see the long, bent nose, the great beard, the shaggy
+brows, the large, hairy head of his pilot.  Tepas, who ruled his men
+with scourge and pilum, had made himself feared of all save the young
+Roman noble.  Appius halted, looking scornfully at the Jew.  Then he
+shouted:
+
+"A knave, upon my honor!  'Tis better to be drunk, for then one has
+hope of recovery.  You long-haired dog!  Here is something would make
+you bay the moon.  Drink and howl.  You weary me with silence."
+
+Tepas, familiar with the contempt of Romans, took the flask, and,
+pouring into his cup, drank of the rich wine.  Then Appius held the
+flask above his head, and with a word of scorn flung it into the sea.
+He started to cross the deck and fell heavily.  Now, after striving, as
+it seemed, to regain his feet, he lay awhile muttering and helpless and
+soon began to snore.  The deck was deserted by all save him and the
+pilot.  Tepas looked down at the young Roman.  Already, far off in the
+moonlight, he had seen cliffs and knew they were on the Isle of Doom.
+He must be about his business.  He went to where Appius lay and bent
+over him.  The pilot drew his dagger; the youth rolled drowsily and his
+hands were now upon the feet of Tepas.  The latter leaned to strike.  A
+sound startled him.  It was a footfall close behind.  The Jew rose,
+turning to listen.  Suddenly his feet went from under him and he fell
+head-long; quickly two seamen leaped upon him, seizing his head and
+hands.  One disarmed him, the other covered his mouth.  Appius clung
+upon the feet of the Jew.  A Roman slave had taken the wheel.
+
+"Shall we bind him?" said one of the seamen.
+
+"No," said Appius, breathing heavily as the pilot tried to shake him
+off.  "Give the dog a chance.  Yonder is an island.  We shall soon be
+near it, and by swimming he may save his life."
+
+"The gold is upon him," said a seaman; "I can feel it under his tunic."
+
+"But we shall not rob him," was the answer of Appius.
+
+"It is heavy.  It will be like a stone to sink him."
+
+"However, we shall not rob him," the young Roman repeated.
+
+Now, when they were come as near the isle as they dare bring their
+ship, Appius gave a command.  They lifted the body of that cursing
+wretch.  Back and forth they swung it as one counted.  Then over it
+went with reaching hands and fell upon the moonlit plane of water.
+They could see him rise and turn towards the isle, swimming.  Weighted
+by his burden, he swam not twice his length before the sea closed above
+him.
+
+"I thought he had struck you with his dagger," said one of the seamen.
+
+"It would have done no harm," Appius replied.  "I have a corselet under
+my tunic.  Is the ship still leaking?"
+
+"A little, good sire.  We found a wedge in the planks.  He would have
+driven it through, no doubt, if all had gone well with him.  I know not
+why, unless he meant to beach her under the cliffs yonder."
+
+The young Roman stood silent for a little time.  Presently his thought
+came in a whisper to his lips: "And hold my sister until Antipater
+should come."
+
+He called the seamen to his side.
+
+"I, who am a friend of the great father of Rome," said he, "shall see
+you well rewarded.  The little I gave you is not enough.  Without your
+help and warning worse luck than death might soon have come to us."
+
+A light wind was now blowing, and the sails began to fill.
+
+Suddenly all rushed forward, falling upon the deck.  Their trireme had
+lost half her headway and was now crashing over rocks and trembling as
+her bow rose.  She stopped, all her timbers groaning in the shock, and
+rolled sideways and lay with tilted deck above the water.  Cries of
+alarm rose from her galley.  Men fought their way up the ladders and
+scrambled like dripping rats to every place of vantage.  After the
+shock, Appius had leaped to the upper rail, and, rushing forward to the
+door of Arria's deck-house, found her and the slave-girl within it,
+unharmed.  The two were crying with fear, and he bade them dress
+quickly and await his orders.  Then he took command.  Soon a raft and
+small boats were ready alongside the wreck.  Within half an hour Appius
+and the two maidens and part of the crew landed.
+
+Before daylight all were safely carried to the bare, lonely rocks, with
+a goodly store of food and water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 22
+
+It was a clear morning and the tenth day before the kalends of January.
+Since the ides, Vergilius had been lying in camp with a cohort, near
+the port of Ascalon.  Night and day on the headland velites had been
+watching for the trireme of Antipater.  A little before dawn their
+beacon-fires had flamed up.  Since daylight all had been watching the
+far-come vessel of the son of Herod, and, as she came near, they could
+see the pattern of gold upon the royal vestments of Antipater.  Now,
+presently, he would set foot upon the unhappy land of his inheritance.
+The cohort had formed in a long arc at the landing.  Before now, on his
+return, the king's horsemen had greeted him with cheers; to-day he
+greeted them with curses.  Vergilius, hard by, faced the cohort, his
+back turned to the new-comer.  Antipater halted as he came ashore,
+looking in surprise at the tribune.  He seized a lance, and, crouching
+as he ran, with sly feet approached the Roman officer.  He was like the
+cat nearing its prey.  Vergilius, now seeming unmindful of his pursuer,
+walked in the direction of the cohort.  Swiftly, stealthily, the prince
+came near, intending to plunge his lance into the back of the young
+tribune.  Suddenly there rose an outcry among the soldiers.  Vergilius
+turned; the prince halted, breathing heavily, for he had run near a
+hundred paces in the sea-sand.  A roar of rage burst from his lips.
+
+"Dog!" he shouted.  "Bid them cheer me or I will run you through!"  His
+lance threatened.
+
+"There shall be cheers in a moment, son of Herod," said Vergilius,
+calmly and respectfully approaching him.  Antipater, unaware of his
+peril, stood with lance at rest.  With a hand quick as the paw of a
+leopard, Vergilius whirled it away and caught the wrist of the Jew and
+flung him down.  While Antipater struggled in his great robe the
+tribune had disarmed him.  Every man of the cohort was now cheering.
+Antipater rose in terrible wrath and flung off his robe of gold and
+purple.
+
+"Put him in irons!" he shouted.  "I, who shall soon be king of the
+Jews, command you!"
+
+The cohort began to jeer at him; Vergilius commanded silence.
+
+"You lapdog!" Antipater hissed, turning upon the Roman.  "Am I met with
+treason?"
+
+"You give yourself a poor compliment," said Vergilius.  "Better call me
+a lion than a lapdog."  He turned to an officer who stood near and
+added: "You will now obey the orders of the king."
+
+Forthwith, Vergilius went aboard the new-come vessel and seized the
+goods of Antipater and put them on their way to the king.  Meanwhile,
+the soldiers, many of whom had borne with the cruelty and insolence of
+their prisoner, were little inclined to mercy.  He struggled, cursing,
+but they bore him down, binding him hand and knee to an open litter, so
+he stood, like a beast, upon all fours, for such, indeed, was the order
+of the king.  Then they put on him the skin of a wild ass and carried
+him up and down, jeering as the long ears flapped.  Vergilius,
+returning, removed the skin of the ass and loosed the fetters a little,
+and forbade the soldiers any further revenge.
+
+"The skin of a leopard would become you better," said Vergilius to
+Antipater, as he unlashed the coat of shame.
+
+The wrathful Jew, still cursing, tried to bite the friendly hand of his
+keeper.  "My noble prince," said Vergilius, "you flatter me; I am not
+good to eat."
+
+Those crowding near laughed loudly, but Vergilius hushed them and
+signalled to the trumpeter.  Then a call and a rush of horses into
+line.  The litter was lifted quickly and lashed upon the backs of two
+chargers.  In a little time the cohort was on its way to Jerusalem.
+
+Arriving, it massed in front of the royal palace.  Vergilius repaired
+to the king's chamber.  The body of Herod was now become as an old
+house, its timbers sagging to their fall, its tenant trembling at dim
+windows while the storm beat upon it.  Shame and sorrow and remorse
+were racking him down.  King and kingdom were now swiftly changing.
+
+"At last!" he piped, with quivering hands uplifted.  "Slow-footed
+justice!  come--come close to me."
+
+Eagerly he grasped the hands of the young Roman and kissed them.  Then
+he spoke with bitter irony, his words coming fast.  "You met the great
+king?"
+
+"Yes, good sire."
+
+"You put him in chains and brought him hither?"
+
+"And I commend him to your mercy."
+
+"Ha, ha!" the king shrieked, caressing the hand of the Roman.  Now his
+head rose, and for a little his old vigor and menacing voice returned
+to him.  "He has run me through with the blade of remorse and put upon
+me the chains of infirmity," he complained, an ominous, croaking rattle
+in his throat.  "To-day, to-day, my wrath shall descend upon him and my
+gratitude upon you!  These forty years have I been seeking a man of
+honor.  At last, at last, here is the greatest of men!  I, Herod,
+surnamed the Great, king of Judea, conqueror of hosts, builder of
+cities, bare my head before you!"
+
+He removed his jewelled crown; he drew off his purple tarboosh, and
+bowed before the young tribune.  Tenderly Vergilius replaced them on
+the gray head.
+
+"O king," said he, bowing low, "you do me great honor."
+
+Herod closed his eyes and muttered feebly.  Again remorse and age had
+flung their weight upon him.  His hard face seemed to shrink and
+wither, and the young man thought as he looked upon it, "What a great,
+good thing is death!"
+
+The king opened his eyes and piped, feebly: "Help me; help me to win
+the favor of my people!  You shall be procurator, commander of the
+forces, counsellor of kings, priest of God."
+
+The king waited, but Vergilius made no reply.  Now, indeed, was he
+living in a great and memorable moment.  He thought of the power
+offered him--power of doing and undoing, power of raising up and
+putting down, power over good and evil.
+
+"Well," said Herod, impatiently, "what say you?"
+
+"O king!" said Vergilius, "I had hoped soon to return to Rome and marry
+and live in the land of my fathers."
+
+"Hear me, good youth," said Herod, sternly, seizing the hand of the
+young man.  "There is a wise proverb in Judea.  It is: 'Speak not much
+with a woman.'  Had I obeyed it, then had I saved my soul and
+happiness.  Women have been ever false with me--an idle, whispering,
+and mischievous crew!  O youth, give not your heart to them!  For five
+years let Judea be your bride.  She woos you, son of Varro, and she is
+fair.  She asks for love and justice, and she will give you immortal
+fame."
+
+The king fondly pressed the hand of the Roman, who stood beside him,
+grave and thoughtful.  For the young man it was a moment of almost
+overwhelming temptation.  Love and ambition wrestled in his soul.  He
+stood silent.
+
+"For only five years," the king pleaded.  "For five years give me your
+heart.  Man!" he shouted, impatiently, "will you not answer?"
+
+"I will consider," said Vergilius, calmly.
+
+"Go!" said Herod, in a burst of ire.  Then, presently: "Now, now I will
+attend to the son of Doris."
+
+And Vergilius hastened away.
+
+Within the hour, Antipater, son of Herod the Great, was dragged to that
+strong chamber in a remote end of the vast home of Herod whence were to
+come cries for mercy by night such as he had often heard from his own
+victims.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 23
+
+Now in Vergilius and in many of that time the human heart had dropped
+its plummet into new depths of feeling, the human mind had made a reach
+for nobler principles.  A greater love between men and women, spreading
+mysteriously, had been as the uplift of a mighty wave on the deep of
+the spirit.  It had broadened the sympathy of man; it had extended his
+vision beyond selfish limits.  Vergilius and Arria had crossed the
+boundary of barbaric evolution under the leadership of love.  The young
+man was now in the borderland of new attainment.  He was full of the
+joy and the wonder of discovery.  He was like a child--eager for
+understanding and impatient of delay.  Now he thought with the pagans
+and now with the Jews.
+
+At his palace a letter had been waiting for the tribune.  It was from
+his friend Appius.  "My excellent and beloved Vergilius," it said, "I
+address you with a feeling of deep concern for your safety.  To-night
+by tabellarius, my letter shall go down to the sea on its way to
+Jerusalem.  And now to its subject.  This morning I went to the public
+games, and, returning, I was near my palace when a messenger, bearing
+the command of Augustus, overtook and stopped me.  Quickly I made my
+way to The Laurels.  Our great imperator was in his chamber and reading
+letters.  He gave me a glance and greeted me.  I saw he wished me to
+come near, and I stood close beside him.  Then, with that slow, gentle
+tone, he hurled his lightning into me--you remember his way.  He told
+me, as he read, that you were making rapid progress in Jerusalem; that
+you had become a conspirator, a prophet, and were likely soon to be an
+angel.  And he bade me go to you with his congratulations that you have
+succeeded so long in keeping your head upon your shoulders.  Oh, deep
+and cunning imperator!  Said he: 'I cannot tell you the name of my
+informant; and really, my good son, why--why should I?' There, spread
+before me on the table, so I knew he wished me to see it, was a letter
+which bore the signature of Manius and gave information of a certain
+council.  I could not make out the name, but I was able to recall how
+the great father had said to me, once, that when a man secretly puts
+blame upon another, the infamy he charges shall be only half his own.
+Our imperator is no fool, my friend.  'A ship will be leaving the
+seventh day before the ides,' said he.  '_You_ will not be able to make
+it.'  His meaning was clear.  It could bear my warning, if not me, and
+here it is.  With the gods' favor, soon, also, I shall be able to say
+to you, here am I.  To-morrow at dawn I leave for Jerusalem."
+
+Beneath the signature these words were added: "As soon as possible I
+wish to know all and to speak my heart to you.  The emperor has
+withdrawn his consent to your marriage with Arria.  I shall explain
+everything but the purpose of the emperor, and who may understand him?
+If it be due to caprice or doubt or anger he will do you justice.  But
+if a deeper motive is in his mind who knows what may happen?"
+
+This letter kindled a fire in the heart of Vergilius.  It burned
+fiercely, so that prudence and noble feeling were driven out.  In spite
+of the warning of the young tribune, Manius had remained in Jerusalem.
+Vergilius had delayed action, dreading to bring the wrath of Rome upon
+one so young, so well born, so highly honored, and possibly so far
+misled.  Therefore, he had held his peace and waited patiently for more
+knowledge.  Now the evil heart of the assessor was laid bare, his
+infamy proven.  Vergilius reread the letter with flashing eyes.  Then
+he summoned his lecticarii and set out for the palace of the plotter.
+Manius approached him, a kindly greeting on his lips.
+
+"Liar!" Vergilius interrupted, his hand upon his sword.  "Speak no word
+of kindness to me!"
+
+"What mean you, son of Varro?" the other demanded.
+
+"That, with me, you have not even the right of an enemy.  You are a
+deadly serpent, born to creep and hide.  Shame upon you--murderer!  If
+there be many like you, what--God tell me!--what shall be the fate of
+Rome?"
+
+Vergilius stepped away, and, lifting his hands, gave the other a look
+of unspeakable scorn.  Manius made no reply, but stood as still and
+white as marble, with sword in hand.
+
+"It was I who sat beside you that night," said the other, his voice
+aglow with feeling.  "When I heard you speak treason I cut off the end
+of your girdle.  But you left by some unguarded way and escaped the
+fate of your fellows.  You have not seen them since, and shall not.
+When you see them die in the arena think what you escaped, although
+deserving it more than they.  Vile serpent! you brought the king, and
+hoped to send me also to Hades.  You are a traitor, and that I know.
+Traitor to friend and country!  Dare to provoke me further and I shall
+slay you!"
+
+"What would you, son of Varro?" said the other, sullenly.
+
+"Wretch!  If you would save your life, hide as becomes the asp.  Creep
+away from them who would put their feet upon you.  Go live and die with
+the wild men of the far deserts."
+
+"Traitor to the gods!" said Manius, threatening with his sword.  "Roman
+Jew!  I am of noble birth, and claim the right of combat."
+
+"I give it, though you have no better right than dogs.  Well, it would
+please my hand to slay you.  I know the name and father you have
+dishonored, and you are grandnephew of the good Lady Claudia--noble
+mother of Publius.  For their sake I give you the right of combat.  By
+the wayside near Bethlehem are lonely hills.  There, the seventh day
+before the kalends, in the middle hour of the night, you shall see a
+beacon-fire and near it my colors.  Three friends may go with each, and
+you and I will draw swords in the fire-light."
+
+"I shall meet you there," said Manius.  Vergilius, putting away his
+weapon, turned quickly, and, without speaking, left the traitor's
+palace with firm faith in the one God--that he was ever on the side of
+the just who humbly sought his favor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 24
+
+The festival of games, in honor of Augustus, were about to begin at
+Caesarea.  Lately the highway from north to south, which passed the
+gates of Jerusalem, had been as a fair of the nations.  A host had
+journeyed far to amuse the great king or to enjoy his holiday.  Gayer
+and more given to proud speech than they who came to the festivals of
+the Temple, beneath the skull-bone there was yet a more remarkable
+unlikeness.
+
+These were mostly the children of Hatred, each heart a lair of wild
+passions, each brain teeming with catlike gods.  Here were they to be
+lifted up by the power of love--the heathen, the debased.  What a
+gathering of the enemies of God and man!  Crowding at the gates were
+gladiators from Greece and Rome; Arab chiefs upon camels, with horses
+trained for the race; troops of rich men with armed retainers; hunters
+bringing wild beasts in cages lashed upon heavy carts; squads of Roman
+cavalry; gamblers, peddlers, thieves, bandits, musicians, dancers, and
+singers, some walking, some riding horse or camel.  Many had travelled
+far for one purpose--to behold the great king.  Now solemn whispers of
+gossip had gone to every side of the city.  Herod was ill, so said
+they, and had not long to live.  That morning of the day before the
+games the old king had summoned Vergilius.
+
+"I will not be cheated by God or man," said he, fiercely.  "Tell the
+master of the games that I will have him entertain me here to-day,
+after the middle hour, in my palace court.  Bid him bring beast and
+gladiator and the strong men of the prisons.  Let him not forget the
+traitors.  I would have, also, a thousand maids to sing and dance for
+me."
+
+The king looked down, impatiently, at his trembling hands.  He flung a
+wrathful gesture, and again that bestial voice: "Go, bid him bring
+them!"
+
+So at the middle hour a wonderful scene was beginning in the great
+court of Herod's palace.  The king sat on a balcony with Salome, Elpis,
+Roxana, Phaedra, and others of his kindred.  On the circular terraces
+of a great fountain below and in front of them were rows of naked
+maidens.  Circle after circle of this living statuary towered, with
+diminishing radii, above the court level, to an apex, where a stream of
+cool, perfumed water, broken to misty spray, rose aloft, scattering in
+the sunlight.  So cunningly had they contrived to enhance the charm of
+the spectacle, those many graceful shapes were under a fine,
+transparent veil of water-drops lighted by rainbow gleams and sweet
+with musky odor.  Circles were closely massed around the base of the
+fountain.  They stood in silence, all looking down.  The old king
+surveyed them.  Within the palace a hundred harpers smote their
+strings, flooding the scene with music.  Slowly each circumference
+began to move.  Step and measure increased their speed.  The circles
+were now revolving, one around another, with swift and bewildering
+motion.  At a signal the silent figures broke into song.  They sang of
+the glories of Jerusalem and the great king.  Herod's hand was up--he
+would have no more of it.  The song ceased, the circles, one by one,
+rolled into helices which, unbending into slender lines, vanished
+quickly beneath a great arch.  Then a trumpet peal and a rattle of iron
+wheels.  Brawny arms were pushing a movable arena.  Swiftly it came
+into that ample space between the king and the great fountain.  Behind
+its iron bars a large lion paced up and down.  Two hundred mounted men
+of the cohort stood in triple rank some fifty paces from the scene.
+Vergilius, on a white charger, was in front of the column.
+
+While Arab slaves pushed the arena into place, David came and touched
+the arm of the young tribune.  He whispered, eagerly: "My sister, Cyran
+the Beloved, is here.  She is waiting at the castle."
+
+"Whence came she?" said the tribune, with astonishment.
+
+"From the port of Ascalon, where she arrived by trireme with Appius.
+They were wrecked, finding shore in a far country.  There the friend of
+Caesar, Probus Sulpicius Quirinus, discovered them on his way from
+Carthage, and brought them hither."
+
+Appius, fearing Antipater, had waited by the sea while Cyran came to
+find her brother and Vergilius.  The prince's threat and the words of
+Caesar had checked his feet with caution.  He forbade Cyran to tell any
+one of the presence of Arria.
+
+"And where is my friend?" Vergilius demanded.
+
+"He waits on the ship to hear from you--whether it be safe to come.  It
+seems Antipater has threatened him."
+
+"Tell Cyran I would have her come to me.  Then find my orderly and bid
+him bring Appius hither by the way of Bethlehem.  If he arrives there
+before the end of the third watch he will see my fire-light on the
+hill."
+
+David left the scene as a powerful Thracian, standing by the arena's
+gate, saluted the king.  Entering, the gladiator engaged the lion with
+his lance.  Incautiously he pressed his weapon too far, drawing blood.
+Before he could set his lance the wild foe was upon him.  A leap into
+the air, a double stroke of the right fore-paw, and down fell the
+beast, while the man reeled, with rent tunic, and caught the side of
+the arena.  In a twinkling, as he clung feebly, he reddened from head
+to toe.  Three bestiarii had thrust in their lances and held the lion
+back; others opened a gate and removed the dying gladiator.  Herod,
+leaning over, beckoned to the master of the games.
+
+"A noble lion!" said he, his voice trembling.  "Save him for the battle
+of the pit."
+
+Now, in pursuance of the order of the king, a pit had been dug and
+walled with timber near that place where the fighter had met his death.
+A score of slaves forthwith lowered the arena into the pit with ropes.
+Herod and all who sat with him could see the open top of the barred
+space, but the beast was beyond their vision.
+
+Another trumpet-call.  A band of prisoners have entered the court.
+Antipater, tall and erect in exomis of plain gray, right arm and
+shoulder bare, walked in the centre of the front rank.  Traitors of the
+betrayed council were there beside him.  Slowly they about to die came
+forth and stood in even rank and bowed low before the king.  Herod beat
+his palms upon the golden rail before him and muttered hoarsely.  Then
+with raised finger and leering face he taunted them.
+
+"Outlaws!" he croaked.  "I doubt not ye be also cowards."
+
+All drew back save Antipater and a huge Scythian bandit.  They drew
+broadswords and rushed together, fighting with terrific energy.  The
+Scythian fell in a moment.  One after another four conspirators came to
+battle with their chief, but each went down before his terrible attack.
+Some asked for mercy as they fell, but all perished by the hand of him
+they had sought to serve.  Held for the battle of the pit, the young
+Roman whom Vergilius had recognized in the council chamber advanced to
+meet Herod's son.  He had won his freedom in the arena and lost it in
+the conspiracy of the prince.  He was a tall, lithe, splendid figure of
+a man.  The heart of the young commander was touched with pity as he
+beheld the comely youth.  This game, invented by Antipater himself, was
+a test of strength and quickness.  Nets were the only weapons, strong
+sinews and a quick hand the main reliance of either.  Each tried to
+entangle the other in his net and secure a hold.  Then he sought to
+rush or drag his adversary to the edge of the pit and force him down.
+Weapons lay on every side of the arena below.  The unfortunate had,
+therefore, a chance to defend himself against the lion.
+
+On the signal to begin, Jew and Roman wrestled fiercely, their weapons
+on their arms, but neither fell.  Suddenly Antipater broke away and
+flung his net.  Nimbly the other dodged.  Down came the net, grazing
+his head.  Swiftly he sprang upon the Jew, striving to entangle him.
+Antipater pulled away.  Again the Roman was upon his enemy and the two
+struggled to the very noses of the cohort.  Hard by the centre of the
+column, where sat Vergilius on his charger, the powerful prince threw
+his adversary, and, choking him down, secured the net over his head.
+Swiftly he began to drag the fallen youth.  Vergilius, angered by the
+prince's cruelty, could no longer hold his peace.
+
+"'Tis unfair," said he, pointing at Antipater.  "In the name of the
+fatherly Augustus, I protest."
+
+The prince, still dragging his foe, answered with insulting threats.
+The young commander leaped from his horse and ran to the side of
+Antipater.  The latter released his captive and drew sword.  Swiftly
+Vergilius approached him and the two met with a clash of steel.
+
+Now the first battle in that war of the spirit, which was to shake the
+world with fury had begun.
+
+Back and forth across the court of Herod they fought their way--the son
+of light and the son of darkness.  Sparks of fire flew from their
+weapons while a murmur in the cohort grew to a loud roar and the old
+king and his women stood with hands uplifted shrieking like fiends of
+hell.  Hand and foot grew weary; their speed slackened.  Slowly, now,
+they moved in front of the cohort and back to the middle space.  They
+were evenly matched; both began to reel and labor heavily, their
+strength failing in like degree.  The end was at hand.  Now the angel
+of death hovered near, about to choose between them.  Suddenly
+Antipater, pressing upon his man, fell forward.  At the very moment
+Vergilius, who had been giving quarter, reeled a few paces and was down
+upon his back.  Prince and tribune lay apart some twenty cubits.  Both
+tried to rise and fell exhausted.  Half a moment passed.  Antipater had
+risen to his elbow.  Slowly he gained a knee, while the other lay as
+one dead.  He rested, staring with vengeful eyes at his enemy.
+Stealthily he felt for his weapon.  The right hand of Vergilius began
+to move.  A hush fell upon the scene.  Swiftly, from beside the cohort
+a fair daughter of Judea, in a white robe, ran across the field of
+battle.  She knelt beside Vergilius and touched his pale face with her
+hands.  Then she called to him: "Rise, O my beloved!  Rise quickly!  He
+will slay you!"
+
+"Cyran!" he whispered.
+
+Antipater had gained his feet and now ran to glut his anger.  Cyran
+rose upon her knees and put her beautiful body between the steel and
+him she loved.  The sword seemed to spring at her bosom.  She seized
+it, clinging as if it were a thing she prized.  Vergilius had risen.
+Swiftly sword smote upon sword.  The young Roman pressed his enemy,
+forcing him backward.  From dying lips he heard again the old chant of
+faith:
+
+
+  "Let me not be ashamed--I trust in Thee, God
+      of my fathers;
+  Send, quickly send the new king" . . .
+
+
+The words seemed to strengthen his arm.  He fought as one having power
+above that of men.  On and on he forced his foe with increasing energy.
+He gave him no chance to stop or turn aside.  Yells of fury drowned the
+clash of steel.  The tumult grew.  The son of Herod was near the pit.
+He seemed to tempt the Roman to press him.  Suddenly he leaped backward
+to the very edge.  The Roman rushed upon him.  Before their swords met,
+Antipater sprang aside with the quickness of a leopard.  In cunning he
+had outdone his foe.  Unable to check his onrush, Vergilius leaped
+forward and fell out of sight.  A booming roar from the startled lion
+rose out of the pit and hushed the tumult of the people.  Herod,
+pointing at his son, shrieked with rage as he bade the soldiers of the
+cohort to seize and put him in irons.
+
+A score of slaves hastened to the mouth of the pit.  They caught the
+ropes and quickly lifted the arena.  As it came into view the tumult
+broke out afresh.  There far spent, resting on his bloody weapon, near
+the middle of the arena stood Vergilius, and the lion lay dead before
+him.
+
+Slaves opened the iron gate.  Vergilius ran to the still form of the
+slave-girl.  He knelt beside her and kissed her lifeless hand.
+
+"Poor child of God!" he whispered.  "If indeed you loved me, I have no
+wonder that you knelt here to die."
+
+The master brought a wreath of laurel to the young tribune, saying:
+"'Tis from the king."  Vergilius seemed not to hear.  Tenderly he
+raised the lifeless body of Cyran in his arms.  The spectators were
+cheering.  "Hail, victor!" they shouted.
+
+"Hail, victor!" he whispered, looking into the dead face.  "Blessed be
+they who conquer death."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 25
+
+The day was near its end.  Soldiers of the cohort, bearers of the dead,
+harpers and singers filed through the gate of Herod's palace.  Hard by,
+in Temple Street, were many people.  An old man stood among them, his
+white beard falling low upon a purple robe, his face turned to the sky.
+He sang as if unconscious of all around him.  Often he raised his hand,
+which trembled like a leaf in the wind.  Horses, maidens, and men
+halted to hear the words:
+
+
+  "Now is the day foretold of them who dwell in
+      the dust of the vineyard.
+  Bow and be silent, ye children of God and ye of
+      far countries.
+  Consider how many lie low in the old, immemorial vineyard.
+  Deep--fathom deep--is the dust of the dead
+      'neath the feet of the living.
+
+  "Gone are they and the work of their hands--all
+      save their hope and desire have perished.
+  Only the flowers of the heart have endured--
+      only they in the waste of the ages,
+  Ay--they have grown, but the hewn rock has
+      crumbled away and the temples have fallen.
+  Bow, haughty people; ye live in the day of
+      fulfilment--the day everlasting.
+  Soon the plough of oppression shall cease and
+      the ox shall abandon the furrow.
+  Ready the field, and I sing of the sower whose
+      grain has been gathered in heaven.
+
+  "Now is he come, with my voice and my soul I declare him.
+  Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, the Everlasting
+      Father, the Prince of Peace."
+
+
+The flood of inspiration had passed.  The singer turned away.  "It is
+Simeon," said a voice in the crowd.  "He shall not die until his eyes
+have beheld the king of promise."
+
+Those departing from the games of Herod resumed their march.  At the
+gate of the castle of Antonia, Vergilius, with David and two armed
+equites, one bearing colors, left the squadron.  They rode slowly
+towards the setting sun.  Now there was not in all the world a city so
+wonderful as Jerusalem.  Golden dome and tower were gleaming above
+white walls on the turquoise blue of the heavens.
+
+"Good friend, I grieve for her who is dead," said Vergilius to David.
+
+"She died for love," the other answered as one who would have done the
+same.
+
+Vergilius looked not to right nor left.  His dark, quivering plume was
+an apt symbol of thought and passion beneath it.  His blood was hot
+from the rush and wrath of battle, from hatred of them who had sought
+his life.  He could hear the cry of Cyran; "Rise, rise, my beloved!"
+Again, he was like as he had been there on the field of battle.  He
+could not rise above his longing for revenge.  He hated the emperor
+whose cruel message had wrung his heart; he hated Manius, who had
+sought to destroy him; he despised the vile and stealthy son of Herod,
+who had plotted to rob him of love and life; he had begun to doubt the
+goodness of the great Lawgiver.
+
+No sooner had he found an enemy than his God was become a god of
+vengeance.  The council, the continued failure of his prayers, the
+cruelty of impending misfortune, the death of Cyran had weakened the
+faith of Vergilius.  He had begun to founder in the deep mystery of the
+world.  The voice of the old singer had not broken the spell of bitter
+passion.  Vergilius trembled with haste to kill.  He feared even that
+his anger would abate and leave him unavenged.  There were memories
+which bade him to forgive, and of them was the gentle face of Arria,
+but he turned as one who would say "Begone!"  He had not time even to
+consider what he should do to oppose the will of the emperor.  As they
+rode on, his companion addressed the young commander.
+
+"Saw you Manius in the balcony of Herod?"
+
+"No."
+
+"As I passed beneath it I saw him by the side of Salome, and I heard
+her say: 'Not until you slay him shall I be your wife.'  I fear she
+means you ill, good friend."
+
+"She-cat!" exclaimed Vergilius.  "'Tis a yowling breed that haunts the
+house of Herod."
+
+They came soon to where a throng was gathered thick, so for a little
+they saw not a way to pass.  In the midst were three men sitting upon
+tall, white camels, their trappings rich with colored silk and shining
+metal.
+
+"They speak, to the people," said David.  "It must be their words are
+as silver and gold."
+
+"I doubt not they be story-tellers from the desert," said one behind.
+
+The press parted; the camels had begun to move slowly.  One of their
+riders hailed the young commander, saying, in a voice that rang like a
+trumpet:
+
+"Where is he that is born king of the Jews?"
+
+"I would I knew," was the answer of Vergilius.
+
+"So shall ye soon," said the stranger.  "We have seen his star in the
+east and have come to worship him."
+
+The camels passed with long, stately strides.  The horsemen resumed
+their journey.
+
+"Strange!" thought Vergilius, turning his charger and looking back.
+"They be surely those who have travelled far."
+
+The squad of cavalry, under plume and helmet, moved on, passing the
+Joppa gate and riding slowly down a long hill.
+
+"See the glowing clouds yonder," said Vergilius, pointing westward.
+
+"Ay, they be fair as the tents of Kedar," was the answer of David.
+
+"There is a great beauty in the sky and the blue hills," Vergilius
+remarked, thoughtfully.
+
+"And you would kill, look not upon them--they are so fair."
+
+"If I close my eyes, then, I do see a thing more fair."
+
+"What?"
+
+"The face of one I love.  It is a love greater than all other
+things--fame or king or fatherland."
+
+"Or revenge?" inquired David.
+
+For a little Vergilius made no answer; but presently he said: "I am a
+Roman; who seeks my life shall lose his own."
+
+They came upon a ewe lying in the roadway.  She looked up with a mute
+appeal, but moved not.  She seemed to reckon upon the kindness of them
+approaching.  The squad parted, passing on either side.  All drew rein,
+and one, dismounting, stood a moment looking down at her.  Then laying
+hold of her fleece, he moved the ewe tenderly aside.
+
+"A sign and a wonder!" said the Roman knight, as they continued their
+journey.  "That old fighter has no hand for kindness."
+
+"But mark this miracle of God," said the friend of Vergilius.  "He
+softens the heart of those with young and makes gentle the hand that
+touches them.  Ay, has he not softened the heart of the world?  'Tis
+like a mother whose time is near."
+
+Soon a purple dusk had overflooded the hills and risen above the
+splendor of Jerusalem.  The old capital was now like a dim, mysterious,
+golden isle in a vast, azure sea.  Vergilius thought, as he went on, of
+those camel-riders.  He seemed to hear in the lift and fall of hoofs,
+in the rattle of scabbards, that strange cry: "Where is he that is born
+king of the Jews?"
+
+Darkness fell upon those riding in silence on the lonely road.
+Suddenly they drew rein, listening.
+
+Said Vergilius, whispering: "I thought I heard voices."
+
+"And I," said David, his words touched with awe.  "'Twas like tens of
+thousands singing in some distant place."
+
+Again they listened, but the song, if song it was, had ceased.
+
+Then, boldly, as one who would put down his fear, the color-bearer
+spoke up; "'Tis a band of shepherd folk on some far hill.  Never saw I
+so dark a night.  By the curtains of Solomon, I cannot see my horse!"
+
+"There is no star in the sky," said another.
+
+Then said the young commander, whist with awe: "Look yonder!  A light
+on the hills!  I saw it appear."
+
+Amazement was in the tone of David: "Nay, 'tis a window of paradise!
+Or maybe that time is come when the three great stars should gather
+side by side.  Do you not remember the talk of the astrologers?"
+
+"I say 'tis a light on the hills."  Vergilius now spoke in a husky,
+solemn whisper.  "See, 'tis larger; and I would think it near the
+village of Bethlehem."
+
+After a moment of silence he added, with a laugh: "Why stand we here
+and whisper, like a lot of women?  Let us move on."
+
+Again he seemed to hear peals of song in the sky and their rhythm in
+hoof and scabbard.  It put him in mind of that strange, mysterious
+chant of the old singer.
+
+Soon he drew rein, saying: "Halt and listen!"  They stopped, conscious
+only of the great silence of the night.  Vergilius felt for the arm of
+his friend.
+
+"What think you?" said he, his voice full of wonder.  "I doubt not the
+sound is in our fancy."
+
+"See!  The star!  It grows!" said David, eagerly.  "'Tis like a mighty
+lantern hung in the dome of the sky."
+
+Then said Vergilius, a pagan fancy filling his mind: "It may be God is
+walking upon the earth."
+
+A moment they rode on, looking up at the heavens.  Suddenly Vergilius
+bade them halt again, saying: "Hist!  What is that cry?"
+
+Now they could hear a faint halloo far behind them.
+
+Then the bearer of the colors remarked: "It might be the squad of
+Manius."
+
+"God curse him!" said Vergilius, quickly, his heart filling with
+passion dark as the night around.  He heard no more the great song, but
+only the smite of steel in deadly combat.  He seemed to see his enemy
+fall bleeding at his feet.  "I will take what Herod offers," he
+thought.  "I will make war on the cats and the serpents."
+
+He had forgotten everything now save his bitterness.
+
+"See!  'Tis gone!" said his friend, in a loud whisper.  "The star is
+gone!  I saw it disappear as if a cloud were suddenly come over it."
+
+All drew rein, looking into the sky.  Many stars were now uncovered in
+the vault above them.
+
+"'Twas a light on the hills," said Vergilius, with a vague fear in him.
+"Yonder I can see a smaller one.  'Tis a lantern.  Look!  It moves."
+
+Suddenly they were startled by a mighty voice that seemed to travel far
+into dark and lonely caverns of the sky.  Like a trumpet-call it
+resounded over the gloomy hills---that cry of the camel-rider:
+
+"Where is he that is born king of the Jews?"
+
+Vergilius whispered, his awe returning: "They are coming--those men who
+rode the camels."
+
+Said David, his voice trembling: "They are like many who have gone
+abroad with that ancient hope in them."
+
+The horsemen now stood, breathing low as they listened.  Vergilius was
+full of wonder, thinking of the awe which had fallen upon him and the
+others.  He tried to throw it off.  "We waste time," said he, starting
+his charger.  "Come, good men, we have work to do."
+
+Awhile they rode in silence, their eyes on the light of the lantern.
+Slowly they came near, and soon saw its glow falling upon rocks and
+moving shadows beneath it.
+
+Then said David, turning to Vergilius: "The battle--suppose it goes ill
+with you?"
+
+"Ill!" said the Roman, with rising ire.  "Then Jehovah is no better
+than Mars."
+
+They could now see people standing in the light of a lantern which hung
+above the entrance of a cave.  Its opening was large enough to admit a
+horse and rider.
+
+"Soldiers of Caesar!"--the whisper went from mouth to mouth there in
+the light of the lantern.
+
+The horsemen halted.
+
+"I shall soon be done with this traitor to friend and king," thought
+the tribune, dismounting and approaching the cave.
+
+That group of people under the light, seeing symbols of Roman authority
+and hearing its familiar voice, fell aside with fear in their faces.  A
+woman standing in the entrance of the cave addressed Vergilius, her
+voice trembling with emotion.
+
+"Good sir," said she, "if you mean harm to those within I pray you go
+hence."
+
+"I know not who is within," he answered, as both he and David passed
+her.  Fearing treachery, they drew their swords.  Just beyond the
+entrance of the cave both halted.  A man stood before them, his face
+full of high authority, his hand raised as if to command silence.  He
+was garbed like a toiler and somewhat past middle age, his beard and
+eyebrows long and gray.  A lantern hung near his head, and well beyond
+him, resting peacefully on the farther floor of the cave, were horses,
+sheep, and oxen.  The man spoke not save by the beckon of his hand.
+Without a word they followed him.  The light of the lantern seemed now
+to glow with exceeding brightness.  They stopped.  On the straw before
+them lay a beautiful young maiden, a child upon her breast.  Her arms,
+which encircled the babe, her hands, her head, her whole body, and the
+soul within had a glow of fondness.  Nature had clothed her for its
+great event with a fulness of beauty wonderful and yet familiar.  In
+her soft, blue eyes they saw that peace and love which are a part of
+the ancient, common miracle of God.  They saw more, even the light of
+the world, but were not able to understand.  Calmly she looked up at
+them.  Waving strands and masses of golden hair lay above her shoulders
+and about the head of the child upon her bosom.  It was lustrous,
+beautiful hair, and seemed to glow as the bearded man came near with
+the lantern.  What was there in the tender, peaceful look of the
+mother, what in her full breasts, what in the breathing of the child,
+what in the stir of those baby hands to make the soldier bare and bow
+his head?  He leaned against the rock wall of the cave and covered his
+eyes and thought of his beloved Arria, of his dream of home and peace
+and little children.  The sword fell from his hand.  A great sickness
+of the soul came on him as he thought of those evil days in Jerusalem
+and of his part in their bloody record.  There and then he flung off
+the fetters of king and emperor.
+
+He knew not yet who lay before him.
+
+As he looked through tears upon them they seemed to be covered with
+light as with a garment.  David knelt before the mother and child in
+adoration.
+
+Vergilius, full of astonishment, turned to look around him, and saw
+Manius, who stood near, trembling with superstitious awe.  The wonders
+of the night, the great star and song in the heavens, the glowing cave,
+the mysterious child and mother had wrought upon him.  Were they omens
+of death?
+
+"Apollo save me!" he whispered, turning to go.
+
+David rose and approached Manius, and spoke with lifted hand.
+
+"Apollo cannot save you," said he.  "Kneel! kneel before the sacred
+mother and put all evil out of your hearts!"
+
+Vergilius knelt, and then his enemy.  Manius began to weep.
+
+"O God! who hast softened the heart of the world, give us peace!" said
+David.
+
+Again they heard that voice which had greeted their ears in Jerusalem.
+It spoke now at the entrance of the cave, saying again: "Where is he
+that is born king of the Jews?"
+
+David, going to the door of the cave, answered: "Here, within."
+
+"Tis he--the new king!" the tribune whispered.  "I thought kings were
+born in palaces, and here are they so near the beasts of the field."
+
+Soon came David, and behind him, following in single file, three men, a
+God-sent majesty in step and countenance.  Vergilius and Manius moved
+aside, saluting solemnly as the men passed.  The young tribune turned
+to his friend and to Manius.
+
+"Come," he whispered.  "The Judge of all the earth is here, and, as for
+me, I dare not remain."
+
+Softly, silently, they departed, their hearts lifted to that peace none
+may understand.  Gently, gently, Vergilius took the hand of him who had
+been his enemy.  They had forgotten their bitterness and the touch of
+awe had made them kin.
+
+"All debts are paid, my brother," said Vergilius.  "I forgive you."
+
+He struck his sword deep in the earth.  "Henceforth it shall be for a
+ploughshare," he added.
+
+The assessor bowed low, kissing the hand of Vergilius, who quickly
+mounted horse.
+
+Then said the latter, turning to his followers: "Come, let us make
+haste.  Before the gold is shining in the great lantern of Shushan.  I
+must be on my way to the sea."
+
+"On your way to the sea!" said his friend.
+
+As he answered, the voice of Vergilius had a note of longing and
+beloved memories: "Yes, for the day is come when I return to the city
+of Caesar.  Nothing shall separate me longer from my beloved.  But
+come, let us seek Appius at the beacon-fire."
+
+On all sides the great shadow was now thick-sown with stars.  The group
+of horsemen, with colors flying, rode swiftly down the broad way to
+Jerusalem.  Suddenly they drew rein.  Great surges of song were rolling
+in upon this rounded isle from off the immeasurable, mighty deep of the
+heavens.  Beating of drums, and waving of banners, and trumpet-sounds,
+and battle-cries of them unborn were in that new song--so it seemed to
+those who heard it.  Winding over the gloomy hills near them under the
+light of the great star, they could see a long procession of shepherds
+bearing crooks.  Awhile the horsemen looked and listened.  The host of
+the dead now seemed to cry unto the host of the living:
+
+"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good-will towards men."
+
+Slowly the song diminished.
+
+"The everlasting gates are lifted up," said David, thoughtfully.  Then,
+thinking of the perils of the new king, he added: "I beseech you, say
+nothing of these things abroad."
+
+The song had ceased.  A cloud, with all its borders bright, now
+curtained the great star.  Another band of horsemen were descending the
+hill from Bethlehem.  Swiftly they came near and halted.
+
+"God send you peace," said the voice of a maiden.  "We seek one
+Vergilius, officer of the cohort."
+
+"And who is he that you should seek him?" said the young tribune,
+dismounting quickly.
+
+"My lover," said she, a note of trouble in her voice, "and I do fear
+his life is in peril."
+
+Vergilius was at her side.  Now the light of the great star shone full
+upon them.
+
+"Blood of my heart!" he whispered, lifting the maiden from her horse.
+
+"Oh, you that have made me love you with the great love!" she cried,
+pressing her cheek upon his.  "I have been as one lost in the desert,
+and I thank the one God he has led me to you."
+
+A moment they stood together and all were silent.
+
+"God has answered my prayer," said he.  "But how came you here?"
+
+Then she whispered: "I came with Appius, and the emperor has written
+that we are to bring you home."
+
+"And we shall live no more apart," said he.  "'Tis a night of ten
+thousand years, dear love.  The Christ is come."
+
+"The Christ is come!" she repeated.  "How know you?"
+
+"Have you not seen his light in the heavens nor heard the mighty song?"
+
+"Yes, and all the night we have been full of wonder.  Listen!"
+
+Again the air trembled with that peal of song:
+
+"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards
+men."
+
+Slowly it sank into silence.  Vergilius drew the maiden close and
+touched her ear with his lips and whispered: "Love has opened our
+hearts to the knowledge of mighty things.  It has led us to the Prince
+of Peace."
+
+Then said the maiden: "Let us build a temple wherein to worship him,
+and make it a holy place."
+
+"And call it home," said the young knight, as he kissed her.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vergilius, by Irving Bacheller
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